Steve Jacobson wrote: >But of the archival inks out there, it seems that there are the dye >based (MIS, Lysonic) and pigment based (Generations, Fotonic). > >I have been led to believe that the dye-based inks have a wider gamut >than the pigment inks. > >For the user who wants good reproductions from an Epson, what are some >of the factors to consider? There doesn't seem to be any good >comparisons or information about ink selection. > >I understand that availability is also a consideration. > >Thanks in advance. Steve: So far I've only used Epson OEM dye inks in my 1270 but I am considering buying a CIS in the future. I've collected quite a few messages from this list over the past year in a plain text file regarding various 3rd party inks. It is fairly large, so if you would like it, let me know and I'll email it to you privately. To sum up, my understanding is: Dye inks can't be beat for color gamut. If you want the best looking print, you must use dye inks. However, dyes, even the so-called archival ones, will not last nearly as long as pigment inks. This is the big advantage of pigments. The disadvantages are: > problematic with glossy papers (won't look good, ink rubs off, etc.) > color gamut not as good > more problems with metamerism (colors look different under different lights) > must be profiled to get good color Hope this helps. Nick - Turn off HTML mail features. Keep quoted material short. Use accurate subject lines. http://www.leben.com/lists for list instructions.