Re: 3rd party inks

["Carl Grohs" <cgrohs@triad.rr.com>]

<x-charset iso-8859-1>From: "Ray Waddington" <rayw2@ctc.net>
Subject: Re: 3rd party inks

Thanks to everyone who responded. I'd rather not post the details of vendor
or ink here, as I don't want to
stir things up if they read the list. If anyone wants to contact me
off-list, I'll respond with the information.

I scan mainly Kodachromes and Ektachromes on a Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED.
I scan sRGB and print usually
at Photo 1440 with the sRGB setting in the driver. My OS is Windows 2000.
I've been happy with the results I've gotten,
in the 2 weeks I've had the printer, using Epson inks and paper. I wanted to
look into 3rd-party supplies because I'm
finding the printer goes through the ink much faster than I expected.
There's nothing wrong with the nozzles because as
soon as I put genuine Epson ink back in there the quality returned to what
I'm used to. I'm using ink cartridges rather than
a bulk ink continuous feed system.

I don't really know anything about custom profiles - what I would need to
buy to set one up etc. I don't want to spend
any more money on this printer, as I view it as a starter until the 2200 is
available, at which point I'll retire it after its
short life.

***********************

It pretty much sounds like a profiling problem. Since you are waiting on
another printer and are happy with the results you were getting I would
suggest that you stick with Epson inks until you switch printers. You can
then turn your old printer into a dedicated black and white printer, it
doesn't have to be retired. Most color inks do not do a very good job with
b/w.

The Epson printer driver has the paper/ink printing information (basically
profiles) built into it for the various papers. Once you get away from the
Epson inks and/or papers you have to have a custom profile for the printer
to print color correctly. There are several software packages that create
custom profiles-WiziWYG, Monaco EZ Color and ColorVision ProfilerPlus/Pro
are the least expensive. You will spend at least about $100 and up to
$400-just rough guesses as I don't have the actual figures handy. And you
can spend much more on more sophisticated packages. The programs will work
with this printer and the new printer so you can buy now and still use it
later.

There are several sources to have custom profiles made. Not sure about the
cost but somewhere in the $100 range each. If you only use a limited
combination of inks and papers this may be the way to go. The folks who do
the custom profiles have very good equipment to do the profiles and most
folks who use them are very satisfied. CDTobie here on the list provides
this service and should be contacted off-list.

Profiles are not magic nor are they automatic. (Took me a while to learn
that, even as much as I wanted them to be.) Some have had good success with
making their own custom profiles others have not. And most profiles need
additional "tweaking" depending on what results you want from them. I
suggest you look at the archives to get some idea of what you are getting
into with profiling. It has been one of the most talked about subjects on
the list.

I think it is Mediastreet that has cartridge inks called Plug N Play that
are supposed to be close to the Epson inks in color that are somewhat
cheaper than the factory inks. www.mediastreet .com  Links to the some of
the better ink vendors are listed on the list FAQ. If you are going to do a
lot of printing then one of the bulk ink systems might be what you'll need.
I would not use just any 3rd party inks regardless of how inexpensive they
are. They seem to cause more trouble than they are worth. Just my opinion.

I also wonder about scanning and printing in sRGB, it has a smaller color
gamut than AdobeRGB which is what many folks here on the list use. But if
you are happy with the results then that's all that counts. And that would
bring another set of problems.

Not sure what else to say, it is a complex subject and cannot be covered in
one post, or several posts. Good luck.

Warmest Regards,
Carl Grohs, Jr.    Design Directions    Eden, NC

Epson FAQ Site:
http://home.att.net/~arwomack01/
Epson List Archives:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/epson-inkjet/



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