Is it cost-effective to print at home?

[happusa]

Hi Paul, Check out their web site, by the way, their cartriges have new chips. I think what they are trying to say is that their inks are comparable to Epson UltraChrome K3 inks. Epson has a web page about the K3 inks.

eink4u.com or topinkjet.com

[paulhodson]

Hmm. To quote the eink4u.com website

"All our products are manufactured to meet or exceed the specifications and high-quality standards of OEM products."

That does not mean they necessarily do! And it may be talking about the cartridge itself rather than the ink?

[Blinky]

Originally Posted by B

Strictly in terms of cost? No way! I do all my own printing though. I like the control and ability to choose my paper.

I hate doing it though, I almost never get the print I want on the first or even second try.

Chip

I recant that!

I'm not printing my own stuff anymore... I'm sick of screwing with it.

Chip

[happusa]

Paul
It does state "all manufactured products" which would include the inks. Don't knock it till you try it. If you are not satisfied, then put it down. I'm saying it works for me on my Epson 2400.

[paulhodson]

Originally Posted by happusa

Paul
It does state "all manufactured products" which would include the inks. Don't knock it till you try it. If you are not satisfied, then put it down. I'm saying it works for me on my Epson 2400.

Not realy knocking it - I just think that you may only find out that it is not as good some time down the line when the prints fade. And they sure aren't going to say that the ink is not as good as the original! But I agree - if you are happy with it - why not

[JohnJ80]

Originally Posted by paulhodson

Not realy knocking it - I just think that you may only find out that it is not as good some time down the line when the prints fade. And they sure aren't going to say that the ink is not as good as the original! But I agree - if you are happy with it - why not

I just finished with evaluating Mediastreet's Generation G7 pigmented inks against the Epson inks for the R1800. I can say that I now get better results than I got with the OEM inks and OEM profiles (I did my own profiles for the MS inks, so that is an inconsistency, granted). So, print for print, it is possible to do as well or better.

I did my profiles with Printfix Pro using the 225 patch target in about 10 minutes a profle and they worked great. I presume that Epson tweaked theirs to get the best possible performance out of their papers and ink and I'm also presuming they used better profiling equipment and spent a lot more time getting it right than did I. Therefore, I'm still inclined to believe that 3rd party inks with my profiles would still be better than the OEM inks with my profiles - but that is totally subjective.

MS also will provide longevity information on their inks. They have data that shows the Generation inks to be better than 100 years in longevity - which is good enough for me. I am currently testing this myself with several prints in my west facing office window. They have been there about 3 weeks with no fading (I have half covered) nor any detectable difference between OEM or Mediastreet. I'm going to keep them there for 3-6 months to see what happens. If I get the same performance over that time (or better) than the OEM inks, then it is a big "Don't care" for me.

I think it is really important to sort out FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) marketing hype from the printer mfgs against what is real and true. So, it is good to be a skeptic on OEM claims. It is also a good idea on the 3rd party side to verify.

But, bottom line - so far I am getting better prints than I did with OEM inks and papers and I am saving huge money in the process - something on the order of over $500 per set of 8 cartridges. The fact that the prints are great (excellent) makes that savings that much better.

J.

[Paul Shields]

Originally Posted by JohnJ80

But, bottom line - so far I am getting better prints than I did with OEM inks and papers and I am saving huge money in the process - something on the order of over $500 per set of 8 cartridges. The fact that the prints are great (excellent) makes that savings that much better.

That's a good bottom line - thanks for sharing.

[kickmaster]

I used my local Costco today. Quite impressive results, and the price was right!

[dougsmit]

I realize that there are those who believe their home prints are better than they get at a lab but I'm not that good. I feel a bit silly trying with a $100 inkjet compared to the Noritsu at Costco (15 cent 4x6, $1.49 8x12) and my home prints have not proven as fade resistant or waterproof as their photo paper. Their prints are not always perfect and ocassionally I have to call them down on failure to clean their aperture (results in a white streak and they hate to touch it since they know the repair cost if it is damaged) but they reprint anything on request for free. Check back in 20 years and we will see which prints better withstood the test of time.

[Digital_Duck]

wow - never thought about using an InkJet to do photo's ...

[FocusingOnFlorida]

Not at these prices. They specials every now and again.

http://www.imagestation.com/photo-pr...rt_=1936984845

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by JohnJ80

Consider 3rd party inks. The cost saving is substantial.

I've had so much trouble with 3rd party inks, however, that I see them now as costing me money--in printer repair and time.

[Nikonfreak]

I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever consider using 3rd party inks again.

NEVER!

1- guaranteed to void the manufacturer's warranty on your printer.

2- it will likely clog your printer (refer to #1)

3- If something else ever goes wrong with your printer - (refer to #1) ... it's the first question they will ask you when you call for a repair.

NEVER!

If you can't cover the cost of using the manufacturer's ink in your printer, you can't afford the printer.

Julio

[TonyK]

I broke over on Saturday and purchased a new Epson R800. Someone I knew is selling their Epson 4000 which got me to thinking about home printing again. The 4000 is priced at a very good price yet its size and the cost of its inks were deciding factors in getting the R800. I just don't print bigger than 8x10 most times.

This morning I took the time to re-calibrate my monitor using my Spyder2Pro and re-printed an image I tried on Saturday. The output is still "redder" than I care for yet other prints I've done look just fine.

In the printer profile I've turned off color management. Both QImage and PS CS were tried with equal results. The only time I got close to what I see on screen was the one time I forgot to change the paper time (it was setup for plain paper of all things). Go figure.

I like the R800 and the prints are wonderful IF I could get this one image to print how I see it. If anyone wants a go I can send the image via e-mail.

Here is a smaller sized version of that image at http://www.pbase.com/tonyk/image/73043338/large. The original size is larger yet.


Thoughts? Ideas? HELP!

[Mr. Pickles]

To me, the whole printing process is a mess...and you waste lots of ink and paper in getting it "right".

If you re-calibrate the monitor and then print using the same printer profile with color management turned off, the print should be the same. You didn't change anything on the printer side, imo.

I'd try playing with the "reds" in the printer driver and save it as another profile, and see if the print changes. Or turn on color management for a test and see what happens? Or try just using sRGB as the printer profile, ignoring the warning that it is a screen profile?

And is your image file in sRGB color space, or Adobe RGB?

[TonyK]

Hi,

By turning off color management I mean to say in the printer driver I select manual in the driver and in printer settings I have color management set to ICM and that is set is to OFF in the ICC/ICM Profile area. Both PS CS and Qimage have the printer profile for the paper being used so this way Windows will, hopefully, not conflict with these programs when printing.

Monitor color management is turned on and both PS CS and QImage are using the new profile. I have also ensured the profile is the default for the monitor driver under Windows.

Saturday night I played with the printer color management settings but never tried letting the ICC/ICM setting be set except to OFF. Might try it set to the Epson profile.


Its not a bad print, just a bit redder than I care for.