Epson Artisan 50 ink usage.

[qwertydude]

Ok after having printed a bunch of photos I've noticed the printer primarily uses light magenta then light cyan. It uses yellow a little and black less but what's really strange is that cyan and magenta full strength is hardly used at all. When the light colors are depleted the full strength magenta and cyan still register as completely full.

I also ran some experiments by printing solid blocks of color on different settings and find it uses a majority of the full strength magenta and cyan for plain paper printing.
Just wanted to let people here know so you can be prepared for which inks deplete faster so you'll have a heads up on what ink to buy, primarily the light colors for photos and full strength for documents.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes, when you consider that the "light" or "photo" versions of cyan and magenta typically have one seventh of the color in them and that Canon gives them preference over the normal versions of cyan and magenta, you can see that you will spend a lot more on ink with a printer that has six or more dye ink cartridges compared to the printers that have four dye ink cartridges. The printouts are noticeably better when compared side-by-side but when viewed by themselves, I think the photos printed on four-color printers are perfectly acceptable. Previous reports indicate that you will use 3 or 4 refills of the light color compared to the full strength.

 

[qwertydude]

I do notice better shading of colors and better shadow detail in my Epson vs my canon but what I do not like is the distinct vertical graininess and slight striping I get on kirkland paper with the Epson. Using epson paper seems to reduce the sharpness of the print and gets rid of the graininess but I think that's a compromise.

Here's a scan of a print of a black leather jacket someone was wearing at a party. You can notice the vertical striping, this is only noticeable on dark areas of prints lighter areas don't show the striping.

The blue area is his jeans it's harder to see with low resolution scans that are web friendly but in bright light it is noticeable enough in prints.

 

[mikling]

Please refer to this. The colors that your printer uses will vary by the colors in the image. The first image is the composite of the colors of the other 5 except for black.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5324

I would suggest running the nozzle alignment routine carefully in your printer. There is a wrong way and there is a correct way to do this. Many people choose the incorrect way. It is not a one shot test and set. Sometimes it needs to run multiple times as the algorithm to set the alignment is an iterative process. I have had to run this as many as 8 times to get it homed in correctly. This will likely solve your vertical banding issue.

In my recent tests, the latest Canon PGI-220, CLI-221 printers have made a significant step up in the quality of their output. Higher dynamic range and much better shadow detailing and browns and REDS as compared to the CLI-8 generation. This is principally because of how Canon has redesigned the output RIP in the printer. Similarly, Epson has improved the color output of the Artisan 700/ 800s etc over the 50 principally because of the same process, despite them using the same ink

Both brands have improved the choice of what colors to use when and the dot matrix that is used to form colors.

The only con of the latest Canon is their use of tiny cartridges which are unavoidable as they want smaller form factor and greater profits. The form factor is interesting because the lowered cartridge height is necessary to compete with Epson's Artisan 700/800 series which has a positively flat form factor. Canon so far cannot run a CIS type system within their bodies like Epson to achieve a similar flat form factor. Is this telling about CIS systems and Canon's printheads?

 

[qwertydude]

Well I ran the alignment several times. Maybe my description is wrong the banding is going along with the print head travel so back and forth across the page. So horizontal banding. I know my nozzles are fine as nozzle checks are perfectly printed.

 

[mikling]

What quality setting are you using for the output?

Best Photo or Photo?

Also in your comparison of your prior Canon, which generation and model are we referring to? There are differences between generations that are actually visible. It is important to state this as many readers can sometimes jump to erroneous conclusions when a statement of a brand alone is stated. I see this effect on the board all the time, sometimes simplistic conclusions can be drawn that are mistakenly taken by some as gospel where the more experienced are able to avoid this.

 

[qwertydude]

I print Ultra Premium and generic Glossy photo paper, doesn't matter. I use "Photo RPM (Max dpi)" Also I disable high speed two sided printing this is theoretically the highest quality setting and under a 10x loupe provides moderately better print quality vs high speed two sided printing.

I had a Canon IP4600 for a couple years and eventually the print carriage would not disengage from the locked position so it went, I then bought an IP4700 and transferred the printhead so I have a spare printer and printhead for emergencies. But I did not like the reduced print quality on the matte paper setting on the IP4700 (which under the microscope the IP4600 provided a finer dithering pattern) and the fact that it continues the needless cleaning cycles even with ink monitoring disabled was what finally killed my love for Canon, the final straw was the release of the IP4820, I'm not playing ketchup with Canon anymore. So I then bought an Epson Artisan 50 and a CISS with ARC chips, which didn't happen to work so conveniently as the vendor said so I then bought a CISS with a reset button which works fabulously. So my current printer is an Epson Artisan 50 with button reset CISS.

Maybe it's just me I'm really picky about my prints. That is a 4800 dpi scan by the way so it's a very high magnification.

 

[mikling]

Yeah, you're looking at resolutions 16x greater than most people can see with the naked eye. Maybe 32x after a few drinks.

 

[mikling]

Another tip is that if you are concerned about waste ink and such with Epsons the best printer had been the R260 and multifunction equivalent RX580. These allow fully automatic autoreset WITHOUT any button or interventions on the fly AND they waste the least ink. Why? because when one cartridge resets, they ALL reset at once. The result of this is that they have waste ink of about 1/6 th that of the newer models like its replacement the R280 and Artisan50. On the later models, as EACH color resets a prime cycle is run as if a new cartridge is installed. With this, the requirement of a waste ink tank is highly remote on the spec'd models. Color wise, they are equivalent to the Epson SP1400. If you can get one of these in good shape, they are gems...slow and steady though.

 

[websnail]

On the later models, as EACH color resets a prime cycle is run as if a new cartridge is installed. With this, the requirement of a waste ink tank is highly remote on the spec'd models. Color wise, they are equivalent to the Epson SP1400. If you can get one of these in good shape, they are gems...slow and steady though.

Hi Mike,

Can I check what chips and the source on that information as I wasn't aware that the newer printers weren't capable or resetting on all chips, but only as each reaches the "empty" point.. Would certainly explain a lot..

Thanks in advance... Oh and "+drinks = 32x" ? priceless