Which companies supply the higher quality non-OEM inks for Canon printers?

arw4 said:

I'm interested to hear about you diluting C and M. Do you know of what exactly the Epson ink base consists?

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Please see this posting
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/epson-et-7700-inks.12030/page-2#post-104422
and further down posting #19 on the same subject of diluting Epson inks.
Why diluting ? I only have to procure 3 ink colors CMY instead of 5 including LM and LC (or PM and PC in Canon terms), and when you run a dye printer and a pigment ink printer you already save the space for 4 bottles doing this. And since I'm testing this and that it comes to many more at the end. I'm only doing this with Epson printers, and I'm doing my own profiles which can compensate color shifts very well.

arw4 said:

Yes, the inks are getting a bit long in the tooth now

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In total, how old?
How long have they been opened?
How many times do you open and pour?
What environmental conditions are they stored in?

Canon recommends using their ink within 2 years. They do not say how long on the shelf versus opened cartridge.

If contaminants get into stored inks, such as bacteria/fungus/particulates, then this can affect ink flow from the cartridge and potential clogs in the print head.

this matrix test sheet may help you when trying to eliminate a color cast from your prints by adjusting the color
intensities in the driver
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/compatible-cartridges-and-colour-cast.10956/

stratman said:

In total, how old?
How long have they been opened?
How many times do you open and pour?
What environmental conditions are they stored in?

Canon recommends using their ink within 2 years. They do not say how long on the shelf versus opened cartridge.

If contaminants get into stored inks, such as bacteria/fungus/particulates, then this can affect ink flow from the cartridge and potential clogs in the print head.

Click to expand...

I bought the ink-set about 6 or 7 years ago (I know...), but have been very careful about storing them in a conducive environment. Each ink is in a litre bottle, and they are stored in a cardboard box and surrounded by shredded paper. The box is kept in a cellar environment where temperatures are consistently cool (but never anywhere near freezing), and the inks are stored away from all sources of light.

You are probably wondering why have bought such a large quantity, when I don't in fact need this much. Well, the supplier (in Holland) only sold in quantities of at least 1 litre, and they were a comparatively good price. Now, what I do is to draw off about 60-90 ml quantities at a time, which I similarly store independently and use on a regular basis for topping up the cartridges as required. In fact these inks are kept in 30 ml sealed and labelled syringes, so the ink really isn't exposed much to air very much at all before it is injected into the cartridges.

I have been using these inks regularly ever since I bought them, and without any problems whatsoever. Well, only the usual minor issues that every inkjet user encounters from time to time, but these are soon sorted. I don't consider there's any noticeable deterioration in the consistency, quality or performance of the ink, although I did notice a small amount of sediment resting at the base of the yellow litre bottle when I inspected it the other day. The colour cast issue has always been present, and I don't think its got significantly worse over time.

I guess I've had my monies-worth out of these inks in all honesty. I am now purchasing in smaller quantities, and have some samples to test from two reputable suppliers many of you have endorsed, so I am truly grateful for the advice and guidance you have offered. Thank you. So far, the printed results from the new sample inks are proving to be very pleasing indeed. I shall probably continue running the IS inks on an older printer exclusively for the hum-drum printing tasks where colour accuracy really doesn't matter - you know, the A4 copy print runs etc.

Ink stained Fingers said:

this matrix test sheet may help you when trying to eliminate a color cast from your prints by adjusting the color
intensities in the driver
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/compatible-cartridges-and-colour-cast.10956/

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Oh yes, this is a great article, and very helpful. I've downloaded the colour matrix consisting of multiple pictures of the young girl, and I've used it to achieve noticeable improvement.

I tend to make the required changes in half steps (reducing the error by half each time). So if it looks like a +40 change to magenta is needed, I'll adjust magenta +20 and then print and repeat the process. It's certainly a very useful tool, and clearly illustrates how the CMY colours work in combination to produce all the other colours needed.

Ink stained Fingers said:

Please see this posting
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/epson-et-7700-inks.12030/page-2#post-104422
and further down posting #19 on the same subject of diluting Epson inks.
Why diluting ? I only have to procure 3 ink colors CMY instead of 5 including LM and LC (or PM and PC in Canon terms), and when you run a dye printer and a pigment ink printer you already save the space for 4 bottles doing this. And since I'm testing this and that it comes to many more at the end. I'm only doing this with Epson printers, and I'm doing my own profiles which can compensate color shifts very well.

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Ah, I understand your reasons. Impressive stuff!

Just viewing your attached files, I reckon you have a serious problem with just about everything you print, and I wouldn’t recommend you get into diluting any of your inks either, the image you posted was a test image and its balls up completely, and/or your printer may need to be set to default again.

The images provided below will give you and us something to go on, so unzip and print on glossy paper, but don’t do anything else to it and upload the results, please give the print time to dry before scanning...
Sometimes there is a need to start from the beginning...

arw4 said:

I did notice a small amount of sediment resting at the base of the yellow litre bottle when I inspected it the other day.

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This could be a sign of a fungus infection, the risk is real, you open that bottle regularly over time, and spores are ubiquitous and like the ink solvent containing nutricious glycoles. It is not so typical that 3rd party ink suppliers add a fungizide to their inks since they imply that the users use up their inks rather quickly. I have seen a fungizide as part of an ink recipe in some Canon cartridges although the ink in a cartridge would be much better protected there than in a refill bottle. Such data is available in the MSDS (material safety data sheet) revealing some non-propriertary information. Such infection can be caused by the refill practice - e.g. filling ink from a bigger bottle into a smaller bottles, doing refills from there, and but filling back leftover ink from the small bottle back into the big bottle. Filtering would be possible with a membrane filter out of a chemical tool shop but I'm not sure you would want to spend such edditional effort. I rather would consider dumping that ink with this age and get fresh ink instead, and throwing away the syringe, needle, bottles which came into contact with that ink .

Ink stained Fingers said:

this matrix test sheet may help you when trying to eliminate a color cast from your prints by adjusting the color
intensities in the driver
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/compatible-cartridges-and-colour-cast.10956/

Click to expand...

Yep. See my post #39.

I concur with ISF -- throw out your old inks and everything else you have been using with that ink. The cartridges are potentially contaminated as well. I would throw them out and get new ones. The issue is protecting your print heads. The question then becomes whether to flush your print head due to possibly contamination which can create issues for the print head AND the new cartridges over time. (bacteria and fungus may migrate from the print head to the cartridge) I would not store ink in syringes. Either fill syringes as needed or go with a system such as Octoink's
SquEasyFill.

As previously discussed, purchase smaller quantities of ink. Once you know you like a particular ink set, maybe only get enough bulk ink for 6-12 months. You probably have figured out your ink usage patterns by now and can order the amounts needed to last that time.

I am not sure why you have shredded paper in the cardboard box but I would get rid of all of that as well. A plastic container, without any "filler" shredded paper, would be the best as it is more difficult for bacteria and fungus to grow on and can be easily cleaned. I don't know the conditions of your "cellar" but it may be conducive to bacteria and fungus and therefore not be the best place to store the inks and other refill kit.