About to take on a big (for me) printing project... wish me luck!

[Nifty]

Hey All,

When I got my first i560 printer a few years back I was given the assignment to print 400 4x6 prints for my family reunion. Basically we were making each grandkid their own photo album with pictures of all their cousins in each album (super fun thing to do at a reunion... have all the kids in an assembly line adding their picture to the album).

Anyhow, here's how I did it back then:
Printer: i560
Carts: Refilled OEM
Ink: Don't remember, but probably from alotofthings
Paper: Cheap 8.5 x 11 (non photo... just plain old multi-purpose)

I printed 3 to a sheet and used my monster challenge paper cutter to cut them to size

This year I'm going to try it again, but now I need to print 450 pictures. I've also got less time and more budget, so here's what I'm doing:
Printer: i860 (using the printhead that originally was in the i860 that was transferred to the mp750 and putting it back into the i860 so I don't wear out the MP750 pre-maturely)
Carts: Acujet
Ink: mostly Image Specialists
Paper: Costco Kirkland photo gloss 4x6 (woohoo... pre-cut)

Thoughts: Is printing 450 4x6 prints more wear / tear on the printer than 150 8.5 x 11? If yes, is it so negligible I shouldn't loose sleep over it?

Since this is just for the kids, should I run them through at regular quality (not high and not photo paper) to speed things up?

Any other ideas / suggestions? Any bets / guesses on how much ink I'll use?

 

[fotofreek]

That is my usual task after a major trip - about the same number of prints. I set my i960 to glossy photo paper and let the software select the quality, use Kirkland 4x6 paper, and print as fast as I can adjust each picture with cropping, light and color adjustments, etc. That gives the printer a little breather between prints sometimes, but most often the pics go into the buffer and print one after the other continuously. I occasionally stop to check ink levels.

 

[Nifty]

Well, I ended up printing them all on 4x6 paper from kirkland at "photo paper pro" setting with quality set to normal. Since the printer uses the pigment black in non photo paper mode, as I discovered in my test here: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/difference-canon-bci-3-bci-6.php , I thought it best to be patient and print them all this way. Ended up about 30 seconds per print.

I'm very glad my i860 fired up so perfectly when I pulled the printhead from the mp750 and stuck it back in the i860. Let me just say that I didn't store the i860 as well as I was planning (it was out in the air gathering dust... I kept saying "Yeah, I need to wrap up that printer... maybe I"ll do it tomorrow". Well, that was about 2 years ago! Now that the job is done the print head is back in the MP750 and the i860 is wrapped in a plastic bag.

If I wasn't in a big hurry I would have measured each of my carts and how much ink was used. I ended up printing 378 prints and refilled twice.