Black Ink Question

[jjonsalt]

I have two printers. An Epson R2400 and a HP 7160. Each uses two types of black ink and two types of gray. I may have to replace the R2400 because no one seems to be able to fix it. I used to have a Canon s900 and liked it, so I'm looking at Canon's PRO9000 as a possible replacement. Here's what I don't get. As I mentioned before my printers use two types each of black and gray ink. The reviews I read praise the results of color prints, B&W prints and text of the PRO9000. Now this printer uses only one type of black and no gray inks. How does it do such an all around good job with only the one type of black?

 

[ghwellsjr]

As far as I know, Canon does not offer a grey ink except for the MP980. Instead, they produce shades of grey by mixing colors. You can see how this is done for a four color printer here:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=8390#p8390

I presume that Canon follows a similar approach for its six and eight color printers but I have not tested these except to learn how the red and green inks are used on different papers in the i9900 (which is quite similar to the newer PRO9000 except it has unchipped cartridges). You can see my results here:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=11541#p11541

 

[jjonsalt]

As far as I know, Canon does not offer a grey ink except for the MP980.

The PRO 9500, which I am also considering, has 2 types of black and a gray.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Wow, and I thought eight cartridges was a lot!

I think there is a reason why Canon calls these printers the Pro series. You have to sell your prints in order to be able to afford the ink.

Since the PRO9500 uses pigment inks, it may be difficult to find a good source of ink to refill them yourself.

 

[jjonsalt]

Could I not use dye based ink instead of pigment ink in the PRO9500?

 

[ghwellsjr]

You won't break anything by trying dye ink but you could have the following problems:

1) The ink may leak out of your printhead, make a mess, and cross contaminate other colors because dye ink is not as viscous as pigment ink. The nozzles are larger for pigment ink than for dye ink.

2) The prints may not look correct because the dye inks may have different shades of color than their pigment counterparts--and where are you going to get the dye version of the grey and two types of black?

Canon says: In one giant leap, the all-new PIXMA Pro9500 takes your work from merely beautiful to extraordinary. For photographers that need high-contrast or beautifully reproduced colors, photographers need look no further than the PIXMA Pro9500.

People have complained for years about Canon not having a pigment ink printer and now that they have some, it doesn't make sense to me to put dye ink in them.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[jjonsalt]

ghwellsjr, I see your points and will stand down about using dye ink in a printer made to use pigment ink. I guess it's my problem. I would like a dye based printer equal to the HP B9180, Epson R2880 or Canon's PRO9500.