Can DURABrite printers be used for photo printing?

[Arebo]

I broke one of my epson l1300 bk thank and when i print more than one page the ferst is faine and the second is empty blank and page 3 fine pege 4 blank ...????

 

[Celso]

Dear All, very interesting thread. Currently I have Canons with refillable carts. Unfortunately, fading is very bad, which fact makes me look for other alternatives. Epson expression line is cheap and uses Durabrite carts. After reading this thread I am considering to buy an Epson XP214. It is a 4 color printer. In addition to Precision Colors, who are the other most known good suppliers of pigment ink? Many thanks.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

There are some comments here as well - see the last entries
https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...mage-specialists-inks.11676/page-2#post-99006

You have the option to use good performing dye inks or stay with pigment inks for your printer, you'll need the capability to create icm-color profiles in all cases since you are using the printer/driver in some off-regular operating mode with 3rd party papers.
When it comes to pigment inks I very much prefer to do an overprint with a gloss optimizer for a better look, but that's a matter of personal preference. If you print on matte papers you won't need a GO overprint at all. It is difficult to name a good or the best ink supplier, it is a combination of performance, judgement and pricing, you may go for premium priced inks like Conecolor Pro by Vermont inks or Lyson by Marrutt or other suppliers like precisioncolors or octoinkjet. When you do prints with different inks you probably see differences but there is no simple measure to rate those against, beyond tests like gamut volume or black level, and you may prefer a local supplier over some other remote sources.

 

[Celso]

Hi All,

Unfortunately, prints with non-OEM dye ink fade too quickly. In theory, I would be okay printing the photos that I hang on the wall every two/three years. However, the prints with non-OEM inks fade in three/four months, which is ridiculous.

After, reading several posts in this great site and in this thread, I purchased an used Epson XP 214 (there are not ARC or resettable chips available to the current models in the market today and the WF line is not available in my country). My goal is to print with pigment ink (I used to print my photos with Canon MX721, but now I intend to print them in the Epson).

The printer is very (very) slow but I am getting nice results with the matte paper option in the driver. However, I do get noticeable bronzing effects.

My question are

a) It is suggested to substitute the matte black for a photo black. Which are good options of photo black to the XP 214 (probably the same ones that are available to the WF line...)?
b) I read that photo blacks are in fact dye inks. If so, doesn´t it impact the longevity of the photos? Instead of printing with 4 pigment inks it would print with 3 pigment inks + 1 dye ink...

Many thanks.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Sure you can buy a photo pigment black , that's an ink out of an ink set used for photo printers like the R2880, R2000, R3000, R2400 and similar.
Don't use dye black inks, they fade . Bronzing is not just an effect of the black ink but as well of cyan, it depends on the individual ink/paper combination whether the effect is strong or not.
Don't use any Durabrite compatible or other matte black pigment inks, they don't adhere well to glossy surfaces, they are sensitive to the touch.

To prevent that bronzing you would have to use a gloss optimizer in a separate print pass with a separate black ink cartridge filled with GO, and then printing 'black' in the B/W mode via the driver. The GO is used in the R1800, 1900, 2000, P400 printer models, and refill liquids are available. You'll see a distinct difference on your prints - bronzing is gone, the black looks really black , but... it takes another printing cycle and needs the time for it.

 

[Celso]

Thank you. Also good explanations about the use of GO, which is obvious to the experienced ones but not to the newbies.

 

[Mdavis]

I'm using the WF-2010W setup cartridges to print profile target sheets and to get the black levels with different settings. The driver has a paper selection of Ultra Glossy with a standard quality setting, this mode mixes the black from the colors. I'm using mostly the Aldi/Netbit PE photo paper and a LS180 cheap cast coated photo paper. The Durabrite inks show a pretty strong bronzing and gloss changes - the look is not very pleasant on the Netbit paper, and pretty bad on the LS180 paper. I overprinted the prints with a gloss optimizer on a R800, this improves the look somewhat but still does not give a very pleasant look. I printed as well with the matte standard setting which uses the black ink, the ink saturation is less, the printouts are lighter overall all with the ICM off option setting. These prints got as well a GO overprint.
The black level on the Netbit
with the ultraglossy setting gives a Lab = 13.00 2.05 -.26
the GO let the black level drop slightly to Lab 11.98 -5.79 0,12
the black level on the Netbit
with the matte setting and GO gives a Lab 13.78 -.5 -1.17
this with the genuine Epson black ink which is sensitive to the touch without the GO overprint on
glossy surfaces. The color tone of the black ink is pretty neutral, the L lightness level is just slightly higher than the composite black which shows a blueish cast .
The black levels look somewhat different on a matte Epson paper, printed with the same driver settings.
matte Epson paper with ultraglossy standard driver setting - composite black - Lab 27.10 0.26 -7.09
that is not a very good black level for photo prints, pretty light and with a cyan color cast
matte Epson paper with matte standard driver setting - genuine black ink - Lab 19.97 .65 1.34
that is a visible improvement of the black - a darker black, and almost neutral.

This overall confirms the findings above - the Durabrite inks are not very well suited for good photo prints on glossy papers, using another photo black is a compromise but would not improve
the look of the Durabrite inks on glossy surfaces.
And another effect turned up with the GO, it removes the bronzing but adds strange looking small stains - my GO does not harmonize with the Durabrite inks at all - it does not work together.
I have some refill cartridges on order to do some more tests with the inks I'm using in the R800 at this time, and other dye inks.

Fantastic testing..I just got a new Epson Work Force 7610 taking 13" paper using Durabrite inks, and have leftover Epson Premium Photo paper luster. Wouldn't that be a good fix? Also, I am starting to get cold feet that from your test that photos won't look as great as I had with my dead Epson 1400. Maybe I should sell the 7610 before setting it up and bite the bullet and go for a 1430. What say you? Regards,Millard

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

you had a reason to get this Workforce 7610, with options a 1430 would not give you. Durabrite inks are designed to give a good and crisp print on normal and matte papers . The driver offers as well options for photo print but with the deficiencies as described in the WF-2010W test, and the WF 7610 is no different in this respect. I did the same tests with a WF-7110, with the same results.
You have some options if you go for refill cartridges - you use a separate inkset for photo prints, either pigment inks as used in photo printers like the P600 , or you could swap over to dye inks getting rid of the specific pigment ink related problems. You may use dye inks just for photo printing or all your print jobs.

 

[Mdavis]

you had a reason to get this Workforce 7610, with options a 1430 would not give you. Durabrite inks are designed to give a good and crisp print on normal and matte papers . The driver offers as well options for photo print but with the deficiencies as described in the WF-2010W test, and the WF 7610 is no different in this respect. I did the same tests with a WF-7110, with the same results.
You have some options if you go for refill cartridges - you use a separate inkset for photo prints, either pigment inks as used in photo printers like the P600 , or you could swap over to dye inks getting rid of the specific pigment ink related problems. You may use dye inks just for photo printing or all your print jobs.

Thanks for your reply. I only got the 7610 as I it was a great deal and I could not afford the 1430, and thought that the pigment inks, even though they are only 4 carts, vs 6 carts would do a reasonable job for high quality photo printing,esp in 13" format size. Would I have been better off to save for the 1430? When I had the 1400 it was great, and so far no fading. And what about the Epson ultra premium photo paper luster as a good compromise between glossy and matte?
Regards,
Millard

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

The Epson 1430/1500W is going to be superceeded by a XP-15000 as a 13" dye ink printer, without light inks anymore.
There is one important difference between the 4 color pigment ink Workforce printers and these dye ink photo printers - the droplet size of 3 picoliter vs. 1.5 pl , this creates a slightly higher level of coarseness in the printout, which may be easier visbible to you than the smaller droplets of a photo printer, and there are the differences of pigment inks vs. dye inks. So it is not easy to advise you to spend more money for a photo printer. Or you run and test the Workforce unit with refill dye inks and you can see whether that results in prints you like. Luster, silk type papers show similar to glossy papers effects of bronzing and gloss differences, that would not be a compromise in this respect.