Canon printer specific formulated bulk inks - UK suppliers

[arw4]

There seem to be some excellent sources in America for high quality bulk inks which are practically as good as the original OEM cartridge ink. In particular MIS inks seem to be highly endorsed by professional imagers. Unfortunately, I have found it very difficult to locate a similar source in the UK, and there doesn't seem to be a great deal of useful advice for us Brits. This forum is brilliant international resource.

I've been very pleased with my Canon Pixma iP5000 printer, although I simply can't afford to keep buying the OEM cartridges. The third party inks I have been using just don't match up, but I guess they're acceptable for most people. Compared, photographs look very second rate.

Your thoughts, guidance and suggestions would be warmly received.

Regards

Alex

 

[pebe]

I am using ink from these people. I've had no problems with it and I cannot see any discernable difference compared to OEM.

http://www.bs-print.co.uk/canon-ink-refill.htm

 

[arw4]

Thanks for your reply Pebe.

I am familiar with BS print, although I have not ordered from them before. It's good to have your personal recommendation. What put me off ordering from BS print is that they claim that their ink is optimised for all Canon printers, which seems to suggest that their ink is semi universal as opposed to printer specific. Which printer carts do you use?

I am presently using ink carts supplied by 7dayshop, and whilst the results are OK they really don't match up to Canon's OEM inks when compared. I've run several tests and tried altering profile settings without achieving significant improvement. Most notable is the blueish colour cast, which is very notable when printing in greyscale. Plain paper prints look decided washed out.

As a semi professional competitive photographer I really am looking for the closest printer matched bulk ink to the Canon inks.

I'm glad you are pleased with your BS inks, and thanks for your comments.

 

[pebe]

I'm using a Canon IP4000 which uses BCI-3bk, and BCI-6bk and colour. BS-print provides pigment for the 3bk and dye based for the BCI-6 carts. As I recall, they ask for your printer type when you order.

FYI, I use 'Think' matt paper from Choice Supplies, and 'Unicorn' Photo Glossy' from Lidl. I haven't the critical eye of a professional, but the results I get are very acceptable.

 

[Grandad35]

arw4,

When you installed your printer driver, you also installed several default "profiles" for your printer (e.g. CNB5pCA0.ICM in the "CWINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SPOOL\DRIVERS\COLOR" directory). These "profiles" were developed by Canon specifically to get good color reproduction while using their inks on their papers.

AFAIK, there are NO ink sets or prefilled carts that give the same colors as the OEM inks. Some ink sets are better than others and may be adequate for non-critical applications, but if you have a critical eye you will always have color problems (as you have already found). The solution is to have a "custom profile" made for your printer, ink and paper. In the US, there are services that will do this for about $40; I believe that there are similar services with similar prices in the UK.

You will need one profile for each ink/paper combination, but refilling with bulk ink will quickly save far more than the cost of a few custom profiles. Note that in the past some prefilled cart suppliers have switched ink suppliers without notice, making such profiles worthless after the change. For this reason, I wouldn't waste time and money profiling unless I was refilling using quality bulk ink from a reputable supplier who states the source of their ink.

All of this being said, you should see a big improvement with your printed colors by profiling and implementing a "color managed workflow". If you are serious about your color accuracy, I highly recommend reading "Real World Color Management" by Bruce Fraser as a starting point. It isn't light reading, but this book will show you why getting your colors right requires some extra effort on your part.

As a starting point, have you calibrated your monitor? If so, how? Unless your monitor is calibrated, you can't be sure that you are sending the correct color information to the printer, or that others will see the same colors when viewing the same images on their (calibrated) monitors.

 

[arw4]

Thank you for your very helpful and informative input Grandad35.

Regarding monitor calibration, I used software called Monitor Calibration Wizard 1.0 which uses a range of colour charts - in effect, a color box within a larger color box. The shade of the smaller box is adjusted to match the outside color, and when all tests are completed a profile is created specifically for the monitor. I have a CRT CTX monitor which is fully callibrated.

That said, I've never really got to grips with how monitor callibration affects the color output of other peripherals, namely the printer. Likewise I can't say I have really understood how ICM works. Generally I have had ICM unchecked in the Canon driver software, and color adjustment is usually set to auto, unless I am adjusting the printer driver color levels.

I read with interest an earlier post about Non OEM inks and why they're not a perfect match. I tend to agree that the whole matter is to some degree subjective. I'm not sure I'm that hung up about getting prints from bulk inks to match Canon OEM ink by having custom profiles made. It would be further complicated because I generally print on a variety of different media, and this would require different custom profiles. For my purposes I am content to accept some trade off by obtaining bulk ink of the closest approximation to the performance and characteristics of Canon OEM inks, and then using the default Canon driver settings. Whilst Canon have created their printer profiles specifically for their printers, inks and media, the pertinent question is, should Canon OEM inks really be considered the quality benchmark when judging non OEM inks? Indeed it appears that some forum members find some third party inks more impressive than are more impressed by the printed output from bulk ink over OEM. Again, there is some degree of subjectivity.

http://www.neilslade.com/papers/inkjetstuff.html

Lastly, I have found Neil Slade's article (see link above) to be a mine of useful information. The color charts provided in the "Ink Shoot Out" are an excellent resource, and appear to illustrate well the differences in output. His account of his practical experience of using Canon inkjets on a variety of media has convinced me to try the inks supplied by MIS. When compared with the Canon OEM inks, the differences seem so tiny that I I don't think it would bother me. I believe these inks are manufactured by Image Specialists in the US, and for anyone in the UK (Europe) Image Specialists have refered me to Gemini Colours based in the Netherlands. I hope to obtain a batch of these inks and look forward to running some tests in the near future.

 

[Grandad35]

arw4,

If you always shoot with just AWB (Automatic White Balance) on your camera and never make any color adjustments on your computer, you are correct that calibrating your display won't make any difference in the color of your finished prints. However, if you make any color adjustments with your computer, you are making these adjustments based on what you see on your display - calibration problems will obviously affect your adjustments and therefore what is printed. A camera's AWB is a great aid, but it isn't a cure-all to get accurate color from your camera. This is one of the main reasons why professional photographers shoot in RAW mode - they can adjust the white balance of their photos after the fact and get accurate colors far more easily than with any other post-processing technique.

Our eyes are wonderfully adaptive in how they handle color perception under widely varying lighting conditions. This same ability to adapt to changing lighting conditions also makes our eyes unreliable as calibration devices - this is the reason why Adobe stopped supporting their "Adobe Gamma" visual calibration software. For example, the type and level of ambient light in your work area, the color of the walls and even the color of your clothing can affect the colors that you perceive on your display. This is why a hardware calibration device is required to truly get your display's colors correct.

Color management is a very complicated subject - that is why I recommended the book that I mentioned in my previous post. Since you are obviously serious about your digital photography, you will have to dig deeply into this subject sooner or later. If you don't want to get that deeply involved at this time, here is a link that will let you get your feet wet and give you a taste of what "Color Management" involves.
http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html

In the final analysis, if you are getting color that is acceptable to you, you don't need color management. However, as a "semi professional competitive photographer", implementing color management will definitely improve the quality of your output. This is true whether you:
1. Print your own photos
2. Share digital files with others
3. Print your photos at outside sites

 

[arw4]

Grandad35,

Ah yes, you have explained things in a way that makes perfect sense and dispells ambiguity. I appreciate the importance of accurate monitor calliabration when using the monitor as a means to color modify digital images prior to printing, emailing etc. But with reference to the Canon printer driver software (Main tab), I fail to comprehend the significance of the ICM checkbox under manual color adjustment. Presumably it is the same as "Auto" color adjustment, but for the fact it allows the intensity setting to be adjusted - am I right?

Your reference to Norman Koren's articles was much appreciated, although I feel it will take several strong cups of coffee and a good dose of study time for me to fully absorb the content. I'm working on it - it's a very informative read! As you suggest, I must look into having my monitor callibrated using a hardware callibration device.

A quick update on suppliers of bulk inks in the UK (Europe). I had previously expressed disatisfaction with the results of 7dayshop bulk inks. In fact 7dayshop have long dicontinued supplying these inks, I'm pleased to report. I think I got the last of this stock at a rock bottom price. They now only supply printer specific prefilled carts - I can testify it is not the same ink. Initial testing looks encouraging with big improvements in colour accuracy. A pack of ten BCI6 carts cost 6.99. I will be running some more tests and will update. Website as follows for anyone interested.
http://www.7dayshop.co.uk

Gemini colours (European Distributer of Image Specialists inks) are sending me samples of their printer formulated bulk inks. I'm particularly looking forward to running some test prints, and will be pleased to report back to the forum my findings.

 

[Grandad35]

arw4,

This link discusses many of the settings in your Canon printer driver:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=625#p625
Specifically, this link is a great reference:
http://homepage.mac.com/renard/ls/Canon_ICC_Profile_Guide.pdf

I agree with your assessment of the difficulty of getting your arms around the subject of color management. This is not an easy subject to learn, and everyone has the same reaction when they start. Take heart that after a while it will actually begin to make sense, and that you will eventually wonder how you ever got along without color management in the same way that you now look back at your early photos and see how far your photographic skills have improved. As complicated as Koren's articles may seem, there is a LOT more information in the book which actually "fills in the holes" and presents a coherent picture. It is very helpful to understand how our eyes perceive color and how this determines how colors are displayed on monitors and printed material to allow us to perceive the correct colors.

 

[arw4]

Thank you so much for all your help and guidance, Grandad35. I am now sure I am on the correct road to attaining a true and factual understanding of image management and the many surrounding issues. Your links and suggestions are excellent, and I'm really getting a lot out of the learning process.

Like most learning curves, the subject is generating more questions than it is answering at the moment, like how two different file downloads of the Macbeth colorchecker rendition chart can appear so differently (colour compared like for like) within the same ICM enabled application (Paintshop Pro). I'm sure all will become clear in the end!

Kindest regards