Dye only printing with ET-7750?

blakeo82

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Hi all, I am new and I have been struggling a bit finding a printing solution for my project. Perhaps someone knows... Epson just sold me an ET-7750 as I told them I needed a dye based printer that would auto duplex and have a low cost per page. Also, because its a photo-like project, I wanted some UV protection. I understood this printer to have 5 tanks, 4 dye and one pigment.

Now that I have the printer, it seems that if I want to use the duplex function, I have to leave it set to plain paper. Leaving the printer set to plain paper seems to leave the pigmented black tank engaged and my prints smear all over.

I called Epson (twice) and their technical support people insist there is no setting combination that allows me to use the duplexer and only the 4 dye tanks. I am not clear if their sales team is correct or technical support. Tech support really didn't sound like they had any idea, it took a while for them just to understand some of the ink that came with it was dye based.

I was just wondering if anyone knew - can I use the CMY and Photo Black (only) with the auto duplex function? I am using a Mac, I see lots of color profiles installed by Epson for different stock but other than it printing out looking vastly different, it seems to still have some amount of black pigment ink in it, from what i can tell.

I should also probably mention I don't know what I am doing. I wanted something turn key that I didn't have to create custom color profiles (because I don't even really know what that means) and put non-stock ink into a printer, but maybe thats just what has to happen. I have read the WF-7720 is a very capable printer, if I can't do make something work out of the box, maybe thats a more appropriate route.

Does anyone have any advice for getting this ET-7750 to dance the way I need it too or should I put it back in the box and look for an alternative? It was significantly more printer than I cared to buy anyway so you break my heart. (And i you have advice for an alternative to consider, please share, I am not clear what the next option to try for me should be)

Thanks for your help or any guidance you can provide.

Blake
 

Ink stained Fingers

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The duplexing function is meant to be used with normal/copy paper only, and only this media setting allows you to activate the duplexing function in the driver. It is not clear from your posting which other type of paper you are using/want to use with the duplexing function, there are technical limitations to handle other types of paper - e.g. stiffer photo paper may not pass, or the additional rollers in the duplexer may leave traces on your prints - picking up ink from an image on the front side of the page and transferring that ink to the back side.
If you want to print on double sided photo paper you better do that manually, and give the prints some time do dry.
If you print a multipage series of photos you may use software like Qimage (Windows S/W) which let you to print all odd pages first, you re-insert the sheets for a 2nd print cycle for the even pages. The Acrobat reader lets you do something similar. I'm not familiar with other Mac software.

You may do something else - but it is purely experimental and depends on your other printing needs - you replace the pigment black ink and substitute it with additional black dye ink, and you continue to print with the normal paper selection. But the risk is that the rollers may pickup undried ink and spoil your prints further on, and you have to run frequent cleaning sheets - it all depends on the paper you want to use and what you are printing. And it could be that the print quality in the normal paper mode is not good enough for your prints.
You can turn off the top of the ink bottles with some force and swap them between the pigment and dye black bottles or refill the ink into the other bottle as needed.
The WF-7720 printer uses pigment inks CMYK - all 4 of them are pigment inks, but I'm not sure whether you would get any better prints with that unit, it is not a photo printer and I would assume that you have the same limitations for the duplex mode - no borderless printing and no thicker papers.
 
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blakeo82

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Thank you for your reply!

I am printing on a coated Tyvek material. We're printing sort of a pattern where one side has ink heavy artwork, not far from photos, but the stock doesn't let you get photo quality. The other side is a very light pattern, just some line artwork a few markings, sort of an instruction set. (This is the need for the auto duplexer as manual duplexing seems to have too much variance from one page to the next.)

The Tyvek is very lightweight, very comparable to copy paper and runs through the duplexer without issue. I print the line artwork first on the non coated side, since there isn't much ink, and then duplex the heavy ink artwork. It comes out beautifully, minus the black ink rubbing off.

The choices of stock are very limited for this project and unfortunately with low volume I can't yet justify professional print.

Your comment seems accurate to my experience, contrary to what Epson fed me. They suggested I could change the paper type on the printer to control the ink, then override the two sided printing in the software. It sort of looks like you can do it - you can check the box, but it doesn't actually work.

With this limitation, I am not sure I can make this printer work for me. It's full of ink, so switching them would be would be a thing.

I have read - and please forgive me if I am wrong - I believe it was you Ink Stained Fingers that suggested in another post that it was possible to use Epson 512 (in the US) ink in an WF-7710/7720 with refillable carts and maybe a custom color profile. Maybe that makes the most sense for me, I am not clear.

The stock is 8.5x11, I need dye printing with some amount of UV fade resistance and a duplexer, past that I don't have any other requirements. I thought maybe the WF-7720 setup would make sense since it seems like its pretty widely supported for dye printing. I thought if I could use Epson 512 dye ink for its better UV fade resistance over 3rd parties, maybe that would be a good solution. I really wanted something easy and 'factory', but if I need to go outside of that, then so be it.

I purchased the ET-7750 over the 7700 for the 11x17 media support as I wanted to print some really nice text, but printing on the Tyvek is the important bit. I can get a separate machine for 11x17 support if there is a more ideal machine for the tyvek.

If you or anyone else has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Thanks for all of the info! It's been immensely helpful so far.
 

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O.k., I think I now understand better what you are doing, but I still have a few questions .
The other side is a very light pattern, just some line artwork a few markings, sort of an instruction set.
Is this pattern always the same you are printing here on this side ? Could you preprint a staple in one go and then print the artwork on the other side one by one as needed ? Or is everything different from sheet to sheet - on the front and the back side ? A 'sort of an instruction set ' appears to be a standard text/layout . ?
Before you switch to another printer let's still consider the option to swap the pigment ink against the dye ink - I used an ET-7750 about 2 years ago and remember that I could pull the inks out of the containers with a syringe and a needle - the typical refill accessories, so you wouldn't need to print all that black ink away, but just the ink which is left in the tubing.
If you select glossy (photo) paper the printer is using the dye black ink, a test with this setting should tell you whether the black dye ink is o.k. on your coated Tyvek material - I assume it is since the other colors/inks appear to be o.k. but a test (without backside and duplex printing) should confirm this.

Yes, I confirmed that you can switch inks on a WF-77xx printer from all pigment to all dye, in another context recently, you would need at most another icm color profile depending on your needs for color accuracy.
 

blakeo82

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The instruction set doesn't change per pattern, but there are many many patterns and each has a different instruction set. Its not quite a sewing pattern, but you can think of it as one. There is a cut line, markings where stuff goes, holes that get punctured and folds that need to happen. The 2mm variance give or take on manual duplexing injects a problem on the pattern as you start to assemble the product. The auto duplexing reduces that variance to something that is in the range of acceptable, reducing waste from maybe 40% to nearly 0%.

I just printed a sample on tyvek as you suggested - setting it on "glossy" and just printed on the coated side and it works exactly as I'd like. The black doesn't rub off and the ink seams durable.

I am not opposed to removing the pigmented black and replacing it with photo black, I just need to learn more about it.

It does make me wonder however...Epson sold this $700+ printer to me, but if I have to pour PB ink into a tank not meant for it, couldn't I do that with their far less expensive EcoTank printers? For example the ET-2760 has an auto duplexer, just doesn't use Epson 512 ink and black is pigmented but I can buy three of those printers and still have lunch money left for the cost of this ET-7750. Or is the advantage of sticking with ET-7750 the established color profile? My interest in a different printer, like the WF-7720 is just from a cost perspective. While Epson recommended this printer to me, I am not sure it's the ideal model for the project.

I appreciate all of your input! Thank you again.
 

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It was my idea to discuss a work around - dye instead of pigment black inks - with your existing printer instead of sending you out to spend more money to get another printer.
Your Tyvek material is not a standard type of medium, and the driver would not have a icc color profile available anyway, you would need to get one done via an external company if you need one, for this or any other printer.
You are addressing the front/back side alignment accuracy, printer models differ in this respect , but I think that the duplexing keeps it at a low level.
You are right that you can swap the black pigment ink in Epson 4 color printers against a dye black ink to support the printouts as you plan it, but please continue to use as well the CMY inks of the ET-7750 in such another printer, the dye inks of the lower level/entry level ecotank printer models are not the same and give you inferior performance in regards to UV resistance. Epson is playing here a kind of strange marketing game, they don't want you to have easy access to their best performing dye inks in bottles - the ET7750 inks, the photo printers P50 and the successor XP55 use the Claria inks - with expensive cartridges - the L805 as the Ecotank version of the P50, or the L1800 as the ecotank version of the 1400 - don't use this ink, but an ink with less stability.
If you actually go for another printer you just would have to do some easy swapping of inks between the printer you choose and the ET7750 .
 

blakeo82

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I am considering swapping the ink in the ET-7750. I ordered some syringes this morning, they will take a few days to get here.

While I am waiting for those, I am still considering returning it, I just haven't decided. The savings could be used to pay for the profile tool. I am not clear yet I am getting anything more for the much higher cost of this model, for my purpose anyhow.

Now that you have enlightened me regarding ink and flexibility of some of these models, I think I'll visit a local office retailer and see if they have any of these other printers on the floor for testing. If the duplexer works with reasonable accuracy in the ET-2760, or WF-7220, maybe either of those is a better solution. I have never paid any attention to how accurate auto duplexing is as it pertains to the alignment front and back as I never had a project were it mattered. At the moment, I know the duplexer on the 7750 works pretty well. Maybe as it turns out thats the reason to keep it.

Thanks again for your time and all the information; it's been very helpful. I'll update this thread as I learn more over the next few days into next week.
 

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If you only need a very few color profiles for your media the investment for a profiling tool may not be necessary, there should be service providers in your country, typically companies selling refill supplies, inks, papers, tools etc.
If you look for a printer like the WF-7720 you may have another option but I wouldn't like to confuse you. You could make a test with the Durabrite prigment inks and see how those look and perform - adhere etc. But please be aware that here is as well a trap, the Durabrite ink set is targeted for matte, normal/copy paper, which makes the black ink specific, it is made for matte surfaces causing the same problems which you get with the pigment ink of the ET7750 , but you would have here as well an alternative - if you would do refill you can use a photo black pigment ink instead which would overcome this problem, this photo black pigment ink is made for glossy surfaces like the photo dye black. Please go step by step and try to do some tests with these options, and don't get confused with the ink types - dye or pigment.
 

blakeo82

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I decided against changing the ink around in the ET-7750 and returned it to the store.

I ordered some refillable cartridges for the WF-7720. After working with it for a bit, I decided to have a profile made because the color was off more than I was expecting.

After profiling, the colors are far more accurate, but are still not vibrant, things appear sort of washed out. If I change paper type to photo from plain, that improves it to an extent, but then the auto duplexer doesn't work. I mucked around in photoshop and acrobat to try and control color, but I can't seem to improve it to a level that I am happy with.

I am going to continue looking around for a different solution.
 
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