Epson Stylus Pro 3880 or SC-P800 length limit for Multi-sheet feeder?

[Smile]

If you get the T120 get the CISS for it do not use refillable carts they leak. Food wider should not stop you from good buy, as 4 inks vs. 9inks means way more money on inks ! Even if use only black the cleaning cycles will use all carts anyway. I can only suggest if you will go the EPSON way then use
Quadtone RIP and fill all carts with black ink I think it should use less ink this way.

 

[Trevorm7]

If it uses all the inks during cleaning, how will it use less if they're all black?

Also how often does it clean? Also does it stop you from printing at all if the other inks are empty? If it were possible to trick it into thinking the other inks are full when empty, would that harm the printers ability to print black?

 

[Smile]

QTR is used to print BW images and also for screen printing.

Also how often does it clean?

You mean EPSON, way more than thermal inkjet printer.

Also does it stop you from printing at all if the other inks are empty?
If it were possible to trick it into thinking the other inks are full when empty, would that harm the printers ability to print black?

Yes. The Themal print head burns if it is not cooled by ink. Same with Piezo head if you run it EMPTY.
The vibrations in piezo elements in the print head still produce heat - no ink means damaged head.

You need 4 channel printer if plan to have any return on investment IMHO.
You do not want to mess with RIP software for printing TEXT IMHO.
Get the HP T120 or older model that allows single print heads replaced separately. The T120 is really small for 24in model.

 

[Trevorm7]

So for the Epson, if I were to let all the other colors run empty except black, would this stop me from printing black? If not, then I think getting a used or already damaged 3800/3880 would be cheaper than the T120.

Also no I wouldn't want to mess with RIP software. Any reason I would have to use that for this?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

when the chips on the cartridges report empty the printer will ask for replacement and stop further printing. You may cheat the printer and just reset empty cartridges and leave them empty with possible consequences that you might not print other colors anymore. I think you need to reset these cartridges before they actually report empty. Or - if you want to protect youre printhead for later use - you may refill with cheap dye inks.

 

[Trevorm7]

OK thanks.

Also if I let the others run empty, would those heads still burn out even if I set it to print black only in the driver? Seems like it shouldn't since they won't be being used.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

the Grayscale printing options are implemented diferently on different printers, but I would assume for the 3800/3880 that they only use the black and gray inks, and no other inks, but as soon there is some kind of advanced B/W option offering you to tone your B/W print from sepia to neutral and other tones then colored inks are involved as well to do that toning, but as mentioned I'm not familiar with these Epson drivers and settings.

 

[RogerB]

the Grayscale printing options are implemented diferently on different printers, but I would assume for the 3800/3880 that they only use the black and gray inks, and no other inks, but as soon there is some kind of advanced B/W option offering you to tone your B/W print from sepia to neutral and other tones then colored inks are involved as well to do that toning, but as mentioned I'm not familiar with these Epson drivers and settings.

The Epson diver always uses some colours when printing B&W. The Epson black/grey inks are not neutral and need to be "adjusted" using some colour. Like most (all?) pinters, the Epsons will not print if one cartridge is empty.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

that's what I expected. There are some office printers which offer you to continue to print when the black cartridge runs empty , and then mixing the colors for black, but this wouldn't apply to the 3880

 

[Trevorm7]

Alright so from what I gather, If I let the other colors go empty and trick it into thinking they're full, and only print black, it will not be perfectly black (doesn't matter to me) and it will potentially damage the other heads.