Fading Test Epson 106 vs. 107 inks

[Ink stained Fingers]

Please use the dye photo black on all glossy and semiglossy, lustre, silk type papers , the pigment matte black is only used by the driver for matte and FineArt like velvet papers

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I was running a non-OEM ink somewhat in parallel to the OEM inks; Sudhaus is a 3rd party ink distributor since a long time in Germany, and mgmt and ownership changed several times over time and is now with a French ink distributor; Sudhaus is producing (some) of the inks with their name themselves.
There are two versions of Epson inks offered - a standard type and an 'Ultra' type. I tested the ultra-inks with these results against the 106 inks - the black level is a L=10 instead of a 5 with the 106 ink - that's a dark gray and not a black on a glossy paper to start with, and I stopped the test after a week - the 106 ink is shifting a DeltaE of 0,6 and the Sudhaus black/dark gray is shifting a DeltaE of 10,43 - that's quite a difference - the Sudhaus black ink is about 16x faster than the 106 ink under the same sun - the blacks/dark grays in an image or a print are gone pretty quick.

https://sudhausinkjet.eu/de/startse...ltra-dye-tinte-fur-epson-farbe-nach-wahl.html

I'm not objecting principally 3rd party inks - e.g. printing stuff which I throw away shortly after print - when longevity is not relevant; the problem is that users typically are not aware of such effects and just buy by a low price. The Sudhaus ultra inks are priced at about 50% of the OEM inks, I don't think that is a fare price for this performance

 

[The Hat]

I'm not objecting principally 3rd party inks - e.g. printing stuff which I throw away shortly after print - when longevity is not relevant; the problem is that users typically are not aware of such effects and just buy by a low price.

That’s the crucks of the issue, everybody buys because of the low price and then complains about fading later, not realising that premium price inks are king, for a reason..

The most odd thing about this also is most often they waste their money buying expensive papers, but complain bitterly about the price of OEM inks..

 

[Tony4597]

That’s the crucks of the issue, everybody buys because of the low price and then complains about fading later, not realising that premium price inks are king, for a reason..

The most odd thing about this also is most often they waste their money buying expensive papers, but complain bitterly about the price of OEM inks..

Well said and in my experience very true. I now only use OEM for my Epson 800 for photo work. On the other hand I use third party inks (usually cheapest available at time of purchase) in my Canon desktop all in one printer as it is only used for daily print jobs mainly text with the odd graphic thrown in; no archival expectations

 

[meadow]

Epson has announced a new Ecotank printer ET-18100 as an Ecotank version of the older 1400/1500W A3+ photo printers, this printer comes wtih 6 inks incl. light inks like the predesessors, this printer model comes with a new inkset 107. I could do a comparative fading test of the 107 inks vs. the 106 inks of the ET-7750 which is on a market already since several years, the 106 inks are performing very well as various tests some time ago have shown. I happened to get a cartridge load of 107 ink by a member of the German Druckerchannel forum which let me do this test in comparison to the 106 inks. I'm only testing the CMYK base color inks, not the light colors, and I'm printing the patch sheets on a WF2010W which let me easily swap cartridges with all the inks for testing.

Here is the result showing the deltaE diferences of the color patches after 3 weeks exposed to the current sunny weather, the table is showing the DeltaE average of all patches, and the values for the CMYK patches individually - both for the 106 and the 107 inks as 106/107 values

View attachment 15359

The 107 inks are overall weaker than the 106 inks - except for the yellow ink which is more stable on various papers . And the table shows again the large impact of the paper type onto the overall fading stability, you cannot rate the fading of an ink w/o referring to the paper used for a particular test.

Please make a fading test between 107 and T673.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I don't have the 673 inks available anymore, I was and I am using using the 106 inks in my L805 curently and the L1800 until recently, the 673 inks are not actual anymore for me. I tested the 107 inks just recently here

https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...6-107-114-t54c-bottled-inks.16040/post-139425
I'll update the test with some data for the 114 ink as well on the weekend.

I tested the 673 inks some time ago against the 106 inks, the 673 inks came out weaker in that test.

 

[aCuria]

Yes - the 107 black is dissappointingly weak ; there were two intentions with this test - comparing the 107 and 106 inks and catching variances between papers - OEM glossy papers HP Epson Canon - non-OEM glossy papers and some specialty/FineArt types. The 107 inks generally turn out weaker than the 106 inks, and there is no price benefit for the 107 inks vs. the 106 inks - at least in Germany, this may vary between different business regions.
Please wait a few more weeks - I'm running another test with the 106/107/114/T54C inks but only on the Epson Glossy paper this time, there is already early indication that some inks offer a better black stability.

Is the black stability of the 107 bad enough that the 18100/18050 printers are to be avoided?

Or can the stability be fixed by using Epson paper / uv sprays?

The other printers are unfortunately not available in Asia

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Is the black stability of the 107 bad enough that the 18100/18050 printers are to be avoided?

There are performance differences between the tested Epson inks, and I'm presenting some data. The 107 inks overall are pretty good, and I would not consider them a reason not to buy the printer. The test data show as well that it is not just the ink defining the fading performance but very much as well the paper you are using. And various tests have shown that OEM papers - at least those I have used - perform better than other no-name/3rd party papers.
A spray improves the performance somewhat but no as much as some vendors are telling you; I was using the gloss optimizer of the P400 printer and as well hairspray. You may use it if you have other reasons to do so - e.g. like a better surface protection - but the overall handling is quite time consuming.

The overall availability of inks and printers will probably improve over time , Epson is running different schedules for the introduction of new products in different business regions - check again in 6 months.

 

[aCuria]

Can you explain the hairspray? (For a matte finish?)

I thought the UV spray is a different thing from
hairspray, or does hairspray have UV resistant properties too

I have used hairspray on charcoal pieces, but not on prints

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I thought the UV spray is a different thing from
hairspray, or does hairspray have UV resistant properties too

Hairspray uses a water/alcohol/dimetylether based resin - ....methacrylat copolymer - normally for glossy appearance, and with different densities, you find some number on the can - typically in the range of 3 - 5 or 6. The coating gives you some surface protection against scratches, and UV as well; I have tested that several years ago. It would be recommended to create other icc color profiles since the spray is changing the gamut somewhat . 'UV'sprays are just more expensive but I didn't see any stronger performance of those. And you need to test how you can assure a smooth application of the spray and how the paper reacts to the amount of solvent. But start with OEM photo papers of the PE/RC type to get the best performance. It would not make sense to use cheaper cast coated papers and treat them with a spray after the print.