How to make your own Epson R1900/R2000 ink dye set mix using CMYK inks

[pharmacist]

After experimenting a lot and trying the optimal mix to reproduce the essential orange and red inks, I came to the following conclusion:

-DON'T mix pigment inks. After trying several brands of pigment inks (Inktec Powerchrome, OCP K3), the results are suboptimal, not only is the hue of the orange not what it should be, but also mixing pigment ink sometimes will cause a slight precipitation of pigment particles (especially yellow pigment). Probably caused by changes in the ionic strength of some stabilizer(s) used to disperse the pigment particles.

-Use dye ink: for optimal fade resistance Fujitsu Dry Lab ink is superior. Thanks to Martin0reg I met last year during the ATT Börse in Essen (Astronomy Fair), I received a few samples of this fantastic ink and used this in my Epson R2000 printer, with very good results. The test prints are still as fresh and without the slightest sign of fading and are irradiated daily by the sun.

-Because of the usage of dye ink, the gloss optimizer is something unnecessary now. You can put my conditioning solution in the GO cartridge to keep the nozzles moist and hydrated.

For the CMYK cartridges: use the usual CMYK inks. I put dye PB ink in the PB cartridge and pigment matte black in my MB cartridge. However: both positions can be filled with dye, as dye ink is black enough on matte papers. For a generic Epson compatible dye CMYK ink, this is the formula:

Orange ink: 50% magenta + 50% yellow (based on weight, I use a microgram scale)

Red ink: 6 parts magenta + 1 part yellow (85.7 % magenta + 14.3 % yellow)

Because dye ink is a true solution, you won't get any ill precipitation or gelling effects as you might experience when mixing pigment inks.

However: a profile is still necessary to obtain optimal results.

Unfortunately I would be delighted if the red position can be replaced by grey ink, as dye ink has much brighter hue and saturation than pigment ink and the gloss optimizer by green. Orange and Green, like the Canon i9950/Pro 9000 and Grey like the Pro 100.

 

[martin0reg]

That's good news from your DIY-ink-laboratory, pharmacist!

You seem to have mixed a "custom made inkthrift CL" (Cone Color / inkjetmall), not for epson 6 channel (C-M-Y-K-LC-LM), but also for 8 channel "HighGloss" printers with two additional colors.

Now I have no R1900 or R2000 but two older R800, the ink set contains no orange, but blue - which I would like to mix out of M and C.
How did you do the measuring? By some kind of painting with inks, or diluted inks?

Your mixing is
85% M + 15% Y => red
50% M + 50% Y => orange

..whereas I would have thought of
50 M + 50 Y - for mixing red and
15 M + 85 Y - for mixing orange
- simply looking at a color circle... but this may be a big fault, which I don't understand yet..
In a color circle blue is exactly between C and M (just like red between M and Y.. see above), so I would have thought of a 50/50 mix.. but looking at your ratio for red it may be something like
- 85% M + 15% C to get blue..

Anyway it's nice to hear that my small sample have served you well.
Epson HighGloss maybe the most glossy pigment ink - but dye natively is even more glossy, and matches a wider range of paper sorts.

 

[pharmacist]

Well, the original mixing was based on emperical mixing using PIGMENT inks, which yields different colours compared to mixing dye inks. I tried at least 8 attempts to get the right colour and and hue.

I know the blue in the R800/R1800 is actually a more a purple. I suggest to try mixing cyan and magenta droplet wise and see if you get the same hue/colour.

I saw on ebay there is a set of 4x500 ml Fujitsu DL ink including shipping/custom fees cost 200 euro, which equals 10 euro for 100 ml, I think this is a very reasonable price taking into account the superior fade resistance, that is similar to the Epson Claria Photographic ink. One Epson 1500W cartridge of 11 ml costs about 15 euro, which is almost 14x cheaper.

The problem is the amount of ink: I don't I will be able to consume that much ink in a short period, so seeking other members, who want to share the costs by dividing the amount of ink into 2 or 3.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

yes, these DL ink sets with 500ml each in cartridges are probably surplus offers with quite a good price, I got those about a year ago, and I'm currently using them, together with the Epson Ultrachrome D6 inks which are available in 100ml cartridges, or Inkthrift ink by http://inkjetsolution.eu/en_US/c/INKTHRIFT-CL-DYE-INK/90 which came out in my testing as the only third party ink matching the Epson/Fujifilm fading performance. Inkthrift inks are available in 220ml bottles.

 

[pharmacist]

Just un update with my tests with mixing the DL inks to obtain orange (OR), red (R) and blue (B) inks.

After experimenting with both generic dye CMYK and Fujitsu Drylab CMYK inks, I discovered that the Fujitsu dyes are way stronger in hue and saturation and I have to correct the above mentioned formula into the following formula for Orange (otherwise, the obtained hue will be too dark).

Using Fujitsu Drylab dye ink:

Orange: 11 gram Magenta + 57.5 gram Gloss Optimizer (or clear ink base) + 31.5 gram Yellow
Red: 87.5 gram Magenta + 12.5 gram Yellow
Blue: 60 gram Magenta + 40 gram Cyan

Now because of the usage of the GO in the Orange formula, I discovered a shiny gloss differential in the color patches, which are derived from Orange by the printer driver in my Colormunki profiles. I don't have clear ink base, but I found a very effective way to neutralize this gloss differential: use the GO option=auto to cover the print with the GO. This way the gloss differential not only will be neutralized, but by using this layer of GO to cover the print, the dye will be partly sealed with the GO, so it is more protected by the influence of ozone and other destructive gases and the Fujitsu Drylab inks are very fade resistant, comparable to Epson Claria Photographic Dye ink.

Just made some prints with this dye ink mix in my Epson R2000 and I could not have more brighter and more vivid prints compared to my pigment printers. Beginning this week I made an earlier dye ink mix using cheap generic Epson compatible dye ink and printed a few test prints for fading tests in the sun and today I did the same with the Fujitsu DL dye ink (including this diluted orange mix, due to the high strength dye been diluted down with GO to correct for the hue). And now let Mother Nature do her work and see how these two sets of pictures are doing when bombarded by UV and penetrated by ozone.

I am pretty sure after a few months the generic dye ink mix will be significantly faded and the DL ink mix prints will be as vivid and bright as today.