I tried some 3rd party pigment inks in a WF, black is Matt, doesnt look great, replace ink or look for new printer?

dunk

Newbie to Printing
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EPSON WF3520
Thanks for the follow up messages.

I received the Canon G550 yesterday and have been trying it out.

It is not that easy to set up, I had issues with it taking paper and feeding it out without printing.

After some time I found that it somehow measures the paper size and if it is not exactly matching to the settings on the computer it fails to print and give an error. I found a setting in the menu something like ignore paper size, I also updated the firmware. It is now ok 90% of the time, sometimes I find it helpd to have 2 sheets in the feeder, maybe the weight helps it feed somehow.

The results I am happy with, it feeds small paper ok, quarter of a US Letter size no problems.

The quality on Matt paper is very similar to the Epson WF3520, theres not much difference, but the Epson only prints well on matt with my matt black ink, its bad on glossy, and does not feed small sheets. Also the Epson is not profiled so the colours are very wild, I have sent off a profile sheet to Permajet as they do a free one, so it will be interesting to compare with a profile.

On Semi Gloss the Canon works well, the quality is dependent on the source photo and processing rather than the printer, the limits of quality are very high.

I am happy as I can use the Epson for really cheap printing with my Ink Experts inks which cost £20 for 4 x 100ml on larger matt paper eg A5, A4 and use the Canon for my purpose of "archiving" my digital photos of which I have maybe 15 years worth!

Re the Brother A3 printer, yes I think the quality of the prints on a work type printer are good, the extra colours dont make a huge difference.

Re the conditions and the paper type, the test I found is for the exact same inks and the exact same paper that I have bought in bulk, so it should be good, and there is not to much pollution where I live.

Most of the photos are probably going to be in an album or a box, not on display.

It has worked out well for my needs.

Hoever (assuming the profiling works) I could probably have got away with just using the epson and using 2 sets of cartridges, one for dye eg Claria ink, and one pigment. The quality really is very close, but I would have had to print at A5 minimum size, and also maybe not on thick paper as the epson prefers lighter weight paper. I have to push start the thicker paper into the epson which is not ideal.

I've ordered some cheap 180gsm matt paper to try in the Epson, I think that might work well.

I will try and post some comparison photos on here of Epson CMYK vs Canon CMYKRedGrey when I get the profile back for the Epson.
 
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