Ink Usage

[InkMon]

I am researching ink usage for all types of printers, a bit beyond page yield. I am after ink usage rates for different resolutions in B&W or Colour.

Also maybe someone can answer this. I have two photos each of the same subject one taken with half the resolution of the other. Now I print those photos as they were taken so one photo has just the right size to fill a page whilst the other has a 100% overkill.

How would the printer/driver deliver the ink? Both the same or the higher resolution photo being overlaid in colour due to the higher resolution?
Terry

 

[WhiteDog]

You do not say if these are scans or camera files. It is likely that your software has imposed a default dpi, say 72dpi, with the effect of making one print "too large." Corel does this with scans and it requires an extra software step to resize. All I could ever find about this is that it is an ancient holdover from the 1980's and there is no cure. If anyone has a workaround I would like to know it.

You may be able to change settings. There is no effect on image quality unless you resize to 8x10 with no change of resolution.

If you print with low dpi the printer driver will interpolate data between the dots, so that you will get continuous coverage but poor image quality. Ink usage is determined more by paper choice and manual resets of color intensity than by image resolution going to the printer. This matter has been covered in this forum previously.

 

[InkMon]

Thanks for reply.
I am talking about camera files taken at different resolutions. The reason I ask is for information on the project I am working on. I am trying to gather as much information about ink usage in relation to all types of output and printers used.

I can now interpret the resolution set for the current printout for one file and the resolution for the other and I am trying to assess how ink usage varies as a factor of resolution. IE: does a high resolution print use twice the ink as a file of resolution half that of the other?

I realize that the print driver setting of best quality will use more ink than draft but what if the setting and paper are the same and the difference is the file's resolution. I cannot access the printer's nozzle activity for a printout, I can obtain other attributes of a print such as quality settings, colour/B&W, copies, paper size etc. With this information and that gained from people's experiences with ink use I hope to get as accurate an assessment as possible.

I am searching this forum and others plus any manufacturer's statements. I cannot believe that manufacturers just quote pages per cartridge based on documents you are lucky to see a thumbnail of. I cannot understand why they do not forecast actual ink usage per area of print at different settings based on a balanced colour spread.

This is the final figure I am aiming at with statistics of the spl file to adjust colour variance.

So where do I get information? from the experts here.


Terry