Q: Is there a way to identify ink ?

[SpideRMaN]

Hi All,

Is there a way or a method to identify good quality Dye non OEM ink ?

Thank You

 

[ghwellsjr]

There are two aspects to a good ink.

1) How well does it match the original manufacturer's ink in terms of how it prints colors?

2) How long do printed photos last?

Answers to these questions can take a very long time and there are a great many different sources of inks and those sources can change their formulas at any time without notice and you can get significantly different results with different photo papers. Here are some links to show an attempt to answer your question:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=4388#p4388

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=12198835

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3125#p3125

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=9604#p9604

One of the best ways to get the answers is to scan these forums for people's comments about various inks. Some people have complained about a particular manufacturer's formulation for one reason or another.

My favorite dye ink is made by Inktec.

 

[SpideRMaN]

I didn't explain myself correctly in the first thread, sorry

What I meant is if there is a way to know if ink (DYE) is ok for a printhead or it will clog/permanent damage to printheads (canon)

some people say if you smell lot of chemicals then it's not good quality ink else if smell is neutral the ink is ok.

i am confused on this subject

Thank You

 

[ghwellsjr]

Several years ago when the smallest dye ink nozzle size for most Canon printers was 2 picoliters, there were reports that a certain ink of a certain color had a tendency to clog in Canon's first 1-picoliter printer. When Canon introduced their first line of printers with the chipped cartridges, they all had 1-picoliter nozzles and I was concerned that there would be a great many more complaints of clogged nozzles but it never materialized. Therefore, I am suspicious of the earlier reports.

Since dye ink is not supposed to have any particulate matter in it like pigment ink does, I doubt that there would be any third party ink that would cause clogging. The only mechanism that I can think of would be old ink that has organic growth in it. If a particular manufacturer had this problem, there would be reports galore and there just haven't been any.

But I would stick with one of the popular inks that have a good track record from the standpoint of matching Canon's colors. Why would you want to try an unknown ink?

 

[SpideRMaN]

Some time ago (before finding you nice people) i was alone in the dark googling for GREY DYE ink which (for me and for some others) was hard to find because very few canon printers used it.

I found some (200ml) on ebay which i bought and am afraid to use. It was not cheap $20 + postage and the seller told me it's made specific for the mp980. The brand (or at least the sticker on the bottle) is ckccic printermate and it smells on the chemical side compered to the almost neutral hobbicolor (which don't sell grey)

Can i trust that grey ?

Thanks

 

[pharmacist]

Chemical smell is not a guarantee whether or not a specific ink is bad or good. Hobbicolors has a rather neutral smell, but Inktec has a particular isopropanol and ethylene glycol smell and Inktec is considered to be a good refill ink. My favourite KMP pigment ink has a chemical smell as well (ethylene glycol) and the quality is really good and rivals original Canon PGI-5 ink in blackness, sharpness and waterproofing.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Some people have used coffee filters to extract particulate matter from ink although I don't know if it would have the results you want for dye ink. They were more concerned with organic growth.

You could paint some with a cotton swab on some photo paper and then after it dries thoroughly, look at it under a microscope to see if there is any particulate matter on the surface as the dye ink will get absorbed into the paper or if you don't have a microscope handy, rub the surface of the painted area with a tissue to see if any particles adhere to the tissue.