Report on highlighters used on Canon pigment inks.

[ghwellsjr]

One of the improvements that Canon provided in their black pigment ink when they went from the chipless BCI-3eBk cartridge to the chipped PGI-5Bk cartridge was that printed text wouldn't smear when you used a highlighter on it. I have done a little investigation to see if this claim were true and if the same improvement is available in refill inks. It turns out that, yes, it is true that the ink in the BCI-3eBk cartridge smears badly on all types of plain paper when you use almost any highlighter on it and the ink in the PGI-5BK cartridge does not have this problem. But then neither does every type of refill ink that I have tried including:

Inktec for BCI-3eBk
Inktec for PGI-5Bk
Hobbicolors for PGI-5Bk
Precision Colors for PGI-5Bk

However, there is a type of plain paper that smears with all of these inks when you use a highlighter on them and that is HP's papers with ColorLok which is designed to keep color dye inks from smearing if the printed page gets wet. Apparently whatever coating they put on the paper to keep water from smearing the dye ink creates a situation where a highlighter will smear any pigment ink.

This is a real surprise to me and it created a lot of confusion because for a long time I have used the HP Bright White Inkjet paper and I had observed highlighter smearing and assumed it was due to the older Inktec pigment black ink that I use. I did this investigation to find a better ink that would not smear but until I realized that the problem was related to the paper I was using, I had assumed it was a problem with my ink. The other paper with ColorLok is call HP Office. EDIT: It seems now that a great many plain papers have ColorLok applied to them. It's getting hard to find one that doesn't.

This may be the only case where Canon's ink (in the BCI-3eBk) is inferior to third-party inks.

 

[stratman]

Nice pickup with the HP ColorLok paper. Definitely one to avoid if you highlight.

This is a long discussed topic that had little control of the parameters as when one person tests the different inks and papers as you have.

Do you recall what type(s) of highlighter you've used?

I have not used a paper where Canon OEM PGI-5 pigment ink smeared with my trusty orange colored Sharpie Accent highlighter, the only highlighter I've used for years except for rare circumstances. (yeah, I'm that particular about my highlighter)

I have used Hobbicolors black pigment ink with excellent results on Xerox multifunction paper from Costco (IIRC it was 800 pages per pack). Also, Navigator 24 lb multipurpose ultra bright paper from Microcenter is also excellent. I have used some other brands, a couple were HP, some were Staples own brand, some multipurpose while others inkjet specific. Only one smeared highlighter, but it was a long time ago and I don't remember other than I got it from Staples. Maybe it was the HP with ColorLok. I haven't bought paper from Staples for some time, and my supplies have been from Costco and Microcenter with the known good performing brands, so I've avoided smearing.

I have Precision Colors pigment black waiting to be used. My next cartridge will have it.

Some on the forum have discussed the intensity of the black color and the appearance of the font with the aftermarket pigment blacks vs Canon OEM. There have been head to head comparisons of after market pigment black inks on DrukenChannel - http://www.druckerchannel.de/artike...wasserfestigkeit_canon_versus_nachbaupatronen.

A couple of years ago, you and others discussed comparisons on http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=19469.

This is a good topic that has yet to receive a thorough investigation like the super-duper Grandad35 treatment found in this thread - http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2681.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Here are the yellow highlighters I used:
Hi-Liter Retractable (made in Mexico)
Skill Storm
Sharpie Accent (4)
Hi-Liter Retractable (made in China)
Sanford Pocket Accent Fluorescent (2)
Academix Chisel Tip

Now you're probably going to want to know which was the best highlighter. Unfortunately, they gave inconsistent results. For example, I had four Sharpie Accents that produced differing degrees of smearing on the same ink/paper. So I didn't want to conclude anything about the specific highlighters. However none of them smeared on plain paper (without ColorLok) unless the Canon BCI-3eBk ink was used.

Thanks for the additional background information.

 

[stratman]

Nice. I appreciate your reporting on highlighters.

I miss the Sanford Major Accent orange highligther. It had a slightly longer chisel tip that completely covered the space alloted to a line of text in most books and magazines I used them on, unlike the Sharpie Accent which is slightly shorter and may not cover the space in one stroke. The Sharpie also has a sharper edge and may be angled slightly differently such that I get an upstroke at the end of the highlighted line. While this is obviously due to the mechanics of my arm/hand/fingers, it essentially did not happen with the Sanford highlighter.

Like I said, I am particular about highlighters.

 

[qwertydude]

That's why I like using refillable highlighter bodies. I use bulletproof Noodler's Year of the Golden Pig, doesn't smear and is completely waterproof just like the pigment ink I'm highlighting and refillable. Perfectly in the spirit of this forum. I also have Noodler's highlighter orange but I find it's not as vibrant as Golden Pig so I use it less.

 

[stratman]

That's why I like using refillable highlighter bodies. I use bulletproof Noodler's Year of the Golden Pig, doesn't smear and is completely waterproof just like the pigment ink I'm highlighting and refillable. Perfectly in the spirit of this forum. I also have Noodler's highlighter orange but I find it's not as vibrant as Golden Pig so I use it less.

I thought you were pulling our legs, but it's real!

The Communist Pig on the bottle is bizarre and not enticing at all for me, but I think I get where they're coming from - liberty from constantly buying new highlighters.

Found a nice review of the ink and a refillable highlighter at http://officesupplygeek.com/pen-review/need-a-long-lasting-highlighter-for-law-school/.

Who knew such things existed. Kool!

I love the internet.

 

[nche11]

I seldom ever used a highlighter on my printed documents. I am not too concerned about the issue of smearing. Other than the highlighter smearing issue did you see differences among those brands of pigmented black ink? I print a lot of documents and I need high quality. I can't print with color laser. Too expensive. So I constantly look for good quality black pigment inks. Tried a few products bought on ebay very cheap, maybe too cheap and the quality were always not satisfactory. Some of them said premium pigment black on the label but they turned out to be dye black ink still. Should have not expected much for the price of $19 for 16 oz with free shipping. Shipping was almost $10 already. The ink was really water in black color. Had to throw away most of it after using it for about a month.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I am still studying the clogging aspects of Inktec BCI-3eBk, Inktec PGI-5Bk, Precision Colors and Hobbicolors pigment black inks. They all are 100% pigment and do not smear if water is spilled on the printed page.

 

[qwertydude]

Stratitec pigment ink is $29.99 for a pint and is 100% pigment and doesn't budge when dry. It's a high quality ink that I find doesn't clog my printhead as much as even canon oem when left alone for long periods of time.

 

[leo8088]

I discovered something interesting about HP papers not too long ago. My Hobbicolors PMT-BK would dry significantly slower on that paper. If I print multiple sheets I had to remove any sheet coming out of the try immediately so that the next sheet would not stack on it. Or the wet in would stain the second sheet. This did not happen on other papers. Only the HP paper. I don't have the wrap of the paper any more so I can't tell what paper it is except I remember that it is a HP brand office paper.

But, this paper is one that gave the best text quality I have ever got from any other papers. The text was extremely dark, shiny dark I should add. The text was also extremely sharp and crispy. Nothing else could compare with such outstanding text (perhaps only laser prints could). If I see this paper again I will definitely buy many more. I remember it was around $8 a realm of 500 sheets.

Actually there are similar papers out there. I had a few realms I got from office surplus stores that were like the HP paper too. My pigment ink would look very wet when the paper came out of the printer. The text would be wet still and reflecting light so you knew that it was still wet. When it eventually dried 30 seconds later the text would look extremely deep black and reflect light almost. I do not know what made these paper to do that. This may be the reason Canon printer's printing speed can be set to slower which waits for the print to dry before printing the next sheet.

Although this kind of paper is out there but I do not know how and where to look for them. I do not know if highlighters would smear the ink on them. But the text quality printed on them are absolutely awesome. I don't mind to print slowly for the quality. Anyone experienced such paper and know how and where to look for them? I have bought some papers at different prices hoping to run into another one with no luck so far.