Which printer is the most ink efficient?

[darnellbarber]

Hello everyone, I run a small business from home and print a great deal of flyers every week. After doing some research on the net I read that Canon printers are the most cost effective on ink.

If my findings are correct. Is there an ideal model? And I suppose how much are the ink cartridges.

Currently I use an hp7210 which is costing about 70.00 dollars weekly to keep up with my demands.

Thanks

 

[fish]

The HP7210 can easily be refilled - with that print volume you should have a few spares ready to go and refill when low. I have been refilling my 7210 (96 and 97 cartridges) but have lost the ink level monitoring as I only use one set over and over - their chip determined that the cartridge should be empty and gave me a warning. Other than that, refill and keep going until the built-in print head crashes.

 

[darnellbarber]

Fish thanks for the reply, ok I do have a question on refills. I have read the photo print quality is noticibly different. Part of my service is that I print 4x6 photo's.

What is your opinion on this? Again, thank you.

 

[fish]

Photo quality is as good as OEM (IMHO). Just use a good quality ink to minimize clogs as it is really a pain to clear. Problems usually occur when you are in the middle of a print job and I don't like stopping to fix. Inks from Alotofthings, Image Specialist, Hobbicolors (Canon) are usual candidates.

Colors may be a bit different, but not a whole lot off. You can profile your printer to get what you want (although this is an additional step.

Expect 3rd party inks to fade faster than OEM though - I ran a simple test with InkTec refill along with OEM HP 56/57 and 96/97 and had much faster fading with the InkTec, but have not had any clogs with their ink. I may be switching to MIS (presently using Alotofthings/Formulabs) for my three Canons because of the fade issue. Do a search and read up on Grandad's fade test with OEM/other inks - very helpful information.

I use my HP's for general purpose text printing (which also includes photos in reports) and the Canons for photos and CAD drawings (no pigment black in printers for text). At the current price of printers, you may want to check out a Canon for the color and photo work. You can easily print to two printers from one computer - I also print on two simultaneously when in a rush to get output.

Oh, also use decent paper as I found that fade is incredible on bad paper - the free stuff that came with Photoshop Elements software faded in a matter of weeks.

Good luck if you decide to refill. Save tons of $ and easier than made out to appear.

 

[darnellbarber]

Fish thanks again, I am sorry I did not reply sooner. Your information has definately been extremely helpful.

Darnell

 

[ghwellsjr]

Expect 3rd party inks to fade faster than OEM though - I ran a simple test with InkTec refill along with OEM HP 56/57 and 96/97 and had much faster fading with the InkTec, but have not had any clogs with their ink.

How did you do your simple fade test?

I am using Inktec specifically because it showed the best fade resistance in this test:

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

I don't think Grandad's tests included Inktec.

 

[fish]

ghwellsjr,

I printed a graduated color chart using OEM HP 56/57, 96/97, and Inktec on photo paper (three prints). I left one close to a south facing window sill, one exposed to living room indoor flourescent light, and kept one in a drawer. Within a month, Inktec black (lighter gray shade) started to change with a purple cast.

I am now 1 year after printing and comparing with the print stored in the drawer:

- Indoor test was lost with my wife's house cleaning.
- Print stored in drawer have colors that appear to be as good as the day printed.
- All Inktec colors have faded a lot (I don't know how to quantify how much), but don't think I need to.
- HP 56/57 quite good, but with some fading in the blue and cyan.
- HP 96/97 almost as good as stored print except very slight fading in cyan.

Paper used was a swellable (I think) by Kodak.

Nothing super scientific or as comprehensive as Grandad's test, but was for my own use and education.

fish

 

[Grandad35]

It is very simple to print samples and to fade them using our setup - that's why we published the setup details. 4 days on a Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) is sufficient to fade most dye based inks sufficiently to get a comparison with our sample base. Using a light bulb also removes the effects of an overcast sky, the latitude, the time of year, etc.

 

[fish]

Grandad35,

Thank you for the response (and all of your work). My test was only for the Inktec refill and was not, at the time, interested in repeatability or comparison in other inks. I should institute some controls if any future comparisons are to be made with other inks (but I have your testing for that!).

fish

 

[darnellbarber]

Ok, now for my final question. Again, please bare with me you are talking to a complete novice on this subject.

These refill kits, with the testing that you have done which one do you recommend? Is this something I can get at Walmart, Office Max...?

I suppose I do have a slight concern with fading. One of the features that I offer is people can email pictures... photo's we print them on the 4x6's for inmates... So, it is safe to assume they will see a good deal of flourescent light...

Thank again, I am truly surprised in the amount of research and thankful someone took the time to help fight this ongoing battle...

Darnell
www.voiceforinmates.com

P.S. I could not seem to find Grandads page.