Can DURABrite printers be used for photo printing?

[Ink stained Fingers]

I never felt the need to swap drivers this way, I was and I'm running a WF2010W with dye or pigment inks, just with separate cartridges, and a l310 with pigment inks and a L382 with dye inks. WF2010W prints with dye inks are close to prints with the L382, I'm doing icc profiles for all inks and papers I'm using .

And driver for Pigment ink do use ink set completely different than suitable driver for Dye ink set.

So I cannot confirm the print output is completely different - if I use dye inks on a Durabrite printer or pigments on a dye ink printer and compare prints with dye inks or pigment inks from both printer types.

 

[CarecaIII]

Hi,

I have an Epson WF 7720 printer.
With the original cartridges I was able to print discreetly on photographic paper, while I cannot find cartridges compatible with at least acceptable quality: the colors seem more dull.

How could I try to improve?

The photo above is printed in letterpress on Fujifilm paper
The second is printed with original Epson cartridges on Canson paper

The third with Jarbo cartridges with settings equal to the originals always on Canson paper.
Since there is a large dominance of magenta I attenuated (-10) in the fourth photo the one below.

I have read the whole discussion, but I still have not understood well.
Which compatible ink do you recommend to use for better photos? Thank you.

Thank you.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

With the original cartridges I was able to print discreetly on photographic paper, while I cannot find cartridges compatible with at least acceptable quality: the colors seem more dull.

That's generally a problem - suppliers won't promise you that colors of 2rd party cartridges would come close the OEM cartridges. And there is another problem with some - you don't even know if you get pigment inks instead of CMY dye inks which makes it worse.
But let's start with some details - your WF7720 is an office oriented printer mainly for use with plain paper, and the Durabrite pigment inks are made for this type of application, pigment inks primarily for photo printers are in the Ultrachrome ink family. These inks are supposed to dry fast so that they don't leave traces on the rollers in the duplexer.
Durabrite inks when used for printing onto glossy papers exhibit more signs of bronzing - color changes against reflecting light - and may show gloss differentials between colors and the paper base - all depending on the paper used.
What can you do - you have two choices when doing refill - you use another pigmented ink - compatible with the Ultrachrome inks - or you switch over to dye inks which give you a better look on glossy papers. And if you use a photo pigment black or a 4 color dye ink set you can print with the matter paper setting onto glossy photo papers, that gives you a much better and neutral black since the black is not mixed anymore with the C and M inks.
And if you do all this you still need to take care of the color corrections - the best way would be the creation and use of a icm color profile. The driver would not know that you use such different inks, so color corrections via the driver adjustments won't give you the best results.
Please attach your images directly to your postings - there is an 'Attach files' function at the bottom of the edit window.

 

[CarecaIII]

Thanks for the explanation.

Which inks do you recommend to use that give the best results with my printer?
Can I use 2 sets of cartridges: one with dye colors for when I print photos and one with pigments for when I use the document printer?

Thank you.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Yes, you can use 2 cartridge sets with pigment and dye inks. I don't know where you are located and whether you have a range of local ink suppliers.
There are various sources you can use - InkTec as a large Korean company is selling their inks worldwide, in cartridges and in bottles for refill, you may have a local distributor for these inks, the pigment inks - Durabrite or Ultrachrome compatible pigment inks are o.k, the dye inks are at quite a low pricing level and the UV7ozone stability is not very good of those dye inks - all Epson compatible.
Or you can look for genuine Epson inks - the T113 inks of the ET5800 printer come in bottles and are pigment Durabrite like Epson inks. And the 106 inks for the ET7700 are in bottles as well and are the best Epson dye inks you can get. Numbers may vary if you are located in another Epson sales region. You need to check pricing and availability at your location.

 

[CarecaIII]

I found the Epson 113 at 15 euros per 70ml bottle, which equals 7 cartridges per color.
Do I get the same colors as the original cartridges by putting this ink in refillable cartridges?
Because, if you see above in photo 2, the color of the original cartridges does not seem bad to me.

I found InkTec for much less. Are the colors similar to the original cartridges?

To change from pigmented cartridges to dye and vice versa, is it enough to replace the cartridges or is it necessary to first use cleaning liquid for the print head?

Thank you.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

The original ink is a pigment ink, if you switch to dye inks it is probable that you get a different look of the colors, you may try to adjust that via the driver but a profile would do a better job in this case.
I'm not flushing the printhead when switching inks, the printer will do a cleaning cycle anyway when changing cartridges, and you may print a purge sheet as well, and there is not much ink in the internal channels in the printhead itself.

 

[CarecaIII]

Ok. I will try in the coming months in the order:
1. Pigmented InkTec
2. InkTec dye
3. Durabrite T113
4. Claria HD T106

Until I find the ink that satisfies me. What do you say?
Thank you.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

That's a very good selection indeed, please let us know your findings, your comments from your tests.

Please let me make a few more comments - your printer is designed for office type printouts so there are some limits in comparison to a photo printer - the droplet size is not as fine as it is with a photo printer, the driver may not give you the best for photo prints, if you use the highest quality setting print speed is getting rather slow. But taking that into consideration you'll get pretty good printouts.
The InkTec dye and the T106 inks are dye inks - CMYK - (do not use the 105 pigment black) they come with a dye black which can be used on photo paper and on matte/inkjet paper, you need to select the normal paper or matte/inkjet paper in the driver. If you use the glossy paper setting you'll get prints with a black , mixed from C and M, and with a tint - try it so that you can compare the effect.
Pigment inks come in different flavours - the difference is mainly the black ink - the Epson T113 is a Durabrite equivalent and the black ink is only usable on matte papers, you can wipe it off from glossy surfaces - give it a try so that you see the effect.
InkTec is supplying various ink types - inks which are Durabrite compatible with a matte black ink with the same limitations.
InkTec is supplying as well pigment inks for Epson photo printers like the P600, R3000 and similar, and these inksets come with 2 types of black inks - one for glossy papers and another one for matte papers , these inks are optimized for the resp. surface giving you the best black level. You should know these details when you order the inks.
There is no difference for the CMY inks between matte or glossy surfaces. Go and test it out, as well with the different driver settings.

And I recommend you to use a 'neutral' test image which is not adjusted to taste (on the monitor) at your computer, a test image of which you have an idea how the colors should look like. I attach such a test image, but there are plenty more on the internet if necessary.

 

[CarecaIII]

Thanks for all the explanations.

I will publish the report of the evidence just available.

See you soon.