- Joined
- Dec 27, 2014
- Messages
- 6,061
- Reaction score
- 7,234
- Points
- 363
- Location
- Germany
- Printer Model
- L805, WF2010, ET8550
I visitied a relative a few days ago and we talked about this and that and everything - including his printer.... he was using a Canon printer IP???, several years old which was on the way out - the cyan test field in the nozzle check was almost gone - exactly half of it as a clear sign that the printhead is nearing the end of its useful life. He doesn't like to swap cartridges every time he starts a new print job he told me, it's probably not that bad actually but he just wants a printer - like lasers - to be filled up with consumables for the next 5000 pages, so he bought a Canon G1400 with ink tanks. Since he is on a vacation trip now he gave me the G1400 for the start up preparations and allowed me to do some tests with it...
The G1400 is a no frills printer with a built-in CISS/tank system similar to the Epson L300 type models.
Both models come with 3x70ml ink bottles CMY , the L300 with 2x70ml dye black and the G1400 with 140 ml pigment black -- what a coincidence . Both printers feed the paper from the top, the L300 takes a few more pages in the input bin. The G1400 has almost the size, the depth of an IP4000 but does not have a duplexer, the L300 is somewhat shorter. The printing noise is about the same, the G1400 does some internal action a few seconds after a print job, the paper feed does some clonking noise even in the quiet mode, the L300 is not that active overall.
Both printers are using 3 dye inks CMY , the G1400 a pigment black for text print, the L300 a dye black for text print.
The black dye is used in the L300 driver for printing on normal paper and matte/inkjet papers, the pigment black of the G1400 is only active for normal paper , not for matte/inkjet /other high resolution papers.
The L300 does not offer borderless printing at all which limits its use for photo printing. The gamut with the black dye ink is very good as reported already elsewhere. The printing hardware is the same as in the WF2010W which is a pigment ink printer.
The G1400 does not use the black ink for any photo or other papers at all, the black level of the mixed black from CMY is poor, it does not give any good contrast to photo prints. A borderless print option is available, even for plain paper, but the driver turns off the black ink even on plain paper in this case, borderless photo prints on plain paper are barely recognizable from lack of contrast.
I ran some profiles on the G1400, barely measurable on plain paper, and with a tremendous lack of darker colors on glossy papers, the black level is at about L=22 on a photo paper, barely better than the black on plain paper.
So I did some tests:
I printed the profile target sheet with the pigment ink /plain paper setting onto a glossy photo paper, the black is rubbing off in this case, so I did an overprint with a gloss optimizer to fix the pigments to the paper - that mode yields a tremendous increase in the gamut - specifically in the darker range - an exceptionally low black level of L=3% and great contrast of photo prints (with borders)
I replaced the pigment black with a Canon dye black, as per @martin0reg 's hints to the old BCI1411 cartridges. This allows me to print onto glossy photo paper with the plain paper setting, without using a gloss opt. to stabilize the pigments. Printing text with a dye black on normal paper looks the same as with the L300. The gamut with such a dye black is very good as well on glossy papers with the plain paper setting, with borders.
The G1400 is a CISS type printer, without cartridges, without a sponge in cartridges which may affect and filter the flow of pigment inks, so I replaced the inks in the G1400 with pigment inks left over from some previous test with the IP7250, pigment inks for the Pro10. This allows me to print with an all-pigment ink set similar to an Epson WF-2010W with Durabrite inks. It works fine, photo prints with borders look fine, the contrast and black level are good, and get somewhat better with a gloss opt. overprint. Printing borderless turns off the pigment black, the contrast gets lost, not as much as with the dye inks but very much visible in direct comparison, it does not look very good.
The G1400 is back on the standard Canon inks now and is awaiting the move to its final place of operation.
I printed as well some test sheets for a fading test, the GI-490 dye inks for the G1400 are no Chromalife inks and fade pretty fast, as fast as cheap Chinese dye refill inks for Canon printers. I think @martin0reg got similar results in his tests recently already.
The G1400 is a no frills printer with a built-in CISS/tank system similar to the Epson L300 type models.
Both models come with 3x70ml ink bottles CMY , the L300 with 2x70ml dye black and the G1400 with 140 ml pigment black -- what a coincidence . Both printers feed the paper from the top, the L300 takes a few more pages in the input bin. The G1400 has almost the size, the depth of an IP4000 but does not have a duplexer, the L300 is somewhat shorter. The printing noise is about the same, the G1400 does some internal action a few seconds after a print job, the paper feed does some clonking noise even in the quiet mode, the L300 is not that active overall.
Both printers are using 3 dye inks CMY , the G1400 a pigment black for text print, the L300 a dye black for text print.
The black dye is used in the L300 driver for printing on normal paper and matte/inkjet papers, the pigment black of the G1400 is only active for normal paper , not for matte/inkjet /other high resolution papers.
The L300 does not offer borderless printing at all which limits its use for photo printing. The gamut with the black dye ink is very good as reported already elsewhere. The printing hardware is the same as in the WF2010W which is a pigment ink printer.
The G1400 does not use the black ink for any photo or other papers at all, the black level of the mixed black from CMY is poor, it does not give any good contrast to photo prints. A borderless print option is available, even for plain paper, but the driver turns off the black ink even on plain paper in this case, borderless photo prints on plain paper are barely recognizable from lack of contrast.
I ran some profiles on the G1400, barely measurable on plain paper, and with a tremendous lack of darker colors on glossy papers, the black level is at about L=22 on a photo paper, barely better than the black on plain paper.
So I did some tests:
I printed the profile target sheet with the pigment ink /plain paper setting onto a glossy photo paper, the black is rubbing off in this case, so I did an overprint with a gloss optimizer to fix the pigments to the paper - that mode yields a tremendous increase in the gamut - specifically in the darker range - an exceptionally low black level of L=3% and great contrast of photo prints (with borders)
I replaced the pigment black with a Canon dye black, as per @martin0reg 's hints to the old BCI1411 cartridges. This allows me to print onto glossy photo paper with the plain paper setting, without using a gloss opt. to stabilize the pigments. Printing text with a dye black on normal paper looks the same as with the L300. The gamut with such a dye black is very good as well on glossy papers with the plain paper setting, with borders.
The G1400 is a CISS type printer, without cartridges, without a sponge in cartridges which may affect and filter the flow of pigment inks, so I replaced the inks in the G1400 with pigment inks left over from some previous test with the IP7250, pigment inks for the Pro10. This allows me to print with an all-pigment ink set similar to an Epson WF-2010W with Durabrite inks. It works fine, photo prints with borders look fine, the contrast and black level are good, and get somewhat better with a gloss opt. overprint. Printing borderless turns off the pigment black, the contrast gets lost, not as much as with the dye inks but very much visible in direct comparison, it does not look very good.
The G1400 is back on the standard Canon inks now and is awaiting the move to its final place of operation.
I printed as well some test sheets for a fading test, the GI-490 dye inks for the G1400 are no Chromalife inks and fade pretty fast, as fast as cheap Chinese dye refill inks for Canon printers. I think @martin0reg got similar results in his tests recently already.
