Canon is the worst for color variations

[mikling]

What do I mean? We know that Image Specialists inks are reputed to be one of the more accurate sets for colors. So I decide to take a look what the range is for Canon from their catalog. It becomes very apparent in looking at the ink range that the "required" inks are rather broad compared to HP, Lexmark and Epson. This makes me think that many vendors of Canon "compatible" inks are really just "throwing" in something they already carry and not necessary carry the correct matched ink ( The Goodenough syndrome prevails). I think many vendors find the breadth of variations too tedious.
That's what I meant.

 

[fotofreek]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the ink range. I use MIS inks in my Canon ip5000 and i960 and they are very close in color to OEM inks. MIS inks are reputed to be Image Specialist inks. The bci-6 carts and the OEM inks they are filled with have been used unchanged in several generations of Canon printers for years. For these years there is no "range" of inks. The new series of printers which include the ip4200, 5200, 6600 claim to use inks that are more resistant to fading, but I have read that the only color that is somewhat different is magenta. If we are to assume that the entire ink set is different, Canon could now be considered to have two distinct sets of inks only. Epson, on the other hand has gone from dye-based inks to several generations of pigment-based inks. Printer manufacturers other than Canon have a whole range of sizes and types of cartridges as well, where Canon, on the other hand has used a fairly limited number of sizes of carts.

 

[websnail]

Just a quick note...

I'm using image specialists inks from both Gemini colours and MIS and noted that the iP4000 shares Pigment Black, yellow and cyan inks with the iP4200 but that both have different Magenta and Photo black formulations..

With both printers churning out the same stuff though I haven't noticed any colour differentials but will endeavour to check more in future.