Dye vs pigment for high gloss photo printing

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Other than the whole "pigment is archival" deal, how is the print quality as far as detail and color gamut of pigment vs dyebased printing? As far as I can tell the Epson 1400 (6 colors) is the "most professional" dyebased printer in their line. Epson's models that take additional ink colors are all Ultrachrome/pigment printers. Canon has printers like the Pro 9000 that take Red and Green dyebased inks.

I'm interested in selling photo enlargements. However, neither brand is going to be cost effective to do this so I would have to use refill inks in them. While I was using my R220 with pigment refills, I was quite happy with the quality of the prints. However, printing something like a rainbow with the R220 with pigments vs the R340 using OEM dyebased inks, the brightness of the colors pretty much blew the pigment out of the water. Since the R200-R340 era printers were not Claria/UV resistant, I only sold matte and satin pigment prints out of the R220, mostly art prints and not photographs.

Is the actual color brightness/gamut out of an R2000 or Canon's current desktop pigment line going to be negligible vs a dyebased print, since those are much more of a "pro" printer than a 1400 or is the dyebased still going to have a wider gamut?

 

[The Hat]

I use both dye and pigment Canon printers, they both have good punch and look to me to have the same lovely bright colours
and its hard to know the difference between the dye and the pigment unless it is examined closely.

However if you intend to use 3rd party inks and sell your work professionally
then it would be safer to use pigment ink just for the sake of longevity.

That not to say that you cant achieve very good longevity with 3rd party dye inks
because you can if you use the right paper and that goes double for OEM ink as well.

I dont use my pigment printers for photos at all because I would have to go to a lot of trouble and effort to use good expensive
photo paper just to show off the printers real potential which I am not prepared to do, its just not worth it.

I try to make my printers work for me to get the best out of them rather than the other way round,
it was said that it was like taking a Ferrari to a construction site.

Canon and Epson printers are much the same when it comes to photography in that if you want to get the best from them
then you have to put in a lot of effort, time, paper, setup, colour profiles etc just to achieve the best quality photos from them
and there are no short cuts to be had just pure satisfaction in the end.

Happy Printing..

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

I was hesitant about the aftermarkets but now that they're advertising the Claria equivalent ink is anti-UV I'm less worried about it.

I kind of wish I hadn't bought 2x 1400 (one which doesn't work ) and 1x 1100 and just gotten an R2000 instead. On the other hand I plan on taking the 1400 with pigment on the road and will have less worries if it "walks off" one day at a convention!

I'm probably going to be using Red River papers, I need to order a sample pack and send it off to be profiled.

 

[OutOFtheinkwell]

Just my experience maybe but I'm in a small computer room where my wife and I do all our printing ( and hobby stuff) and the wall I'm facing is covered with all sorts of pictures 99% of which were printed over the last 10 years with all kinds of printers including Epsons, Canons, and HP's. Some of these used pigment inks and many used dye based inks of various brands and I have yet to notice any fading on any of them! In addition for over 5 years we have used Epson printers all using Claria( type) dye based inks to make books of photographs for friends etc. None of those show any fading so far. I'm not saying there isn't a possible fading problem and the outside light is through just one window that hit that wall at times, I'm just saying that for us as hobbyists there has not really been a problem with fading in 10 years and counting. OutOFtheinkwell!

 

[OutOFtheinkwell]

If I may ask a question of the members, there is a problem I have run across with the Epson C88 model 4 color printer model that I'd like to toss out to see if it is anything that has been experienced by other members.
When I started out I bought a C88 and liked it at first and my needs were simpler then. Over several years I ran into problems with this printer that defied my efforts to fix and I bought the same model. Guess I'm a real hard head but over time I ended up with 4 C88 Epson printers before going to another model. The printers are sitting out in my garage at the moment. So here's the deal, all the trouble with all 4 printers centered around the color yellow. While all the other 3 colors worked like a charm the yellow on all 4 machines faded out and disappeared all together. I used every trick in the book to flush, clean , windex, run cleaning dampers etc with some results for awhile but ultimately the yellow keep right on messing up. I'm wondering if this model has an engineering glitch or what? None of the 6 color printers I have owned since that have had a problem like it with any color! That's it, anyone had this happen to them? Please let me know if you have any ideas as to why this happened to just this model! Thanks in advance! Outoftheinkwell

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Could be part of the ribbon cable is strained a little and the control for yellow eventually wears out and breaks on the inside?

I found the C88 color gamut was terrible especially for printing blues, everything looked "navy blue" to me, no luck with bright primary, sapphire, or cyans. I was disgusted that the WF 1100 has not solved these issues since the HP 8500 is a 4-color all-pigment and creates bright, vibrant blues.

 

[OutOFtheinkwell]

Strained ribbon cable was an interesting thought but then ( in all 4 printers?). Possible I suppose but that would seem to indicate a built in engineering mistake for this model I should think.
I don't buy 4 ink printers anymore although one could say the 6 ink Epson 1400 and Artisans are stlll 4 color, but the addition of the lite C and M carts seems to work much better.
For now I'm happy with what I have but one day I may need to go with a remanufactured 3800 or 3850 model Epson. A guy needs to get a new toy once in awhile! Thanks for your input my friends! Happy printing...Outoftheinkwell!