Ecotank pigment printer vs ecotank dye printer

[Kallia]

that's how the thread started off - looking for the most fading performance - regardless of price - which you get with pigment inks.



this changes very much the picture - yes - you get good fading resistance with 106 inks, and as well with Canon printers , you have a wider choice of printers with the A4 format in this case. And there is another question which could influence your printer choice - what is your overall printing volume - if it is rather high you would get quite a handling convenience and a price advantage over cartridge type printers with the ET7750 running the 106 inks. If you choose Canon do not go for refill and 3rd party inks, they don't give you any adequate fading performance compared to the Epson Claria/106 or Canon Chromalife inks, Chromalife genuine inks are at least as stable as Epson Claria inks.
If you go for Epson you rather should choose the ET7750/L7180 instead of the L7160, the A3 model comes with a more versitile rear paper bin, it takes about 10 sheets, the rear bin of the L7160 is only for manual bypass feeding - you start the print job and the driver tells you to insert the paper - one sheet - , you cannot load it upfront.

And I am sorry I forgot to tell you that I will print rather high volume of pictures. So I mind the price of inks.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

if you print volume you may have a look as well to the L805 or L1800 if these models are available in your country, these are A4 or A3+ photo printers with ink tanks, and you may use the 106 inks on these models for best fading performance, but these are still printers with dye inks.

 

[Kallia]

if you print volume you may have a look as well to the L805 or L1800 if these models are available in your country, these are A4 or A3+ photo printers with ink tanks, and you may use the 106 inks on these models for best fading performance, but these are still printers with dye inks.

Thank you very much for your suggestions! What if I go crazy and buy l3150 and put in 113 ink? I googled about this printer that could take pigment. Is not very good printer but maybe worth the experiment? Is only at €180 printer, I don’t have money for spent but I am very curious to find out if it works. What do you think?


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[stratman]

What if I go crazy and buy l3150 and put in 113 ink?

I don’t have money for spent but I am very curious to find out if it works.

If you do not have much money to experiment then purchase a printer already known to provide good results.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

If you want to spend €180 for a test - o.k. - it's fine with me because only you can decide whether it meets your expectations. The print mechanism with 180 +3x59 nozzles is produced by Epson in millions of units since 10+ years, and yes - it takes pigment inks - Durabrite - in the resp. lower end workforce models and it may as well work for your needs. But there are possible limitations - it prints very slow if you choose a higher print quality , the paper feed mechanism does not really like heavier/thicker paper, you most likely will need specific icm colorprofiles since you are using the printer in a rather non-standard configuration. And you may need some practice when it comes to clogged nozzles - nozzle flushing and cleaning of the tubing if you may go back to dye inks. I did such tests on my own risk and reported them already here, but I'm rather reluctant to recommend such changes just like that without a word of caution, it may not work for everybody the same way. And be aware that the Epson 113 ink is designed for office type printers and matte/normal paper, there is a higher risk of bronzing and gloss differential effects on glossy papers than with pigment inks in photo printers - e.g. P700 pro Pro-300. So it's up to you how you spend your money.


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[Kallia]

If you want to spend 180€ for a test - o.k. - it's fine with me because only you can decide whether it meets your expectations. The print mechanism with 180 +3x59 nozzles is produced by Epson in millions of units since 10+ years, and yes - it takes pigment inks - Durabrite - in the resp. lower end workforce models and it may as well work for your needs. But there are possible limitations - it prints very slow if you choose a higher print quality , the paper feed mechanism does not really like heavier/thicker paper, you most likely will need specific icm colorprofiles since you are using the printer in a rather non-standard configuration. And you may need some practice when it comes to clogged nozzles - nozzle flushing and cleaning of the tubing if you may go back to dye inks. I did such tests on my own risk and reported them already here, but I'm rather reluctant to recommend such changes just like that without a word of caution, it may not work for everybody the same way. And be aware that the Epson 113 ink is designed for office type printers and matte/normal paper, there is a higher risk of bronzing and gloss differential effects on glossy papers than with pigment inks in photo printers - e.g. P700 pro Pro-300. So it's up to you how you spend your money.

I want to transfer the graphics to wood too. The wood has a lot of porous. I think pigment is better for this material. That’s why I tend to look for pigment base. I think the dye 106 will be sucked by wood, what do you think? If it 106 is reasonably good on matte surface I will take the l800 printer or l7180 for use with 106 ink.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

aqueous inks won't print on wood, you would need solvent inks, a printer with white inks , a transport mechanism for the wooden plates, something similar to DTG - direct to garment - printers. That's a completely different type of application.

 

[Kallia]

aqueous inks won't print on wood, you would need solvent inks, a printer with white inks , a transport mechanism for the wooden plates, something similar to DTG - direct to garment - printers. That's a completely different type of application.

I am all ready doing it this with a HP photosmart inkjet printer, but the inks it uses are way too expensive and the fade life are 35 years. I want to upgrade and buy something with better quality inks, better performance of ink, better fade resistance and cheaper printings. I know that I want it all and I know that I can’t find perfect printer all in one, but I try to find something similar and try the best I can afford. I can compromise in many thinks, like slow printing, no the best color calibration, and other staff. But I want a reasonable quality ink. I know the best printers are the ones with pigment pro ink, but in long term I don’t know if I can afford the inks price. So I compromise to low quality of durabrite 113 ink. But the printer that uses it is €930+ plus printer, no good for photos, is stupid to give so much money with so much compromised things, I realize it now. So I am trying to find an alternative solution. Thank you so much for helping me.


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[Kallia]

aqueous inks won't print on wood, you would need solvent inks, a printer with white inks , a transport mechanism for the wooden plates, something similar to DTG - direct to garment - printers. That's a completely different type

aqueous inks won't print on wood, you would need solvent inks, a printer with white inks , a transport mechanism for the wooden plates, something similar to DTG - direct to garment - printers. That's a completely different type of application.

aqueous inks won't print on wood, you would need solvent inks, a printer with white inks , a transport mechanism for the wooden plates, something similar to DTG - direct to garment - printers. That's a completely different type of application.

I will write the procedure of transfer print to wood here, in case someone is intersected. You can do it in hard - thick paper too, or other uncoated surfaces. The results are depending of the surface, your stable hands and much luck. Is ridiculous simple procedure.

You print a flipped image on a label paper without the stickers labels on (if that makes sense), you use only the waxy paper that the stickers stick (you have to pull out the sticker before). You may say this is ultra super glossy paper. The paper can’t absorb the ink, the ink sit on it. Then you carefully put the print upside down, on to the untreated wood. You push carefully and that’s it. The print is transferred.

The other way is to print a special transfer paper and the iron it on the wood. This has much more brighter results but it can peel of in the future if something is wrong. A do it for some years now with various results.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm not that much familiar with the various ways to print on wood, metal , glass etc; but you either print directly with suitable inks or use a kind of transfer mechanism, the use of sublimation inks and a transfer sheet is one of those. But the receiving surface must be susceptible to it - it should consist of or contain a significant amount of PE - polyetylen, e.g. cotton + PE fabric for textiles , or you use a kind of pre-treatment - a coating with a special lacquer - a kind of liquid PE - onto which you apply the transfer sheet with the sublim inks. The trick with the sublim inks is that the dye molecules of that special ink move into PE during the heat transfer process , and the PE protects the dye molecules quite well against fading, washing etc. Leaving out one of the important elements will give you inferior results - e.g. no sublim inks - not the correct heat for the transfer process which triggers the sublimation process - no PE on/in the target material . But beyond that I'm not interested much in such a process.