Epson XP-15000: how to mix dye ink with clear ink base to obtain red and grey using CMYK

[Ink stained Fingers]

You are right - there is no wow-effect caused by the red ink, it's a small gradual increase, and you need an image with colors just in this area - and just outside the Fuijifilm ink gamut to see if there is any visible difference at all - give it a try.

 

[pharmacist]

Original Epson Claria HD ink on Netbit Glossy 300 gsm (Aldi), Colormunki profile with 2 optimizations:

Fujifilm Drylabs Dye ink mix (R=80% M + 20% Y, GY= 15% PB + 85% CIB) on Netbit Glossy 300 gsm (Aldi), Colormunki profile with 2 optimizations:

Epson Claria HD profile used for printing with Fujifilm Drylabs Dye ink mix:

E

 

[pharmacist]

Softproofing with profiles: colours that cannot be reproduced by the printer are grayed out.

as you can see: hardly any difference. Note the reds of the strawberry: Claria HD has a slight edge over the mixed Red made with Magenta and Yellow (80 + 20 parts).

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Note the reds of the strawberry:

Yes, there are differences - technically - and - I would not expect that these gamut differences are actually visible in the printouts with both inks and matching profiles as you did it - or just barely because you know where to look for, it's a pretty good performance overall. The softproof on the screen with a higher brightness of the monitor shows such variations stronger than an actual print. The gamut gain with a genuine red is marginal, and I have seen this over time as well with other colors time with various printers using orange or blue or green - mixed inks were astonishingly close to pure inks of that color.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

But if you are interested in some tests you may use the red ink of the Canon G650 Megatank photo printer - the red is available as a bottled GI-53 Chromalife 100 ink at a reasonable price. Canon inks run w/o problems on Epson printers - with dye inks and pigment inks as well; I tested Canon Lucia pigment inks some time ago together with the effects of the gloss/chroma optimizer, this with a P400 and a WF2010W

 

[pharmacist]

Here a scan of a B&W image printed first using the ABW-mode of the Epson XP-15000 (setting: dark), no additional correction in color hue and one using the profile made for the Fujifilm Drylabs Dye mix (R=80% M + 20% Y, GY=15% PB + 85% CIB). As you can see there is hardly any difference in both prints, except the ABW gives better details in the dark shadows, whereas in the profile version the shadows tends to be more blocked.

 

[pharmacist]

But if you are interested in some tests you may use the red ink of the Canon G650 Megatank photo printer - the red is available as a bottled GI-53 Chromalife 100 ink at a reasonable price. Canon inks run w/o problems on Epson printers - with dye inks and pigment inks as well; I tested Canon Lucia pigment inks some time ago together with the effects of the gloss/chroma optimizer, this with a P400 and a WF2010W

Yes I did ordered a set of Epson 106, 114 and Canon GI53 Red inks too. As you have proven the 106 is similar in fade resistance to the 114 and is cheaper, I only ordered the 114 gray ink and the Chromalife 100+ GI53 Red inks, but I do not have any refillables any more, so I have to wait.

 

[pharmacist]

Still experimenting with this printer and I couldn't be happier with the quality of the prints, much better than my previous 1400 and 1500W A3+ printer (CcMmYK) and this printer proves my theory that light colours are not needed to obtain very fine and detailed prints without any visible graininess (variable droplet technology used by Epson for which Canon must use dedicated nozzle rows with smaller droplet sizes to mimic the light colours). Also the 180 nozzles/row improved density over the 1400/1500W 90 nozzles/row enables faster printing and finer micro weaving. Also the ABW-mode is very good and somehow I managed to mix the gray ink so well that the prints are very neutral and detailed.

So to recapitulate:

How to make an CMYKRGy ink set for the Epson XP-15000

You need a dye set of CMYK (for best fade resistance: Epson 104 ecotank ink in bottles or Fujifilm Drylabs CMYK inks)

Clear Ink Base (CIB):

-propylene glycol 5 parts in weight
-ethanol denaturated (96% in strength) 30 parts in weight
-isopropanol 15 parts in weight
-destilled water up to 100 parts in weight

This clear ink base dries quickly on photo paper without pooling and produces sharp and defined droplets and is miscible with dye inks (pigment inks: you can try and see what happens).

Red ink: 80 parts of magenta + 20 parts of yellow
gray ink: 15 parts of photo black (PB) + 85 parts of CIB

for making LM/LC inks for CcMmYK printers: 30 parts of M/C with 70 parts of CIB

 

[The Hat]

The mix that I used on my i9950 for red and green is as follows and are somewhat different.

Red ink 10 parts I.S. Magenta + 50 parts Yellow.

Green ink 10 parts I.S. Cyan + 40 parts Yellow.

These were calculated with the Pantone colour system, using OEM ink swatches as samples.

As these two inks are seldom used on this printer, it were hardly worth buying a whole bottle of each colour, I mixed up 100 ml each ten years ago and still have some ink left in both bottles..

 

[pharmacist]

Canon red is actually NOT red but a light orange, so is the Canon green which looks more like a fluorescent green than a true green. Epson green pigment ink is a bluish dark green. Epson Red is a true Red, because they also have an orange ink (Canon "Red"). I have bought a bottle of Canon GI53 Red, hopefully it is a true red and NOT orangy.