Fading Test Epson 106 107 114 T54C bottled inks

[TomScott]

This is great info!

Slightly off topic I have an old Epson 1400 printer and a set of those are still nearly £100. Technically if you got some refillable cartridges and bought the 107 refill kits will these essentially give the same results as the T0791-T-796?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Epson introduced the Claria inks about 15 years ago with the R265 and 1400 printers , and there are a few variations since then, the latest version is used with the ET-8550 printer - the T114 series. You may have a look as well to the
companion Test report with the 106 and 107 inks here

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/fading-test-epson-106-vs-107-inks.16033/

You may check the pricing for the 106 - 107 and 114 inks in your country - they vary significantly in Germany. The 106 inks perform very well and are the cheapest here. The pricing does not reflect differences in performance. You can use the CMYK 106 inks and add the 107 LM and LC inks if you don't want to dilute C and M yourself.

So yes - I don't see a problem using the bottled inks for refill in your 1400, but this does not exclude potential problems which come from the use of refill cartridges , that can be issues with the chip, ink flow problems and other one-off issues. Don't consider the use of other 3rd party inks for refill - they might be cheaper but can by far not reach the longevity of the Epson inks.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm closing a current fading test now, several papers are part of this test including a LogicSeek glossy paper - a budget paper of the cast coated type, but nevertheless available with a wide range of size and papertype options

https://www.amazon.de/s?k=logic+see...x=logicseek,aps,131&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_6_9

(And you get a nice and sturdy box with every delivery)

I want to show with this posting that not just the CMYK inks are fading but the optical brighteners - OBA - in the paper as well - as fast as the regular inks. You typically find optical brighteners in photo papers of all quality and pricing levels, and the packing of such papers does not tell you about the amount and presence of these OBA's.
They are supposed to increase the perceived level of contrast by shifting the paper white to a blueish tone in the presence of UV light.

The visible spectral response of this LogicSeek paper with OBA's looks like this

The red and magenta lines show the response with UV illumination - M0 and M1 measuring modes - with a peak at 440 nm and a reflectance at about 1.2 - the UV radiation is at about 350 nm - not visible here - is converted into blue creating the high reflectance level. The green line shows the spectral response without any UV light in the light source of the spectrometer. This indicates a dilemma for profiling - do the viewing conditions of a print include or exclude some UV in the viewing light.

The patch sheet was exposed to outside light - including sun - for 3 weeks and a rescan of the patch sheet shows this spectral response now

The lines for light with and w/o UV are very close together and the reflectance is nowhere above 1 but even down to 0.95. This just means that the OBA's are effectively gone and fading even faster than the inks. You find a very similar performance of the OBA's in the other photo papers. Most of the typical glossy photo papers - OEM and 3rd party - carry the optical brightners - you just don't have a choice; I found one exception so far - the HP Premium Plus Photo Paper - CR 674 or CR 672 - carry just a small amount of OBA's. A report by Aardenburg Imaging shows that fading OBA's contribute to a yellowing effect on prints over a longer time, the OBA's don't just disappear.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Since there was a mishap with the original test with some data for the 114 inks I did another test which is now finished after 3 weeks. the test was running with the Epson 106 and 114 inks on 4 different papers - OEM Epson premium Glossy and Canon PT101, a noname Glossy 300 of the RC/PE type and a low cost LogicSeek LS270 cast coated paper.

The fading drifts DeltaE for the 106 and 114 inks are rather similar, I just would buy those inks with the lower purchase price. The Epson premium glossy paper stands out with the lowest values, and followed by the Canon PT101 and Glossy 300 pretty closely. The LS270 kills the good performance of the other papers - the black ink on the LS270 drifts by 16.60 instead of a much lower value below 1 on the Canon paper or around 2 on the other papers.
If somebody is complaining that his prints are fading it may not just be with a 3rd party ink - or even an OEM ink - but the paper in use has such detrimental effect. The worst thing a user can do is printing with a noname 3rd party ink on such cast coated budget photo paper.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm reporting above that the cast coated LogicSeek gloss photo paper is a very bad performer and kills the good longevity characteristics when used with OEM inks , but I'm using such papers as well, not only this one but I used other cast coated papers like LabelHeaven - Hayatec and others when you look back. I did another comparative review here earlier

https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...-budget-level-glossy-papers.14865/post-129485

One unpleasant property is that some brands curl strongly after print as shown in this link - or the gamut is smaller as you might expect - some of these brands are cheap - really cheap but you might get trapped - I have seen offers with a product description and a price similar to 3rd party resin coated PE papers - RC/PE , you are frequently not in the position to identify the papertype just from the description. I'm using such papers at occations when longevity does not matter - e.g. for varying layout sample prints for posters - or at a party when prints may get wet or drop to the floor - for decorative stuff at a party etc . I mention to people specifically that they can get a good print from me or I can send them the image file(s) whatever so I'm not banning such papers at all - there are plenty occasions you can use such papers - you just should be aware of the implications when you buy and use them.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I did another fading test to compare the Epson bottled inks 106 and T54C, this T54C ink is used in the SL-D500 photostation printer

https://www.epson.eu/en_EU/products/commercial-equipment/surelab-sl-d500/p/35832

which is not advertised as an Ecotank-printer but uses the same 70ml ink bottles. And this printer uses as well light cyan and light magenta inks but no red or gray.

I ran the test on 4 diferent papers - Epson Premium glossy - Canon PT101 (glossy) - Glossy 300 as a noname PE/RC type glossy photo paper and a budget level cast coated LogicSeek glossy paper. The T54C inks outperform the 106 inks consistently and deliver a slightly better black level as well on some papers. And it is funny - or interesting to see that the Epson inks - 106 and T54C - perform overall better on the Epson premium paper than on the Canon paper...............The pricing of these T54C bottles is about twice as of the 106 bottles. And this test shows again the effect that the cast coated budget paper can drastically reduce the longevity performance even of the best ink.

I checked the gamuts of these 2 inks as well - they are practically the same - there is no reason to prefer one ink type over the other for the reason of the gamut size.

 

[Werwolf1985]

I'm reporting above that the cast coated LogicSeek gloss photo paper is a very bad performer and kills the good longevity characteristics when used with OEM inks , but I'm using such papers as well, not only this one but I used other cast coated papers like LabelHeaven - Hayatec and others when you look back. I did another comparative review here earlier

https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...-budget-level-glossy-papers.14865/post-129485

One unpleasant property is that some brands curl strongly after print as shown in this link - or the gamut is smaller as you might expect - some of these brands are cheap - really cheap but you might get trapped - I have seen offers with a product description and a price similar to 3rd party resin coated PE papers - RC/PE , you are frequently not in the position to identify the papertype just from the description. I'm using such papers at occations when longevity does not matter - e.g. for varying layout sample prints for posters - or at a party when prints may get wet or drop to the floor - for decorative stuff at a party etc . I mention to people specifically that they can get a good print from me or I can send them the image file(s) whatever so I'm not banning such papers at all - there are plenty occasions you can use such papers - you just should be aware of the implications when you buy and use them.

Hi there! Thanks for your great work, it's really a pleasure, to read your test results with all the inks and papers! As for the CC type papers, i also use the Logic Seek, Labelheaven or Etikettenworld Papers. I am quite okay with the print quality. I assume, it's still better to combine these papers with the Epson 106 ink than to use cheap 3rd party ink? Do you have a direct comparison of cheap ink vs Epson 106 ink on these cheap CC papers? Best regards

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I assume, it's still better to combine these papers with the Epson 106 ink than to use cheap 3rd party ink?

Yes, indeed , it's up to you how much longevity you want to give your prints. The problem is that performance of a 3rd party ink is just not known, and the market is very much fragmented across all countries Most local sellers won't tell you the origin of their inks unless it is some broadly known company like InkTec.
I hope I can get some InkTec ink for a test in the next time - in the next weeks - to run a test of the Inktec vs. 106 inks on a few papers. I have some ink mix of noname inks at home but this does not help in this case.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Do you have a direct comparison of cheap ink vs Epson 106 ink on these cheap CC papers?

I'm currently getting ready for another fading test - with the same papers and inks - 106 vs. InkTec - as in the dark fading test running in parallel

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/fading-of-patch-sheets-in-the-dark.16099/#post-139683

That's OEM and cc papers with 106 OEM and Inktec inks

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

This test - 106 vs. Inktec inks - has to go for another week till the next weekend.