Ink selection problems

[Andraz]

Hello!

my printer (Pro 9500) is now working again, but I have lost so much ink during various cleaning and startup cycles that I am now very low on ink. I have to buy some new supplies.

From what I gather in this forum, the two best options are Octoinkjet and Precision Colors. My current ink is from Octoinkjet and I am very satisfied except for some absorption issues on certain glossy papers. Basically, it's as if the ink won't get completely dry and if I run my finger along the darker areas, I get dark stains on my finger.

I was told that using a GLOP or lacquer would help fix the issue and I am looking for some recommendations about what lacquers work best or how a GLOP setup would work.

I also read of using Matte Black in PBK cartridge to improve black levels and I was thinking if maybe this would be a solution. I could be swapping Matte Black and Photo Black in the PBK slot, while have GLOP in MBK slot. But wouldn't this mean that GLOP would not be applied to the 1.38 margins?

The other option is Precision Colors who have a new inkset that does not have adherence issues (according to the website http://www.precisioncolors.com/C10A.html). But I am not sure if they ship to Europe?

So if anyone can help me with some advice it would be really appreciated. I really hope this will be my last question for a while, I haven't printed anything in the last few weeks and I am getting fed up of various problems or dilemmas I have to solve...

 

[The Hat]

I can’t help with the ink not drying on glossy paper because my I.S. ink does even when I switch the matte black for the photo black, just give the print a little more time to dry and it will be ok.

You can use Glop in a clean Matte black cartridge and then setup a solid image print in Photoshop to cover the page area then set the printer media to plain paper and print using Greyscale.

Alternatively you can use an old damaged print head and a complete spare set of cartridges filled with Glop to print a solid image of dark brown in Photoshop, media set to glossy paper which is what I use to coat all my prints.

Percisioncolors ship ink to the EU on special arrangements, email first to confirm and then you know for certain if your country is included..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I don't think it's just a matter of the ink, you should consider as well an ink limit of the paper, actually of the coating on the paper. The typical coatings cause an 'instant dry' effect from the microporous structure of the coating , the ink with the solvent gets absorbed - but there is a limit to that effect, and once you put even more ink onto the surface you get wet and slow drying areas and even ink puddles. That's all a combination of the coating, the amount of ink, typically more prominent in areas with darkes and mixed colors, and driver settings which control the maximum amount of ink placed onto a given spot, just think about multiple print passes in high quality settings. You can test that quite easily with saturation graded color ramps, on different papers, with different quality settings. And when you keep those patches you can compare them with other patches printed either on a different kind of paper , or with different inks. There is no easy advice to give how to select a paper with this consideration in mind, you need to test that effect yourself.
Just to give you one example - the frequently mentioned and well regarded Sihl/Aldi budget photopaper shows this effect on Epson printers in the highest quality setting, the almost equal paper by Netbit/Aldi offered alternatively with the Sihl paper does not show that effect, and I have found some more of such papers with this effect. Reducing the ink somewhat would not reduce the overall gamut you can acheive with such ink/paper combination since there is another effect as well - more ink does not necessarily give you more color saturation, there is even a point of color saturation reversal - more ink gives less color saturation.
The problem with all desktop like printers, Canon, Epson etc is that you don't have any control over the ink
limit. Only if you would run a printer with RIP software you could do that, and the first thing you do with a RIP is that you run a linearization process per paper to identify the ink/saturation limits and set those in the RIP software.

 

[Andraz]

Ah, so plain paper setting uses Matte Black? That's good to know, thanks!

@The Hat, when you say "solid image print", you mean black, right?

Although since I actually do have a damaged print head, I might as well buy some cartridges and try this method? Are there any advantages/disadvantages? I guess with a damaged printhead, you wouldn't have to refill as often...

 

[The Hat]

You will need an image that’s between 60 and 100 % black, the % amount of black used controls the amount of Glop that the single MBK cartridge can output, but it’s better to use a solid colour image when using all of the cartridges, just like you were printing a photo on glossy paper.

The image colour can be tailored to match the damaged nozzle to get excellent coverage, you can vary the amount of Glop outputted by using the quality settings of Standard/High, the MBK cartridge wont be used at all, but fill it anyway, a big plus is that the Glop doesn’t clog up the nozzles.

The biggest advantage of using two separate heads are that you then have a normal photo printer which can also double as a Glop printer, it also gives you the added advantage of been able to coat some papers before you actually put an image on them, it opens up all sorts of new possibility’s.
This is the colour I use...

 

[Andraz]

Thanks, I'll order some Glop and give it a go...