Some suggestions on this forum from a newbie

[jesoonster]

Hello guys, thanks for all the information on your website. I've learned so much about inks. I didn't think that there are people who would go thorugh such extremes to find and use the best inks they can use. I guess there are surprises around every corner ^^

I'm wondering what you guys think about creating a sticky thread that addresses the basic questions that most people are asking. In the near future, I can see senior members on the forum yelling at newbies for asking the same questions that were answered in the past a million X. You always see this happening on any forum at some point in the future.

For starters, the sticky can include:

1) cartridges and suppliers you guys endorse, the printers they have been tested on and links to those threads that show the results of the tests
2) refill inks that you endorse, (brands) and what you guys endorse) and what types of printers they have been tested/used on.

Thx and please tell me what you guys think

 

[Geoexplorer]

You know I was thinking of the same thing. I am a newbie too and when you read this forum thoroughly, some information is redundant. Therefore, I usually read the forum extensively before posting my question, usually just clarifications, or asking about up to date info. Good idea.

 

[Nifty]

Hi, thanks for the suggestion!

I've been thinking about this for some time. Either a thread on the forum or a page on my www.nifty-stuff.com website with just the most important information. The problem is that it would be quite an undertaking and a pretty time consuming task for one, or just a few people.

Any suggestions on how to organize it and get everyone to contribute?

By the way, I'm going to move this to the suggestions part of the forum because it is a better fit there!

 

[fotofreek]

Nifty - these are good suggestions. Maybe have one thread that is strictly held to reports of printer and brand of ink and its successful or unsuccessful use. Or --- maybe one thread that is for the good stuff and one for the bad stuff. For instance, we have had posts about trying the wiredbeans prefilled carts but not enough follow up to make a decision on purchase. Ditto with the Alotofthings carts that didn't feed properly out of the box. Of great interest was the dissection of the carts, etc, and that sort of thing should certainly continue. It would be a great service to all, however, to have a thread that is just for the bottom line. Does it work or not. So - should we have a thumbs up thread and a separate thumbs down thread? Or - will one suffice? Perhaps there should be a catagory called CARTS AND INKS, PERSONAL EXPERIENCE and a subcatagory for each vendor or product. This might also include, not only the quality of products but the responsiveness of the vendors. Posters should be instructed to start a new thread under the main catagory for reporting on a mfgr, vendor, or product that has not yet been started.

 

[Nifty]

One of the problems in having threads like that is when people (and I know I'm guilty of this) reply with "Yeah, I agree" and "Oh, by the way did you notice this other thing off topic..." etc. We all get along so well that we end up having lengthy discussions regarding lots of stuff in one topic (for example the sealing carts thread)!

I've been tossing around the idea of installing a "wiki" application that will allow everyone, as a community, to jointly edit and author an "e-book" with lots of good information. There are of corse pros / cons with this.

I could start a thread that only admin can edit and just post links to the threads that have relevant information? I could edit and update the thread as new threads / information is received. For example, something like:

alotofthings:
forumlink1/link - Description
forumlink2/link2 - Description2

InkGrabber:
forumlink1/link - Description
forumlink2/link2 - Description2

wiredbeans:
forumlink1/link - Description
forumlink2/link2 - Description2


Any other ideas?

 

[fotofreek]

all sounds good to me.

 

[jesoonster]

Hello again everyone. If I may, I would like to offer some suggestions. THe most disturbing thing for me to read is a random user's personal opinion stating how great a certain brand of ink is and how well it matches compared to an OEM ink. 99% of the time, there is always a follow-up post from another person stating how inadequate the ink is. There are many variables that can affect the quality of the prints that both of these users are seeing. Megatoners ink discussion on many forums is a prime example of users on both ends arguing for and against the supplier. I spend hours and hours reading opinions of users without any factual evidence whatsoever to suggest that either group is correct. I think it's very important to back up claims with factual evidence and minimal bias (tests) to determine whether inks are suitable or not. I was very impressed at the approaches that this site and users(mods, etc) use (monitor calibration , using different types of paper,etc). I think it's necessary to provide such data.

THese are the things I would like to see:

1) the best proven inks that are endorsed by this website and where to buy them. (cartridges and refill inks). (Hell, you guys could probably ink up a deal with these manufactuers at some point in the future and make some money to run the forum and buy extra goodies for yourselves.) And perhaps a list of inks that were found to be worse than the inks that you guys endorse. I don't feel there is a need to test every single cartridge out there. Unless there is another brand of ink that gets tested and is found to be better than the current inks that are endorsed, you'll simply keep the list as it is. If someone provides a reasonable amount of evidence that a newer ink that they tested out is better (as good, or slightly inferior but dramatically cheaper, or better) then I'm sure the users of this forum and experts will eventually test it out. If results report positive and the mod/owner of site believes that the test results are warranted, the endorsement statement can be updated along with a link to the thread showing the test results. Any post that simply states an opinion on an ink without factual evidence to back it up wouldn't be considered . I really don't think that a non-(moderator/owner of forum/major reliable participator that mod/owner trusts) should contribute the sticky thread. someone brought up the idea that a thumbs up or down can be used for certain brand manufacturers. Let's say that 75% have thumbs up and 25% have thumbs down or 60% have up and 40% down. I'm sure that that kind of information still wouldn't help most of us in determining whether that ink supplier make ink suitable for our needs. In addition, I could see a flock of false votes coming from the ink suppliers. This is bound to happen in the future if this site gets super popular (which I see happening in teh very near future).

2) the list of options what can be used with the printer ink (types of paper, photo paper, inkjet settings)

3) links to tests that were run for the inks that are being endorsed in #1 and major discussion threads about those inks from many users

4) some COMMON FAqs like:

What is printer clogging, how does it happen, and how can I fix it if it happens to me?

What is pigment ink,what is dye based ink, what does my printer use and why is it important?

How do guys test out the ink? (describe monitor calibration, types of paper afffecting ink results. Hell I didn't know any of these things could be so important until i started reading your posts on this site).

Should I use refill or cartridges? Where can I buy blank cartridges? Are blank cartridges reuseable forever?

Are formulab's, MIS's ink made in the us? Is there a difference in quality between made in USA ink and made in china ink?

Am I guaranteed the same quality of ink if I order from teh same supplier in the future?

Are all compatible inks the same? Why are some so much more expensive than the others?



and something really basic as "the manufacturer says that they aren't responsible if the printer breaks down when using non-manufacturer based ink. What should I do?" (you can probably copy and paste from some sites that sell ink).

Links to Instructions on refilling ink from bottles.
Links on how tests are done and how you should do the tests if you are to make a post with scans from a print using a new brand name of ink that a user endorses.
Links to common printer problems and solutions


These are my suggestions for now. If anyone would like to add more or suggest anything positive or negative pelase feel free to post.

 

[jesoonster]

Speaking of participation, I'm going to be purchasing ink from several places in the near future. I'm interested in purchasing formulab's ink, swiftink (I heard raving reviews about how great the ink is from this place), alofofthings ink, and global-inks.com (who claim on their site to be the only made in usa ink manufacturers which I find hard to believe =\

I'm going to be placing the order today...so when I get used to the testing methods I'll be posting soon about the quality of the two inks compared to the ones you guys endorse. It'll take some time to understand the testing methods and doing it....

 

[drc023]

I took a look at global-inks.com website and noticed several things. They state made in USA, but give no indication as to who makes their ink, they don't list current Canon printers using BCI-6 tanks for either bulk ink or tanks and for the items they do list, the prices seem kind of high. Megatoners is a little difficult to navigate and isn't presented to well, but the prices for what they do have seem to be pretty good. Swiftink had nothing that would make me want to order from them. Poor product selection and prices that are too high. There are several makers of ink located in the US. Sensient-Formulabs, Image Specialists, Repeat-O-Type to name a few and I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of any more at this time. Well known non-US ink manufacturers are OCP and Lyson. If you will look at this forum and also comp.periphs.printers you will find happy customers of several vendors. www.alotofthings.com is my favorite - great prices and service. They sell Sensient-Formulabs ink exclusively - both in bulk or prefilled tanks. Other highly respected vendors are, MIS, a.k.a. www.inksupply.com (I believe they sell Image-Specialists ink) and www.weink.com. They sell Sensient-Formulabs ink in their CRU tanks and a different brand for their bulk ink. Note if you plan to order from alotofthings.com, be sure to do so from their eBay store instead of the web store. The prices are up to 20% lower there. If you are only wanting to order prefilled cartridges and no bulk ink, another supplier I've used several times and can vouch for is www.tylermartin.com.

 

[Grandad35]

Just to add to drc023's comments about Formulabs/Alotofthings bulk inks. I recently refilled with their bulk inks, and this ink has given the most reliable printing of the four non-OEM carts/bulk inks that I have tested to date.

I completely cleaned the print head and every cart before refilling them (this will be the subject of a post in the near future), and even the dreaded "clogged photo magenta" problem (as reported by several people) has been completely eliminated on the three refilled PM carts that I have used to date. When any cart is pulled (even the PM!), there is always a small "puddle" of ink on top of the ink pickup - indicating that ink is being freely delivered to the pickup.

This ink also shows no signs of requiring the nozzles to "warm up" before the printing pattern is solid on any color - I have previously only seen this performance on OEM inks. Another thing that I like is that the ink was delivered in sealed 4 Oz. bottles, even when I ordered 16 Oz of a color. This means that any changes in the ink due to evaporation, exposure to airborne bacteria/ fungi, etc. will be minimized.

The usual cautions apply to this information - I have only printed about 150 8x10 photos so far, and the inks are still new. Things may change as the ink ages or coats the nozzles in the print head. This also does not guarantee that the same performance will be seen in printers with other print heads (mine is an i9900 with a 2 pl drop size).