Which black ink damages the Epson ink switch valve?

[mikling]

Even when no particles are involved, for example domestic water, valves used sufficiently enough will wear out. So it is not necessarily the ink.

Epson was forced into this arrangement because year after year, their K3 printer reviews would have a negative point of having to "Manually Switch Blacks". The customers were asking for auto switching. Now the same customers are complaining about the switch mechanism failing. This is too funny. Have All Blacks always loaded and their electronic cost increases because magically 8 bits = one byte and all electronics are built on this factor. Also, the reviews would come in that the printers waste the unused Black ink. Magically, they retained the manual switching on Wide formats because typically more of these machines are used for dedicated functions and their owners are more aware of the situation.

The question about Epson and Canon creating blacker blacks comes down to CMY additions in the black. Not necessarily that the black is blacker itself. This is clearly evident in for example the Pro-1000 and Pro-10. The pure OEM black ink on the Pro-10 is actually darker than the pure OEM Pro-1000 Black ink. Yet the Pro-1000 can lay down a blacker black......the machines needs the super gamut of the inks which I had recommended to retain as OEM in the 1000. This is but one reason to retain the richness of the print.

Aftermarket inks generally are weaker than than OEM in their gamut and this affects the "blackness" of the print, even in areas you would not normally expect. So unknowingly many ink people are trying to regain the richness of the print, by trying to use blacker black when it is the other colors that are lacking. Interesting, no?

Matte Black ink has to have larger particles. It only makes sense. You do not want the particles to seep too deep into the media, you want some of it to stay exposed. PhotoBlack ink particles will seep too deeply into the media and will be covered by it. Keep this is mind. On good photoblack ink and matte black ink, the same carbon particles are typically used. So when you put Matte particles on coated papers that have fine pores, a lot will stay on the surface and will rub off mechanically. Matte Black and PhotoBlack appearance can vary with the brand of paper. That is one reason why the blackness is specd with a specific paper because it is paper dependent and ideally is optimized for some and not others.

Ink chemistry and engineering involves a lot of compromises.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

The question about Epson and Canon creating blacker blacks comes down to CMY additions in the black.

I can confirm this for matte black inks - Epson is doing it, and Canon as well.
The old IP4000, with cartridges without chips, would not recognize a cartridge missing , so you could continue to print w/o the big black cartridge, and it continued to print text with cyan with normal paper selected. The paper black pigment ink as such is printing dark brown, not really black, and this improves visibly with the addition of cyan, improving the black level and neutralizing the brown to a more neutral black.
There is a similar effect with the matte black of the P400, if you refill this matte ink channel with a cleaner you see that the driver is adding cyan to the print output, neutralizing the brownish tone of the matte black and improving the black level. When printing text with an Epson ET7750/L7180 it is using both the matte black ink and the photo black ink at the same time.
I have not observed such effects on Epson 4 color printers which use the Durabrite pigment ink set , that black Durabrite ink apparently does not need such add-on effects. And I have not observed such driver tricks for photo/glossy pigment black inks either on Epson printers.
I did some tests of black inks some time ago, with a WF-2010W printer which does not do these tricks, the black level of photo black inks vary from company to company - HD inks of Lyson, Vermont ink, PC, Chinese suppliers, Ultramax , Inktec etc. And yes - the paper has a very significant impact onto the black level as well.

Matte Black and PhotoBlack appearance can vary with the brand of paper. That is one reason why the blackness is specd with a specific paper because it is paper dependent

You can get a very good black level luminance of L*=3 on one paper and 6 or 8 or even 10 on some other paper - with the same ink, so it would not help much if you just shop around for the blackest black ink some company is advertising.

 

[Alan G]

Yes, the Epson 3880 does use some amounts of colored ink when laying down a "pure" black. One of the early reviews of the printer ( http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi045/essay.html#20070123 ) showed some magnifications of the ink pattern for both the normal and ABW print drivers. The ABW driver used less of the colored inks than the normal driver which is why it was able to get a different B/W profile. As noted, the paper has a big impact on the black point. In my own testing, Museo Silver Rag had the best black point for the Epson 3880.

 

[mikling]

I can confirm this for matte black inks - Epson is doing it, and Canon as well.
The old IP4000, with cartridges without chips, would not recognize a cartridge missing , so you could continue to print w/o the big black cartridge, and it continued to print text with cyan with normal paper selected. The paper black pigment ink as such is printing dark brown, not really black, and this improves visibly with the addition of cyan, improving the black level and neutralizing the brown to a more neutral black.
There is a similar effect with the matte black of the P400, if you refill this matte ink channel with a cleaner you see that the driver is adding cyan to the print output, neutralizing the brownish tone of the matte black and improving the black level. When printing text with an Epson ET7750/L7180 it is using both the matte black ink and the photo black ink at the same time.
I have not observed such effects on Epson 4 color printers which use the Durabrite pigment ink set , that black Durabrite ink apparently does not need such add-on effects. And I have not observed such driver tricks for photo/glossy pigment black inks either on Epson printers.
I did some tests of black inks some time ago, with a WF-2010W printer which does not do these tricks, the black level of photo black inks vary from company to company - HD inks of Lyson, Vermont ink, PC, Chinese suppliers, Ultramax , Inktec etc. And yes - the paper has a very significant impact onto the black level as well.

You can get a very good black level luminance of L*=3 on one paper and 6 or 8 or even 10 on some other paper - with the same ink, so it would not help much if you just shop around for the blackest black ink some company is advertising.

This raises an interesting question about custom profiling. How does the printer know with aftermarket inks what additions of CMY to add to maximize the black point. Is the black target printed as requested on the target with the OEM mixture of CMY and then BPC is then taken from there.
I am thinking that the black produced by the target is taken as the blackest black that the printer is capable of and even if not optimal then so be it.
The result would not be an optimal solution. I suspect it depends on the profilng software now. I see Argyll will optimize the black as an early routine. Maybe this is what it is doing. An email to Argyll is called for.

 

[Alan G]

This raises an interesting question about custom profiling. How does the printer know with aftermarket inks what additions of CMY to add to maximize the black point. Is the black target printed as requested on the target with the OEM mixture of CMY and then BPC is then taken from there.
I am thinking that the black produced by the target is taken as the blackest black that the printer is capable of and even if not optimal then so be it.
The result would not be an optimal solution. I suspect it depends on the profilng software now. I see Argyll will optimize the black as an early routine. Maybe this is what it is doing. An email to Argyll is called for.

The problem is you are bound by the print driver which controls the ink mixing and lay down. I don't think that the Epson driver (at least for the 3880) permits you to control individual in channels. It's also optimized for Epson OEM inks. The profiling software works with the print driver in the case of a 'simple' RGB printer. I made all my profiles for the 3880 with Argyll and the only way to control black point was through the media selection and then refining this, if desired, by adjusting the amount of ink.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Profiling software packages offer some options how to handle the issue that you may not get neutral black when printing R=G=B=0, you depend on what the driver is actually doing in this case - adding cyan or whatever. Profiling sofware offers some 'corrections', adjustments where the gray axis should e located - e.g. connecting the blackest point with the white point of the paper, or keeping the gray axis as neutral as possible or something in between, the descriptions for these options are not very clear and explanatory what I have seen so far, in the i1 software, or the earlier ProfileMaker of MonacoProfile packages.
Some analysis could be done with Gamutvision which can display some vectors how colors from the boundary of a color space are mapped, aimed at particular locations of a printer profile, but it is not really possible to get some good details out of that. Such mapping vectors are available, as I remember , available as well in the Chromix software, but I won't spend the money for it.

Let me give you an example to highlight the conflict you can get into, Epson printers using the Durabrite pigment ink use 4 colors CMYK as long as you select matte papers, normal paper and similar in the driver, but if you select a glossy paper it just uses 3 colors CMY. When looking to a profile in this case you get this

The darkest point a L=6 is far off the neutral point in the violett range, but the lowest level for R=G=B=0 on the gray axis is at L=13. If you print black RGB=0 you get a dark gray and if you print some dark violett color something like R=5 B=8 you get an even darker tone - a kind of luminance inversion in this range. Connecting the gray axis to the darkest point just would be nonsense in this case, and no gray value would print gray at all, not even close. You are not getting in such a dilemma if you print with a black ink as well, but the darkest point is typically slightly off from neutral, about every black ink has some color tint left.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I don't think that the Epson driver (at least for the 3880) permits you to control individual in channels. It's also optimized for Epson OEM inks.

You would need RIP software to overcome this driver limitation, but this applies equally to the Canon driver, you don't have any access to these driver internals, and it's the same with the transition ranges between the additional colors these printers are using - you can't control the transition between cyan and light cyan or magenta and red etc.