Which companies supply the higher quality non-OEM inks for Canon printers?

[arw4]

That's pretty easy - the black ink type selection goes by the paper type you select in the driver - normal paper - pigment black, same for matte papers - glossy , silk, semiglossy etc papers are used with dye black inks. There may be some tricky deviations from that rule with some Canon printers - e.g. if you select automatic duplex printing the driver switches to the dye black, or if you print borderless on normal paper it may switch as well to the dye black. The ink selection is not context dependend of your document you want to print - like using pigment inks for text and dye blacks for photos on the same sheet - no.

Ah, now that is interesting and useful information. Thank you for that.

So, following on from what you say, if I were to print text and photograph on plain paper (remember this is theoretical!) then the blacks in the photograph would actually be produced using the pigmented black, and not the dye black? This is certainly food for thought. So which gets selected for high resolution coated paper. I like using this stuff for a lot of my printing tasks because it's great for text, graphics and photographs.

As for printing sheet music, I have found through trial and error that the best results are obtained by using the "standard" quality setting on high quality plain paper. It seems to produce a deeper black than if printed using the "high" quality setting in the printer driver.

 

[arw4]

It’s not always the print driver that works out which black ink it will use, you can make the decision yourself by selecting which media to use and that will over ride both the Application and printer’s choice.

There’s more to this than meets the eye, the App. you print your file from also makes a difference, a text document with graphics, in a Word file will use pigment black, but the same document printed in PDF file can use both blacks, but only if your media is set to plain paper, any other media setting, then only photo black is used, regardless of which App you use.

There are lots of variation in how the printer and Applications determines which ink is used, for instance a Vector file will usually use pigment black while a raster file will use photo black, so where does that leave the plain ordinary text file ?

While text may look like a Vector file but in fact it’s a bitmapped image, so by right it should always use photo black, and in a PDF file it mostly does, but in a Word file it doesn’t, and Canon printers will use both blacks mixed for a Duplex document, confused yet !

Lots of other Applications have many variations, that why your text may not look as black looking in some file formats, while in others, its very black, Applications used for photos can also cause this effect..

What’s not commonly known, with some Canon Pro printers is, they mix matte/photo black on some glossy surfaces to get a deeper black when required, this is borne out by the levels of black ink used in a long print run...

Wow, thanks for sharing that information, The Hat. It's always a pleasure to hear from you. There's a lot there to digest. I can feel a spot of experimenting may well be on the cards at some point in the near future.

So on the basis of what you say:

It’s not always the print driver that works out which black ink it will use, you can make the decision yourself by selecting which media to use and that will over ride both the Application and printer’s choice.

And assuming I am using plain paper, how can I make the decision myself? In other words, which selected media produces pigmented output, and which selected media produces the photo black printouts?

 

[PeterBJ]

As for printing sheet music, I have found through trial and error that the best results are obtained by using the "standard" quality setting on high quality plain paper. It seems to produce a deeper black than if printed using the "high" quality setting in the printer driver.

I guess the high quality plain paper is high resolution paper? This paper is treated like photo paper by the printer driver, so dye black is used in stead of pigment black.

 

[arw4]

I guess the high quality plain paper is high resolution paper? This paper is treated like photo paper by the printer driver, so dye black is used in stead of pigment black.

That makes sense! But interestingly, I can already select "high resolution" paper as an option instead of plain paper.

 

[palombian]

@palombian --

I am not sure why the talk about the Pro-9500 and the Pro-10 which are all pigment ink. The OP lists his printers as



These are all primarily Dye-based colors with one Pigment Black cartridge.

Probably the reason I didn't type that the KMP Pigment was just for the PGBK cartridge of these printers and not the CLI's. What else would it be for?

Sorry, I had to check that .

Personally I do not consider these printers as midrange, they have the same printhead (and probable the whole printing engine) as under 50 EUR models.

 

[arw4]

Sorry, I had to check that .

Personally I do not consider these printers as midrange, they have the same printhead (and probable the whole printing engine) as under 50 EUR models.

I can live with that! But I find that the printers I do have are quite satisfactory for my requirements. As I mentioned previously, I'm not looking to sell prints or achieve near perfection.

 

[The Hat]

And assuming I am using plain paper, how can I make the decision myself? In other words, which selected media produces pigmented output, and which selected media produces the photo black printouts?

Regardless of which paper your printing on, you can set the printer to something else, so if you set the Media to plain paper then your printer will exclusively use pigment black every time, even if your printing on high quality paper.

But be careful because printing on glossy paper and choosing plain paper in the printer Media setup can result in a bit of a mess, the pigment ink may wipe off the paper surface, and the KMP pigment black is the blackest black you can use on plain paper...

 

[stratman]

This following is what I compiled for my Canon MP830 and may apply entirely or in part to your printers.

PGI-5 Pigment Black Ink is used ONLY For:
- Plain Paper Text (monochrome and grey scale)
- Envelopes
- Transparencies
- Duplex Printing On Plain Paper
- Camera Direct Printing on Plain Paper

CLI-8 Dye-Based Color Inks are used anytime color is printed and is used exclusively for:
- All Photo Paper types (including when Duplex printing)
- High Resolution Paper
- T-shirt Transfers
- CD-R's
- All Borderless Printing, on both PhotoPaper and Plain Paper

 

[arw4]

Regardless of which paper your printing on, you can set the printer to something else, so if you set the Media to plain paper then your printer will exclusively use pigment black every time, even if your printing on high quality paper.

But be careful because printing on glossy paper and choosing plain paper in the printer Media setup can result in a bit of a mess, the pigment ink may wipe off the paper surface, and the KMP pigment black is the blackest black you can use on plain paper...

Thank you for that. I shall take heed of your cautionary note! Sounds like I already have the right settings for my sheet music then, although I suspect it possibly switches to photo black or a combination when "high quality" is set in the driver settings. I believe the high quality setting is usually not recommended with plain paper in any event.

 

[arw4]

This following is what I compiled for my Canon MP830 and may apply entirely or in part to your printers.

PGI-5 Pigment Black Ink is used ONLY For:
- Plain Paper Text (monochrome and grey scale)
- Envelopes
- Transparencies
- Duplex Printing On Plain Paper
- Camera Direct Printing on Plain Paper

CLI-8 Dye-Based Color Inks are used anytime color is printed and is used exclusively for:
- All Photo Paper types (including when Duplex printing)
- High Resolution Paper
- T-shirt Transfers
- CD-R's
- All Borderless Printing, on both PhotoPaper and Plain Paper

Thank you for taking the trouble to forward this information. I would imagine your findings can be similarly applied to my printer. I shall use this as a useful reference. Thank you.

I note you have two printer models listed in your profile - a MP830 and a Pencil. I was thinking of switching to a Pencil myself. From what I remember, they are very frugal when it comes to ink consumption, thus very cheap to run. And they run even more frugally on unleaded!

I like your style.