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

[arw4]

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!

And this time I shall be going for the high-end model with the Eraser head!

 

[stratman]

 

[arw4]

Okay folks, I have another line of thought I would like to explore regarding my IS inks and the green colour cast issue, so perhaps once again I could glean your knowledge and expertise.

I have about 2 - 2 1/2 litres of IS ink remaining across all five colours, and the cyan predominantly seems to be the culprit. Yes, the inks are getting a bit long in the tooth now, but I am reluctant to just ditch this quantity of ink. BTW, I have ordered some other ink sets to test in the meantime.

Anyway, I've been doing a little experimenting by substituting the IS cyan with a OEM Canon cartridge (I know, extravagant as it is). This has resulted in a substantial improvement. So next up I thought I had better stop this extravagance, and so I substituted the Canon OEM cyan with the cyan from a sample ink set that I received this morning. Result? Well, I've now got more of a blue colour cast problem. Well, at least it makes a change, but I don't really want to be left in the blues!

Which lead me to question the idea of possibly diluting the IS cyan to achieve the same affect as reducing the level of cyan in the driver settings. Any thoughts?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

do you get the cyan that strong on all your printers alike ? or could it be that magenta is printing weak instead ? What does the nozzle check show ? Is the cyan so strong that you cannot reduce it enough in the driver via the color adjustments ?
You could dilute cyan (in theory) but I'm not aware of a suitable dilutant for Canon inks at this time . And you would have to experiment with the mix ratio. Diluting a color will reduce the maximum color saturation .
The more systematic approach would be the creation of icm color profiles for the papers you are using.

 

[arw4]

do you get the cyan that strong on all your printers alike ? or could it be that magenta is printing weak instead ? What does the nozzle check show ? Is the cyan so strong that you cannot reduce it enough in the driver via the color adjustments ?
You could dilute cyan (in theory) but I'm not aware of a suitable dilutant for Canon inks at this time . And you would have to experiment with the mix ratio. Diluting a color will reduce the maximum color saturation .
The more systematic approach would be the creation of icm color profiles for the papers you are using.

It's definitely not a problem with the magenta printing weak. The same colour cast has always existed with the IS batch across all my printers, and once I switch to a set of Canon OEM cartridges, the problem is gone.

Realistically I think the sensible long-term solution is to use the IS ink for general "run of the mill" printing tasks, and correct out the majority of the colour cast using the driver settings. For best output I will switch to a new ink set which I will run on a dedicated printer. I have some inks coming from Octoink, and I shall be looking forward to testing these.

The idea of diluting was just a thought, and I wondered if anyone has been down this route. And if so, what were their experiences? Yes, I take your point about maximum colour saturation. Comparing Canon OEM ink-sets with IS ink-sets using a nozzle check printout surprisingly shows the cyan to be very similar in appearance. The IS yellow looks faded and the Magenta a slightly different shade.

Yes, I also wondered what a suitable dilutant would be. I was just curious to know what the ink manufacturing companies use.

Once again thank you for your thoughts.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm diluting C and M to LC and LM to photo/light inks for Epson printers, but the ink base for Epson is different to Canon printheads, so I'm not sure whether such Canon type clear ink does exist. The best way to assess colors and the acheivable saturation is by measuring and creating an icm color profile and comparing it to the Canon genuine profiles which come with the installation of the driver.

 

[arw4]

I'm diluting C and M to LC and LM to photo/light inks for Epson printers, but the ink base for Epson is different to Canon printheads, so I'm not sure whether such Canon type clear ink does exist. The best way to assess colors and the acheivable saturation is by measuring and creating an icm color profile and comparing it to the Canon genuine profiles which come with the installation of the driver.

I'm interested to hear about you diluting C and M. Do you know of what exactly the Epson ink base consists? Is it something that you have obtained specifically for diluting purposes? And why not just buy the LC and LM photo inks? I only ask because I am interested in what you have achieved. You, of course, are working at a far more advanced level than I am, so it's even more interesting for me to learn.

BTW, I am running a few trials of an test ink-set from inkexpress. I received these inks this morning. So far the results look very favourable. I'm beginning to realise what I've been missing out on. It is dark outside now in the UK, so probably not the best time to be examining prints!

 

[stratman]

Paper can also affect color. Have you tried different papers?

If setting changes in the printer's software do not sufficiently correct the color shift you've noted, and you are sure the print head and cartridges are functioning properly, then you can make/obtain a printer profile.

A printer profile matches a specific printer with a specific ink set and a specific paper to give more accurate color output.

 

[stratman]

Speaking of tweaking software settings for your printer... forum member @PeterBJ has a terrific post on adjusting for color cast: https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/compatible-cartridges-and-colour-cast.10956/

Do post your nozzle check and, if you want, an image demonstrating your issue.

 

[arw4]

Hi Stratman. Thanks for posting. Here are scans of the print output using Canon OEM inks in Image A, and my IS inks in Image B. The respective nozzle check patterns are a little tricky for me to post at this time, as I am currently in the process of testing some newly arrived ink samples. Will try to do that later on.

Thanks for referring me to the post by @PeterBJ. Yes, it is a really good post - I was reading it the other evening! Most interesting!