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Price of printer ink
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Dec 11, 2015 10:32:29   #
jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska
 
BobHartung wrote:
Yep the money is in the ink. Here's a quick comparison from a web search this morning.

All epson inks.

Still makes gasoline and good wine seem inexpensive.

for P800 as 80 ml cartridges 1.3 ml/$
for Epson 7900
as 150 ml cartridges 1.7 ml/$
as 300 ml cartridges 2.2 ml/$
as 700 ml cartridges 2.5 ml/$

So if you are really going to print you will get some benefit of purchasing a larger printer.

Just for comparison.
Yep the money is in the ink. Here's a quick compa... (show quote)

Thanks for the info.
JackM

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Dec 11, 2015 10:33:36   #
jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska
 
johnst1001a wrote:
I bought a Canon MX922 over a year ago, works great. There are third party cartridges for this printer sold on Amazon that work great, no difference from the OEM cartridges. I have calibrated my monitor and printer, and having done that the prints are very good. There is a slight bit of banding initially, but it more or less disappears as the ink dries. Of course the max size is 8x10, which is fine with me. Any bigger and I take to Walgreens. Now the good part, the cartridges are about 90 cents each, last every bit as long as OEM, are clear plastic so you can see the ink level, and have an indicator light on them that blinks when the ink level is low. The cartridges are also readable by the printer so the ink level low alarm comes on in the dialog box. I have since purchases another MX922 for another room. BTW, this printer is wireless, and scans, copies.

Not a salesperson, just a happy customer.
I bought a Canon MX922 over a year ago, works grea... (show quote)

Thanks for the info John.
JackM

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Dec 11, 2015 10:36:49   #
jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska
 
cjc2 wrote:
I must confess that I just don't get all this fuss about the cost of OEM ink. To me, this is like purchasing a Porche and complaining about the need for and cost of high test fuel. In my view, ONLY, being able to produce prints at home is a blessing, the same one I enjoyed when I had a wet darkroom. Producing quality color prints today is quite a bit faster than the darkroom days, there are tons more options, and it is much less expensive to do. Yes, if you only plan to make 1 or two small prints a week, it makes the utmost sense to do that at Costco or wherever. Otherwise, you get to choose both the size of your investment and the maximum size prints you need/want to make. I my personal case, I found that I was not making enough large size prints to justify a new 17" printer so I bought a new 13" printer when my old one passed. On balance, I'm a happy camper. Hope that all of you are as well! And, of course, making prints at home saves lots of dollars if you are doing enough of it and unless you are making 100's of small copies which are most always less expensive sent out.
I must confess that I just don't get all this fuss... (show quote)

Glad that is working for you.
JackM

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Dec 11, 2015 10:39:41   #
WayneL Loc: Baltimore Md
 
jackm1943 wrote:
Yesterday I purchased a little Canon PIXMA printer, with cartridges, for $34 plus change at my local Walmart. In the next aisle they sold various printer cartridges. The two cartridges for this printer would have totaled $40 plus change. Who wudda known? I don't know if this is an issue for high end printers or not because I have prints made commercially.


I only buy printers with separate cartridges for all the colors and refill them with ink from The Printer Filling Station. you got the all in one type which is harder to refill plus since they are combined if one color is out the rest is no good.

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Dec 11, 2015 10:48:44   #
jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska
 
WayneL wrote:
I only buy printers with separate cartridges for all the colors and refill them with ink from The Printer Filling Station. you got the all in one type which is harder to refill plus since they are combined if one color is out the rest is no good.

Thanks Wayne, you're right, mine is a little all in one that I got for daily office work, not for imaging.
JackM

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Dec 11, 2015 11:10:30   #
RICARDOOO Loc: Findlay, Ohio
 
jackm1943 wrote:
Yesterday I purchased a little Canon PIXMA printer, with cartridges, for $34 plus change at my local Walmart. In the next aisle they sold various printer cartridges. The two cartridges for this printer would have totaled $40 plus change. Who wudda known? I don't know if this is an issue for high end printers or not because I have prints made commercially.


Check the prices at www.atlex.com

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Dec 11, 2015 11:13:21   #
Normafries Loc: San Jose CA
 
I print up to 17x22 on Epson and love the total control. I do sell my work so I like the ability to tweak on the spot. But it is truly cost prohibitive as others have said here. So I am very interested in trying Precision Colors. You seem to be quite please with them. I went to their website and the page that was to have the instructions on how to refill the cartridges for the Epson Stylus Pro 3880 was blank! My question to you is: when you first moved from spending a fortune on cartridges to buying bulk ink and refilling, was it a difficult process? Was there a lot of wasted ink as you found your way? Trying to decide what to do. The inks at PC are certainly away less expensive than those of Epson and if the quality is that good, I am very tempted.

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Dec 11, 2015 11:44:02   #
photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA
 
Since you're not using it for photo printing, definitely use a third party ink provider. I use EZ-Ink (I get them on Ebay); I find that their cartridges last the longest (have the most ink) and are reasonably priced.

I have my photos (mostly 11x14) done commercially.

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Dec 11, 2015 12:43:51   #
connievloutely Loc: Quaker State (PA)
 
What is the link to Precision Color?

Thanks

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Dec 11, 2015 12:45:50   #
Bobbee
 
connievloutely wrote:
What is the link to Precision Color?

Thanks


http://www.precisioncolors.com/

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Dec 11, 2015 12:55:06   #
JaiGieEse Loc: Foxworth, MS
 
dlmorris wrote:
My problem with ink jet printers was that after a couple of years, the Jets would clog, and no matter what I would do, I could not Unclog them.



This was once a serious problem, and one I encountered more than once, in the printers of several years ago. Many were designed with the print heads permanently affixed to the machine, and the ink tanks just fed the same heads repeatedly.

If you were to leave your printer on for extended periods, the ink could dry in the jets, and make it difficult, if at all possible, to unclog the thing. Third party inks were notorious for problems of this sort, as well.

Nowadays, in most cases, the print heads have been redesigned and in some cases, the head is in the cartridge, not the printer. Result is much less clogging.

There also used to be a problem with color fade. Anything printed with the inks in use back in the 1990's would rather quickly begin to fade when exposed to bright sunlight. This happened with an old HP Deskjet I once had. I wrote HP about this, and they shrugged and said something to the effect of "Them's the breaks."

Again, things have changed. Newer inks are very good at resisting color fading. At least, OEM and higher-cost inks are. You can still run in to fading issues with cheap ink.

I have a Brother MFC-495CW All-in One printer, scanner, copier, fax, etc. A friend gave it to me several years ago when she had to move across country, and was trying to lighten her load. I use the thing for scut work - text, scanning for email or fax, and so on. I've used the fax function maybe twice. Few people, other than lawyers, still use fax.

A few months ago, I was prepping some photos for a gallery exhibit. I needed to print up name/information cards for each image. I'd bought a large batch of ink cartridges for the Brother Do-It-All on eBay, and I decided to use that printer for the cards so as to not use up my more expensive cartridges on the photo printer.

They looked fine when they printed. But the exhibit was hung in such a place as to catch the sunlight streaming through the gallery's large store-front window. After a relatively short period of time, I went into the gallery to check on things, and I noticed two things right off. The images I'd printed on my photo printer were fine, but those cards? The ones I printed with cheap ink? They were all badly faded.

I participated in a recent webinar sponsored by the Datacolor folks, and the fellow who ran the webinar strongly recommended the use of OEM inks. His contention was that it was these OEM inks that the manufacturer used to test the printer, as well as their OEM paper, hence use of these in combination is very likely to yield the best results.

Hm. One of the webinar sponsors was Red River. Another participant pointed that out, and the guy replied that these are excellent papers, provided one uses the Red River profiles and adjusts monitor and printer to suit same - with, of course, Datacolor's color gear.

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Dec 11, 2015 13:17:33   #
cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA
 
I can report that I only use OEM inks in my Epson R3000 and I use both Epson and Red River paper, of which I am a really big fan.

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Dec 11, 2015 13:18:26   #
cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast
 
As tomc601 said, starter cartridges are the trend now. I use the high capacity cartridges after the first cartridges run out. For quantity needs, I use Costco.

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Dec 11, 2015 14:04:45   #
13oct1931 Loc: Lebanon, Indiana
 
I also have an MX922 and am very happy with it !!! Alyn

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Dec 11, 2015 15:02:24   #
Collie lover Loc: St. Louis, MO
 
cjc2 wrote:
Personally, I think there are some distinct advantages of printing at home which, for me, make the process worth it. This starts with total control being in your hands and goes on to include things like the ability to choose, or try different papers! With all most of us have invested in what we love to do, it doesn't seem to me that a reasonably priced printer add that much more. Additionally, one is able to make prints when desired or requested. Again, personally, I choose to limit my output size to 13" x 19" and go outside for anything larger. Works for me, and I enjoy it! (Mostly!)
Personally, I think there are some distinct advant... (show quote)


I agree. I print my own photos for the same reason. I have a Canon Pixma Pro-1.

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