bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Dye inks are supposed to clog less than pigment. The Pro-100 uses dye. The Pro-10 uses pigment. The dye ink competitor from Epson is the Expression Photo HD XP-15000.

rcarol

The reality is that they all gobble ink. There is no getting around that fact.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

I've been making inkjet B&W prints since about 2003, and for at least a decade of that period used inexpensive Epson 4-ink printers with a third-party, black and multiple-gray pigment inkset. I also read a forum dealing with B&W printing. I always printed on matte paper and so only used one type of black ink, but (I think all) pigment printers use different black inks for matte and glossy papers.

On the B&W forum there was a regular moan, extending over many years, about the Epson photo printers doing a substantial ink flush from ALL installed cartridges as part of a nozzle check they ran when you changed a single cartridge. It was common to hear stories about changing a cart, waiting for the nozzle check and then being told another cart needed changing, so the process would repeat. In theory, with the printers that had a LOT of cartridges, if you only changed a cart when the printer told you it was low, it was possible to have a sequence where by the time you got the printer to show all of the cartridges as not-empty, the first one you put in was almost exhausted.

Of course, this was completely consistent with all inkjet printer makers' razor-blade business model for these products, but enough consumer complaints eventually led to pigment photo printers coming with both matte and glossy black ink cartridges installed at all times. (I don't recall dye ink printers having the matte/glossy issue.)

The fact that the Pro-10 has both black inks installed was a small factor in my initial purchase decision, even though I virtually never make glossy prints. So far. And FWIW, I don't get the sense that the printer wastes much ink when I change a single cartridge - it DOES make a lot of administrative noise for quite a while, but I gather it's just the print head jogging back and forth to shake up the new cartridge before it starts printing again.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

There is little difference in ink consumption and cost, between photo quality Canon and Epson inkjets. I've used various models of both.

The most economical photo quality printer I've used was an HP B9180. it uses much bigger ink tanks than either Canon or Epson, considerably more expensive to buy, but make many more prints than a set of Epson or Canon inks.

The most affordable printer to buy is the Canon Pro-100. It is often on sale, offered with a big rebate, and/or bundled with other items. I got mine for free, after a mail-in rebate, with a camera purchase. It uses eight dye-based inks, which are supposed to be much more durable than dye inks were in the past. Canon claims over 100 years print life with them (older dye inks often were rated 25 years... I saw some fade badly in one year, when on cheap paper and exposed to a lot of indirect sunlight).

While that's good, it's not the 200+ years claimed for pigment-based inks, such as the Canon Pro-10 uses. With the same 13" wide capacity as the Pro-100, the Pro-10 is a lot more expensive to buy... But ink sets for the two are pretty close to the same: roughly $120 to $130.

Personally I prefer dye-based inks for glossy and luster prints.... and pigment-based inks for matte papers (which I prefer to use when framed under glass).

I finally wore it out, but my most-used photo-quality inkjet was an 8.5" wide, 6-color, dye-based ink Epson. I used it to make thumbnail catalogs of my images. Those often are 50 or more pages and I've made a few hundred of them.... so that printer got A LOT of use. A full set of inks for it cost $75, last time I bought them.

Something I learned with that Epson was that they have a built in "suicide switch"! Epson installs a counter that - after some pre-determined number of pages or ink cartridges - notifies you "this printer is worn out and needs to be replaced". Well, BS, I said, and found an app online that can be used to hack into it and reset the counter. I got that notice and reset the counter FOUR TIMES with that printer. If you ever see that notification with a high mileage Epson printer, be aware its a lie and go look for that app online. It continued to make just as good prints for MANY years after I reset it. It finally started having paper feeding problems that I couldn't fix, and that was when I gave up on it and got the Canon Pro-100 as a replacement.

The Canon Pro-100 has far less issue with nozzles getting clogged, compared to that old Epson. I used to have to run a cleaning cycle on the Epson every month or so, which wasted a lot of ink. I've now been using the Pro-100 for about 2 years and have never had a clog or needed to run head cleaning on it, even though it sometimes sits for long periods (haven't made any printed catalogs lately). The Epson actually got a lot more consistent use.... almost daily, but at least weekly. Sometimes now the Pro-100 will sit for a two or three weeks.... yet it has been clog free.

Goldyrock

The pigment inks also have a much longer longevity, and will print better on matte papers.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

The downside of the Canon Pro 1 and Pro 10 (don't know about the Pro 100) is that they will NOT use the matte black ink unless you select a matte ART paper, and if you do THAT you must leave a 30mm margin on the input and output ends of the paper. (The printer won't run if you have a narrower margin set in the page setup.)

I can make that work with the 8x8 prints I do on 8.5x11 paper because I have always left about a 70mm margin on the left side of the print to use for binding. For the Pro 10 I've made a custom 13x19 page template where the 8" wide print area is properly centered top to bottom (leaving 1/4" margins) and the end of the paper is 1/4" past the print area, but the printer thinks there's lots of paper left after the right margin.

One reason I'll consider a Pro 100 (or other dye printer) if the Pro 10s wear out is that I wouldn't have to deal with this nonsense.

TonyBot

Check out the Red River site:https://www.redrivercatalog.com

Scroll down on the left for "helpful info", and you'll get a bunch of subjects that may help you decide. (and a great site for paper, as well!)

My choice was the Canon Pro-10. I liked the idea of having more blacks available without having to re-prime the system whenever I changed from color to b/w, as well as the longer life of pigment inks. Just outside of your budget, but I think is worth the extra stretch. I use mine quite a bit, and have (knock on wood) had no problems or jams with it.

Many kudos from users for the Pro-100 - and with the rebates that are common, the initial cost is fairly inexpensive. ALL, repeat ALL, printers use ink. Some a little more than others, and the Pro-100 uses a little less than the Pro-10. Of all the canon "desktop" printers, the Pro-1000 uses less than the others - but as is true of them all, whatever brand, the larger the tank the lower the per-print cost will be.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

I have a friend who uses 48" wide HP printers to do instruction manuals for products he manufactures and sells. He likes to remind me periodically how cheap his ink is in the quart (or some such) size bottles he buys to refill the built-in tanks. (I in turn remind him I didn't have to pay $8K for my printers, didn't need 2 men and a boy to get 'em off the truck, and don't have to leave walk-around space on all sides of 'em either.)

I'll also second the recommendation to look at Red River papers. Been using them for more than a decade - long enough to miss their removal of 250 sheet boxes from their catalog, which saved me a bit of money when I bought 1,000 sheets every fall.

timc

I have a PIXIMA Pro 100. Got it a couple of years ago. $299 with $250 rebate and 50 sheets of 11x14 paper. Total cost $50.
After a couple of months and very few prints I got a 100 error that said take it to a repair facility. Still haven't done that. Just reverted to my old Epson.

PlymouthWoodworker Loc: Plymouth, MA

I use a Canon Pixma Pro-10 (pigment inks) and love it, especially for B&W. Have had no clogging issues. I also have an older Pro-9000 Mk II (dye inks). When printing on glossy paper, I have found that the Pro-9000 preserves the paper gloss better (as would the Pro-100 I suspect). Both the Pro-100 and the Pro-10 would be excellent choices.

TonyBot

It may depend on what your PP engine is, but on my Pro-10, I can choose "Black and White print", and it doesn't seem to use color inks. This is on the second page of the printing menu. Check it out.

NigelHazell

I use a Canon Pro1 - a fabulous printer and less choosy with heavy weight papers than an Epsom R3000, which I tried.

fstoprookie Loc: Central Valley of California

I just purchased an Epson Expression ET-7750 to replace my Canon Pro 1000 that finally bit the dust. I've heard nothing but good about the print quality of the Epson printers, so figured I'd give Epson a try. I couldn't afford the Epson Artisan 1430 and it doesn't have the ink capacity of the ET 7750. So far it has done an exceptional job printing everything from 4 x 6 to 11 x 19 prints. I love the fact they include the next refill of your ink in the box and claim that this supply of ink should last past a year or more. We'll see, ya know how those Marketing types are.

CaliforniaDreamer

The pro-100 is on sale at BestBuy for 336.99. Really a good buy.