Printer or Printer Ink

[photoprofx]

(02-24-2012 11:25 PM)Slynky Wrote:  

(02-24-2012 07:45 PM)KevinD103 Wrote:  

(02-24-2012 02:36 PM)Slynky Wrote:  I'm probably quoting stuff here that is just made up by the OEM manufacturers BUT...

I thought, for example, one needed to use Canon paper with a Canon printer to gain the longivity they advertise. The detailed report I read indicates that Canon makes a paper that works best with their printers and that it permits ink to "soak" into certain layers of the coating (coatings have a few different layers making them up). This soaking into the proper layer is what makes the print last for many years (as well as yields the best vibrancy, etc.). I thought it is unwise to just use any paper manufacturer...

Indeed the manufacturer has a vested interest in you buying only their recommended product and will tell you that you will get best results with their recommendation and that the warranty might be void if you use other. Not always true, especially in the area of economy.

If you purchase OEM ink by the cartridge and price it out by the gallon you will pay about $5000 to $8000 per gallon. Aftermarket inks will cost in the $100-300 range per gallon. Are the OEM inks good? Yes. Are the aftermarket inks good? It varies, they can, however, be as good as OEM.

I knew/know it's expensive but have never computed it. On the other hand, I would have to express some mild disbelief that aftermarket ink can be 50 times cheaper than OEM ink. That seem astonishing. It's like saying a cartridge of CYAN from OEM that costs $20 will only costs me 40 cents from aftermarket. (using your initital figures of $5,000 per gallon versus $100 per gallon).

(02-24-2012 07:45 PM)KevinD103 Wrote:  Paper is in a similar situation. Very good papers can be obtained from aftermarket suppliers that are as good/better than OEM. Again the price can be much lower with aftermarket.

(02-24-2012 07:45 PM)KevinD103 Wrote:  The dirty little secret is that printer manufactures make their money from selling ink and paper, not from the printer itself. Some time ago Xerox gave away a laser printer for free, all you had to do is agree to purchase a quantity of toner from them over a time period. The printer was free, the toner amounted to about $3500. Not such a good deal after all.

This I knew. Some say it follows the "give the razor away for free and charge for the blades" marketing plan.

(02-24-2012 07:45 PM)KevinD103 Wrote:  Regarding longevity; keep in mind that all estimates of fade resistance are based on accelerated testing. That is they use severe lighting and chemical methods to induce the ink to fade, all in a relatively short period of time. A paper/ink combo might have a rating of 100 years, however, the actual time it was tested is actually measured in months. Actual time for a lasting print is, at best, as guess. The big enemy of inkjet printing is UV light and it is well known that quality pigment ink resists UV much better than dye based ink. Having a multi color ink printer (8 or more colors) will often give you the option of clear-coating your print that will greatly help the fade resistance. Printer manufacturers do not have the market cornered on quality paper, shop around!

And this I knew. However, rather than wait till I'm dead to see how long something will last, we take what we can. Do I believe 130 years out of the latest Canon proclamations? No. But I will assume I can at least believe I will get 50 years.

And I package all my prints in bags (from clearbags.com) with a label on it that suggests to them that the print will have the best longevity if places under glass and on a wall that does not receive direct sunlight.

Well.. okay! Once again... 'IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PAPER". Low acid.. then comes the ink.. Pigment NOT dyebased inks. Then comes the printer... As I previously stated, your run of the mill printer does a pretty darned good job of printing. You put it on paper you buy at Staples or Office Depot and you get a nice result.
Now put that same paper up on a wall in a frame with no UV protection and you get a fade job in less than a year if in light a lot. This is due to sorta good paper and dye based inks... not archival inks! You get low acid, museum quality paper that is low acid, then use pigment inks and you get a VERY long lived print.
This comes at a price, your printer is not one you pick up at Staples off the rack, it is probably ordered in from the warehouse because they don't sell a lot of them, and for good reason they are not cheap to run.
The Pro printers are not everyday printers and they are not good for printing out the credit card statement. They are turning out prints that are of a VERY high quality that last. In my case Epson R3000, while on the low end of the professional printers it still sports the K3 Chrome pigment inks the higher end 3880's up to the 9700 series use. Yeh.. the VERY same inks!
The ink is not cheap so you make sure your test prints are minimized and you don't burn through paper that may run over a dollar a page, but again you get what you pay for.
Now, I don't suggest you run out and spend a grand or more on a printer but what I DO suggest you get GOOD paper to print on. Some are in to high end super gloss for black and white, other are in to luster papers for that smooth older hollywood look or even art papers for matt finishes. What everl your flavor it's all about the paper, low acid paper because the print will last a lot longer. Anyone tells you your print will last a century is nuts! It might, but you better keep it in a dark room or in a book away from the light or in a UV protected frame to see if it will out last that baby photo of your first child when they are in their 50's.
The reason printer manufactures recommend their paper is because they sell the drivers and software WITH ICC PROFILES that fit their papers, this is the niffty screen that has the selections of what type of paper you are running through your printer...and guess what you can use someone elses paper and you most likely will not see the differenct. Saying that, this is where the differences start to happen, some printers can not accept foreigh ICC profiles, oh on the off chance you don't know what an ICC profile is: it is a software program some printers can accept that tell the printer it is not in charge, the ICC profile is because it tells the printer it is not managing things like the how thick the paper is, how to lay down the ink, what is the concentratin etc, that is a simplifed ICC profile. Paper manufactures supply their ICC profiles for free because they want the paper to give you the very best results.
You can blame the printer if you want, but your best bet, if looking for the blame game, is the paper, then the ink.
After market inks, IF manufactured in the USA will usually have and ISO specification somewhere they follow. Your Hong Kong, or Chineses inks... well that is a crap shoot.
So, if take away anything its the paper, then the ink and then your printer. You can make great prints if you just think it through.
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