Will calibrating an Epson xp 850 help"?

[cottagehunter]

I am using 3rd party inks in this machine and the colours are off. I get the right colours using Epson ink but need to correct the colours thru photoshop to get close using  3rd party inks. I am printing calendars and can only get two calendars  per set of Epson cartridges so that means $50 worth of ink to print each calendar, so I was wondering if a printer calibration would help.

Thanks
Pierre

[TonyW]

Well, it should help a great deal to have someone produce ICC profiles for you based on your particular paper and ink choice, but I think you should think long and hard is it worth it !

Assumption is that you will locate a service to provide the profiles
You will need to have an ICC profile for each type of paper you use
You will need to be confident that the third party product will always be consistent otherwise you will need new profiles for your paper.  This is where the printer manufacturer scores by implementing a vey high level of QC during ink manufacture.

TBH from the sound of things it may pay you to find a good lab to print for you.  Although you have not elaborated on what exactly is in your calendar (12 images?) $50 ink sounds ridiculously high.

[cottagehunter]

I agree that $50.00 sounds ridiculously high for printing 13 8 1/2x 11 images but that is what it has worked out to be. Last year I did a job of 3 calendars and used 1 set of regular cartridges 1 set that came with the printer and had to start another set of xx cartridges. As these are usually done for friends and family on double sided matt I can assume that printing costs for 13 images on one side with the first page having one image on both sides and the other 12 images having a monthly calendar on the other and the 13th with just a calendar on it. I have been doing these calendars for the past 12 years using 3rd party inks with no problems  before using other epson desktop photo printers. This is the only thing that I use this printer for as any other photo printing I do I use my 7900 but that will not print a 8 1/2 x 11 only a 8 x 10 and not centered. Now if I was a glutton for punishment I could load 17" paper in it print the images cut the sheets into 8 1/2 x 11 load them in a desktop printer and print the calendars on the back but that still leaves the cover sheet with only one image and using 6' of paper for each calendar and a lot of work. I was just wondering if there was a way to colour correct for the 3rd party ink.

Asisde from the cost of ink my main complaint with the epson desk top photo printers is that every time you do a cartridge change (as not all cartridges empty at the same rate) the printer does a head clean so each set of cartridges means 6 head cleans and after a set number of cleanings the printer gives you the message that the ink pads are nearing the end of life and to contact Epson . When you contact Epson they tell you that this is a fatal error and the cost of repair is more than the cost of a new printer.
My original post did not go into all of this as I wanted to keep it short and to the point.

Thanks for your reply Tony

Pierre

[graeme]

I agree that $50.00 sounds ridiculously high for printing 13 8 1/2x 11 images but that is what it has worked out to be. Last year I did a job of 3 calendars and used 1 set of regular cartridges 1 set that came with the printer and had to start another set of xx cartridges. As these are usually done for friends and family on double sided matt I can assume that printing costs for 13 images on one side with the first page having one image on both sides and the other 12 images having a monthly calendar on the other and the 13th with just a calendar on it. I have been doing these calendars for the past 12 years using 3rd party inks with no problems  before using other epson desktop photo printers. This is the only thing that I use this printer for as any other photo printing I do I use my 7900 but that will not print a 8 1/2 x 11 only a 8 x 10 and not centered. Now if I was a glutton for punishment I could load 17" paper in it print the images cut the sheets into 8 1/2 x 11 load them in a desktop printer and print the calendars on the back but that still leaves the cover sheet with only one image and using 6' of paper for each calendar and a lot of work. I was just wondering if there was a way to colour correct for the 3rd party ink.

Asisde from the cost of ink my main complaint with the epson desk top photo printers is that every time you do a cartridge change (as not all cartridges empty at the same rate) the printer does a head clean so each set of cartridges means 6 head cleans and after a set number of cleanings the printer gives you the message that the ink pads are nearing the end of life and to contact Epson . When you contact Epson they tell you that this is a fatal error and the cost of repair is more than the cost of a new printer.
My original post did not go into all of this as I wanted to keep it short and to the point.

Thanks for your reply Tony

Pierre

How about using a CISS on your small printer.

I've been using a basic 4 colour Canon dye printer with a Lyson ink CISS for about 4 years now. I have had profiles made for the gloss & matt papers I use. Colour is as good as using Canon media with Canon profiles, I even get reasonably neutral B & W output. It's so much cheaper than using OEM cartridges in a consumer printer.

Graeme

[TonyW]

Hi Pierre

Thanks for the added detail.  I don't know what to say other than the ink usage still seems a little high to me but may be explained by other factors including quality settings.

According to Epson for photo printing from the XP 850 a Standard capacity cartridge will yield about 145 4"x6" and for High capacity cartridge about 300 4"x6".  For colour documents then the page count goes up to 360 and 740 respectively.

I know that Epson may be a little optimistic or using their best case scenario but it seems they are way off in your case!

So printing @ 8"x12" using Standard cartridges should yield approx 36 prints and using High capacity around 75 prints. 
Are you printing the monthly calendar as a photo?  If so switching to high quality document may save some ink but would require you to do two printing runs rather than use duplex printing.

... I was just wondering if there was a way to colour correct for the 3rd party ink.
...

The only way to colour correct for the 3rd party ink (and your paper) is to have a profile made - 1 per paper type that you use.

Graeme's, idea about CISS may be workable and due to the fact that you will have a large volume of ink the profile should be good for some time. Plus it will help to avoid the repeated cleaning cycles - and, if you are lucky and the ink manufacturer QC good then when you change ink batches there should be no discernible change