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Author Topic: New to printing. Question about ink usage.  (Read 1262 times)

mrnikkel

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New to printing. Question about ink usage.
« on: January 06, 2016, 11:07:32 am »

So I recently bought an Epson P600 for my first photo printer and I've been testing out different paper samples to find something that I like. One thing that I'm noticing is just how quickly it's using up the Photo Black Ink. I've done maybe 20 8.5x11 prints and it's giving me the low ink warning, while all other ink levels are still in the 70-80% range.

It could just be the sample image that I've picked to test with uses a lot of black ink, but I'm printing on matte paper just as frequently as photo paper and the Matte Black Ink isn't any lower than the other ones. Also, though this could be my imagination, I seem to lose ink whenever it's switching between Matte Black and Photo Black, but again, it's just the Photo Black that seems to be dropping.

What am I missing here? Is there something I should be doing to better manage how much of the Photo Black ink it's using?
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howardm

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Re: New to printing. Question about ink usage.
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2016, 01:17:14 pm »

In general, switching black inks does use about 2x as much of one as the other.  I dont recall the details but your experience sounds 'about right'.

Dont do execessive switching.  Queue up your work and blast through all of PK before you switch to MK and vice versa.

I.T. Supplies

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Re: New to printing. Question about ink usage.
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2016, 04:52:18 pm »

The ink usage is close to correct since you're just starting the printing with the upfront ink set.  The printers will use about 30% of the ink to initialize the print heads and the remaining will be towards printing or nozzle check/head cleaning or alignment.

This is per Epson's site on black conversion-
Ink used during conversion
Matte to Photo Black approx. 3 ml (1 ml Save Ink Mode)
Photo to Matte Black approx. 1 ml (1 ml Save Ink Mode)

For ink usage, it depends on the media your printing on and the image (colors) that is printed.  Regular paper will use less; going into photo paper will be a little more and fine art/canvas will be the most due to the weight and if it's textured or with a sheen vs matte.
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BobShaw

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Re: New to printing. Question about ink usage.
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2016, 05:01:04 pm »

Others have covered it. It wasn't full to start with. Avoid switching unnecessarily and if you do then photo is used faster than matte. Also borderless printing wastes ink by just spraying it into the maintenance cartridge. Welcome to the cost of photo printing.
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mrnikkel

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Re: New to printing. Question about ink usage.
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2016, 06:54:00 pm »

The ink usage is close to correct since you're just starting the printing with the upfront ink set.  The printers will use about 30% of the ink to initialize the print heads and the remaining will be towards printing or nozzle check/head cleaning or alignment.

This is per Epson's site on black conversion-
Ink used during conversion
Matte to Photo Black approx. 3 ml (1 ml Save Ink Mode)
Photo to Matte Black approx. 1 ml (1 ml Save Ink Mode)

For ink usage, it depends on the media your printing on and the image (colors) that is printed.  Regular paper will use less; going into photo paper will be a little more and fine art/canvas will be the most due to the weight and if it's textured or with a sheen vs matte.
Thanks for the response. What is the drawback to "Save Ink Mode"?
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I.T. Supplies

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Re: New to printing. Question about ink usage.
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2016, 11:15:02 am »

Thanks for the response. What is the drawback to "Save Ink Mode"?

I'm honestly not sure on that part since it's the first time I've seen that from Epson on their website.  It may be located in the manual or hidden someplace in the printer settings.  I'd have to check myself to be sure.
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