some magazines and test companys rate 3rd part inks as inferior to name brand epson inks. i'v had over 9 printers in the last four years 8 epsons and 1 roland eco solvent printer. i sold the solvent printer , quality and logjevity did'nt equal the epson.
my own experience with the 3rd pary inks is a s follows
blank refillable cartiges stay away from them had nothing but bad luck with them.
some fit correctly some dont
best 3rd party cartige with ink in them is g&g. reds and yellow are not the best on the 9600 hundred. colors are soft and they fade quickly. mis and micro enter have a good quality bulk ink in the reds and yellow.
what i do is use the epson reds and yellow cartiges and when they run empty i refill them with one of those brands of inks. i do that about 3 or 4 times and then get anew epson cartrige for the 2 reds and yellow 9600 model
epson 1800, 2200, 220 , c88 i used g&g inks and cartiges when they run low i refill them 2 times with the micro enter inks. for the 1800 i use the msi for the blue, and red inks . i found them to be better then the micro enter inks
99 % of what i do is sign and graphic related 99% of what i print is for out door use
i have customers that have signs that are over 3 years old that are facing south west in fl sun and have faded by about 25%. i consider that very good . most are printed on 3 mill vinyl or polypro vinyl and all are laminated with a clear uv vinyl.
i have my own set of test print i have laying about outside my shop and have gotten the same results. 1 sign i have is in the shade but exposed a lot of water from a irragation system and it looks like its about 3 months old only.
i dont know how the magazines and test companys are testing the inks. i do thing 25% fading over 3 years in direct sw sun is a good test on how long inks hold up in the real world. to me thats very good . my roland would be faded in 12 months or less and those where supose to be long life out door inks. thats why i sold it
as far as matching colors i have the same problems with the epsons as i do with the ginerics. u have to play around with your profiles and photo software to get it just right.
been printing now for over 4 years and i have it down pat by about 80% in color matching.
ounce u find a paper u like or what ever it is u print on and u get the colors tweek the way u want them. stick with that item. i use only 4 types of print material
and its the same brand. all are matt material except for my gloss poly. the gloss is used for indoor use only.
ps
i never had a hp but i do know they hold up quite well outdoors using the uv inks. only problem with the hp is that their 3 times the price. inks are less then epsons thow.
encad was another very good outdoor printer. but kodak came in and bought them out and from what i hear they screwed them up.
my epson 9600 just died a 2nd time needs a 2nd set of heads . decided to sell her and get a new 7800. i found 90 % of what i print is 24" or smaller or over 44".
any thing over 36" i had to everlap them. so i figured what the heck get a 7800 this time instead of a 9800. with the $ saved i'l buy myself a new camera or a couple of lenses.
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