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Author Topic: Epson 2880 Black Switching: Wastes Color Inks?  (Read 1297 times)

gfabbri

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Epson 2880 Black Switching: Wastes Color Inks?
« on: March 29, 2010, 08:14:22 pm »

Hi all-

I'm really new to home printing, having used whcc.com for my prints for quite a while, but am now the proud owner of a r2880, which I am thoroughly enjoying.

My main issue is that I enjoy both matte (Entrada & Museum Etching) and glossy (Gold Fibre Silk) papers.

I'm curious as to whether the matte-->photo black switching process wastes color ink as well as black (and if there is any rational explanation for this behavior, profit motive aside).

I would love some clarity on this matter; many thanks for your help!

Best,

Gian
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JeffKohn

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Epson 2880 Black Switching: Wastes Color Inks?
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2010, 12:21:34 am »

Quote from: gfabbri
Hi all-

I'm really new to home printing, having used whcc.com for my prints for quite a while, but am now the proud owner of a r2880, which I am thoroughly enjoying.

My main issue is that I enjoy both matte (Entrada & Museum Etching) and glossy (Gold Fibre Silk) papers.

I'm curious as to whether the matte-->photo black switching process wastes color ink as well as black (and if there is any rational explanation for this behavior, profit motive aside).

I would love some clarity on this matter; many thanks for your help!

Best,

Gian
On the 2400, swapping blacks causes a cleaning cycle to run. The cleaning cycle runs for all ink channels, not just a single channel. So swapping blacks wastes a little bit of color ink, as well. I don't know for certain, but suspect the 2880 behaves the same.
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John R Smith

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Epson 2880 Black Switching: Wastes Color Inks?
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2010, 03:56:48 am »

Quote from: gfabbri
I'm curious as to whether the matte-->photo black switching process wastes color ink as well as black (and if there is any rational explanation for this behavior, profit motive aside).

Gian

It certainly does waste all your inks, and always has on the R2400/2880. And every time you change any of the other cartridges. I have my dump lines run out to a catch bottle rather than the internal waste pad, and you would be amazed how much ink I regularly tip down the sink from that little bottle. It is tempting to think that this is how Epson make their bottom line, but there may be sound technical reasons for doing it this way.

According to Epson, cartridge change on the R2400 uses 0.386 gram per cart, whereas a standard cleaning cycle uses 0.194 gram per cart. It's probably similar on the R2880, except that you have even smaller cartridges (which was a really inexplicable move on Epson's part, unless you take the view that they simply want to maximise profits, because the smaller the cart, the more often you have to change them, and the more ink you waste).

So, to mitigate all this - you will waste the same amount of ink whether you change one, two, or however many cartridges at one time. OK? So try to time your matt/gloss cartridge swap to a point when at least one other cart needs changing too. Then stick with matt or gloss until another cart change is required. This obviously entails batching up your matt/gloss work into discrete print runs. Also, if a cartridge runs out and needs changing, swap out any others which are really low at the same point, and just do one line purge cycle.

Even then, these little printers drink the ink. Even at my hobbyist level, I use around 3-4 cartridges a month, so 30-40 GBP at the cheapest I can find them here in the UK. That's why the pros round here are very sensibly using the R3880 and larger. But the 2400/2880 are lovely printers.

John
« Last Edit: March 30, 2010, 05:09:30 am by John R Smith »
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