3880 and Ink Changes

[douvidl]

I've just received my new 3880 and I'm not sure I understand the black ink change process.  Of course, their book provides little or no help, so I go to you all for some answers.
Question;  does the 3880 automatically switch inks to match the paper profile?  I know I can switch inks manually, but I notice that the 3880 switched inks without my doing anything.  EG.  I used Il fibre silk with photoblack.  The machine switched the ink to mt.
What is going on?
Thanks
David

[howardm]

the printer will change between PK and MK as dictated by the paper choice in the driver (NOT the profile).  When a 3rd party profile is made, it's 'baselined' against a standard Epson paper for printing parameters (not the color profile) and one of those are which black to use.  If you selected Ilford GFS, then the documentation that came w/ the profile also indicated what 'media' selection to use (mmm, I think it'll be either Lustre or SG) and it *should* have then chosen the PK ink.

[Richowens]

Their book provides the answer.


Maintaining and Transporting the Printer | 111
Changing the Black Ink Cartridge
You can use either Matte Black or Photo Black for printing. Both cartridges
are installed all the time, and the printer knows which cartridge to use
depending on the Media Type selected in the printer driver. You may
sometimes need to switch cartridges as described below when using
non-Epson media.
The Photo Black cartridge is ideal for printing photographic images on all
media types. It is optimized for traditional photographic and ink jet-coated
papers, such as Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster and Epson Photo
Paper Semi-gloss, etc.
The Matte Black cartridge is optimized for printing photographic images on
matte or plain papers, such as Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper
Matte and Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper.
Generally, you should switch black ink cartridges only if you plan to run a
large number of print jobs in the new mode. Since it takes several minutes to
switch and consumes some ink, you shouldn’t switch cartridges more often
than necessary.

 111 is the page number.

Rich

[irvweiner]

Unfortunately, there is no 'Ask first' alert before the swap starts and worse there is no way of stopping the swap when started. For non-Epson media (and even Epson) I may want to choose/try/experiment with the 'wrong' ink but I am initially unable to do so directly. My conversation with Epson yielded no work-arounds.

This has been a costly experience, several times I had inadvertently selected the 'wrong' paper choice and the printer started the swap without any notice. I was forced to wait for the swap completion before being able to swap back, the cost of the ink wasted was greater than that of the paper being used.
In the above Epson conversation I suggested firmware upgrade to resolve this 'feature'--but don't hold your breath.
Attempts to create profiles 'my way'--glossy media with MK or matte media with PK appear to be 'no way'! Comments welcome!

irv weiner

[Randy Carone]

You can certainly use the 'wrong' ink by choosing a media type in the Epson driver that is opposite (matte vs. gloss) to the media you are using. However, why would you want to use the incorrect ink? I guess Epson figures that by the time you choose the media type, you have thought it through and made the correct decision. Kinda like 'measure twice and cut once'. My circular saw never asks me 'are you sure you want to cut this piece of wood to that length'?

[MHMG]

This has been a costly experience, several times I had inadvertently selected the 'wrong' paper choice and the printer started the swap without any notice. I was forced to wait for the swap completion before being able to swap back, the cost of the ink wasted was greater than that of the paper being used.
In the above Epson conversation I suggested firmware upgrade to resolve this 'feature'--but don't hold your breath.
Attempts to create profiles 'my way'--glossy media with MK or matte media with PK appear to be 'no way'! Comments welcome!

irv weiner

Ditto for me. This is my one aggravation with an otherwise excellent printer. It may be a Mac only issue, but for whatever reasons settings often do not stick!  So, whenever I'm trying to use matte papers I have to be extremely vigilant that the Epson driver has not reset itself to default values which call for a media setting of Premium Luster photo paper.  When I let my guard down, the printer decides to take it upon itself to switch from MK back to PK because it has defaulted on the media choice which calls for PK ink.  Huge waste of time and ink to then return it yet again to MK. Epson could easily solve the problem by adding a simple dialogue box like many other apps that warns you with something like "Are you sure you want to swap MK for PK ink?" An alert like that would be incredibly helpful every time the darn driver decides to default to startup settings.

cheers,
Mark

[Light Seeker]

I have also run into this when I have a quick print to make on plain paper. I have two plain paper media presets in place, one for PK and one for MK, so the plain paper print does not trigger an ink change. Unfortunately, it's easy to forget to select one and to instead simply hit "print" in Safari or Word.

Yes, I realize an office printer is more appropriate for this, but the one I have access to is not convenient. Hence I use my 3800 for the quick prints.

Terry.

[irvweiner]

I regret that my statement 'For non-Epson media (and even Epson) I may want to choose/try/experiment with the 'wrong' ink ......' was not perfectly clear. Many 'photogs' when creating a new profile or print will (and have encouraged others) to try variations in the media and/or profile to be chosen. Datacolor, the mfgr of Spyder, makes this suggestion up front in their tutorial, not certain but I believe that Xrite the mfgr of my Colormunki does also.
Please understand that I am not choosing the wrong 'anything', I am trying other paths. It's more like 'print more than once' and select the best print! But I sure do expect this semipro level printer to have a few lines of code that will alert/ask me--there is no reason that it doesn't.  And worse that it auto starts and can't be stopped.

Mark, possibly thru this post we can encourage others to petition Epson for a driver or firmware revision.

Thanks to all  irv weiner

[Alan Goldhammer]

If you print from Lightroom, just create a dummy preset for matte paper and photo black paper that you can use to prevent this occurrence (for paper testing purposes).  Also you should create presets in the Epson driver that quickly allow you to access your settings.  It's easier to change the settings then without inadvertently hitting the print button.  I think the driver auto default is premium luster so if you haven't a preset and you've been printing matte paper you will get an auto-switch back to PK ink.  I think in the year I've had my printer I have had one inadvertent switch (and that was because I was absent minded and did not hit the correct LR preset prior to printing.

[Farmer]

The problem is, that for everyone who wants a "warning" there are 10 people who don't want it because it's an uneccesary stop in their workflow.  Actually, I suspect it's more like 100 to 1, but that's just anecdotal.  There's nothing stopping you creating custom media presets if you want to experiment.  You just need to pay attention to which one you choose and make sure it matches the media/desired output - just as you would when you change media normally.

[douvidl]

Rich;
I read the book.  That's why I posted the question.
David