I am totally new to printing in my home studio. Previously, I had always had my prints printed professionally, but became discouraged with some of the color issues I saw. So, very recently, I purchased the Epson Stylus Photo R3000. I have been working through some calibration issues, however I generally like the quality of the prints and the ease of printing at home.
Since installation, including my calibration prints, I have printed 81 4x6 prints: 10 glossy, 24 satin, 47 matte. The ink levels were trickling down at a relatively predictable pace until I printed the matte photos tonight. Boy did they suck down the ink! Some were printed using the Ultra Premium Presentation Matte profile and some with Watercolor Paper - Radiant White profile. Most of the prints (except the glossy) were on canvas. After doing some estimations and calculations with the remaining ink levels, it looks like I may be able to reach a total of 100 4x6 prints before the tanks will no longer print.
I am totally shocked! Red River estimates each 4x6 will cost $0.24 in ink, and I'm using almost 9 times that.
I'll go bankrupt printing at this rate!
Is this normal? Any ideas as to what I've done wrong? Do the inks that come with a new printer contain less ink (like a starter pack)? Did I choose the wrong profile? Will printing on satin canvas use less ink than printing on matte?
Thanks in advance!