Compatible Inkjet Cartridges

[Acorn]

Aside from those using continuous flow systems, I wonder how many amongst us use compatible inkjet cartridges instead of OEM brands and what compatible versions are to be highly recommended?

[Manfred M]

There is a lot of discussion of this topic from time to time. When I have discussed the pros and cons with highly experienced printers, they all feel it is a bad idea. The people I consulted are very much into high end, fine art, commercial and portraiture prints, so this will flavour their opinion. They also all come out of the film and wet darkroom era, so the cost of doing a high quality inkjet print, when compared to what it cost to do a colour negative or positive print, is quite low, even when using entry level professional printers. When I am writing, I am only writing about pigment based inks that are used in photo ink jet printers. The arguments against are:

1. Third party ink suppliers generally do not have their inks tested for longevity by reputable third party testing consultants;

2. The quality of third party ink performance on printers and print head life is an unknown. Poor ink quality can ruin a print head.

3. The quality of paper profiles supplied by third party ink suppliers is also not known, especially when it comes to some of the less common or newer papers. The cost of getting a decent quality photospectrometer do develop ones own profiles will pay for a lot of ink.

if you are interested in independent print life testing, the following two groups are generally regarded as being leaders in this field:

Wilhelm Research - All the main printer / ink suppliers do their testing with this company.

http://wilhelm-research.com/


Aardenburg has higher standards and likely a better methodology, but this tester is funded through donations, so the amount of testing done is not nearly as broad as Wihelm Research.

https://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/

[Geoff F]

As Manfred has pointed out, it depends on what you are doing.

If you have paid £50 or less for a combined printer/scanner to print general 'office type' work then compatible ink will be sufficient; but if you want high quality long lasting prints from a £500+ printer it makes sense to use the best available inks.

[Shadowman]

For small format printers eventually cartridges get discontinued so you are forced to use 3rd party cartridges, the quality of the 3rd party cartridges usually depends on the manufacturer. For my large format printer, I'm sticking with OEMs and I don't think there are any 3rd party cartridges available anyway; not yet.

[DanK]

I've owned 6 Canon printers. One I had for many years, long after it was no longer sold. I have never found any of the cartridges to be discontinued. However, my impression is that Canon uses a relatively small number of different cartridges that are shared across many different printers, which may be why they continue producing them. In contrast, every HP printer we have had has used cartridges unlike any others we had used.

When I first started printing photographs perhaps a decade ago, using a Canon multipurpose MP 970, I started exploring non-OEM inks. I looked at both of the sources Manfred noted. My recollection is that Wilhelm had only a few of the non-OEM inks I was interested in, and none performed well. I have used OEM inks ever since.

Ink looks a lot less expensive if you look at the cost per print rather than, say, the cost per ml or the cost per cartridge. You can get estimates for a number of Epson and Canon printers at the Red River site. For example, using OEM inks with the Canon Pro-100, which I used for a few years until last month, the average ink cost of a 13x19 (I think that is A3+, but I am not sure) was $2.70. (For those of us who grew up in the days of wet labs, this is amazingly cheap.) So to my way of thinking, non-OEM ink would make no sense unless the quality were literally virtually identical. After spending hours editing and preparing an image that I think is good enough to print at that size, I wouldn't use an inferior ink to save, say, $1. But to each her or his own.

[rpcrowe]

My problem using third party inks is that I have had the heads of my Canon Pixma 9000 Mark 2 clog up from these inks... The Pixma never clogged using Canon inks - even when I have not used it for a long while.

[loosecanon]

In my experience the paper has more effect on print life, and I have had no problem with reputable compatible inks on high quqlity paper. I have had problem with OEM inks and cheap paper. One paper the prints faded rapidly.

I don't sell much, but for my use I can afford too print using campatible inks - the cost of a print head flush using oem inks is about £24, that is the cost of turning on the printer after a week or more of non use.

I calibrate each paper ink combination myself. I am currently using carts I bought in bulk - 50p each against £14. I have used these for several years, and samples placed in the sun for extended periods have shown no problems, and this is dye ink. For competions and so on this works for me, I can afford to print my own which is what I enjoy doing.

I will use OEM pigments inks if for sale, but the margin has to be there so my pigment printer is usually mothballed.

[DanK]

In my experience the paper has more effect on print life

An interesting question, but I have never seen data. This is a classic main-effects-plus-interaction issue: there is a "main effect" of inks, averaged across all papers; there is a main effect of paper choice, averaged across all inks; and there are probably a bunch of interaction terms, showing that the effect of ink or paper varies depending on the choice of the other. The most I have ever seen is data on selected main effects.

The effect of papers that loosecanon mentioned has been documented for some inks. For example, a recent Wilhelm Imaging Research report on the Epson P7000 and P9000 estimated bare-bulb longevity with Epson Exhibition Canvas Satin at 108 years and with Epson Legacy Etching Paper at 53 years.

What I have seen for inks isn't even a straightforward estimate of main effects because some reports on non-OEM inks don't include OEM inks for comparison, so one would have to compile the findings across reports. However, an example of a report on the terrible performance of some aftermarket refills of HP cartridges can be found here.

[Manfred M]

An interesting question, but I have never seen data. This is a classic main-effects-plus-interaction issue: there is a "main effect" of inks, averaged across all papers; there is a main effect of paper choice, averaged across all inks; and there are probably a bunch of interaction terms, showing that the effect of ink or paper varies depending on the choice of the other. The most I have ever seen is data on selected main effects.

The effect of papers that loosecanon mentioned has been documented for some inks. For example, a recent Wilhelm Imaging Research report on the Epson P7000 and P9000 estimated bare-bulb longevity with Epson Exhibition Canvas Satin at 108 years and with Epson Legacy Etching Paper at 53 years.

What I have seen for inks isn't even a straightforward estimate of main effects because some reports on non-OEM inks don't include OEM inks for comparison, so one would have to compile the findings across reports. However, an example of a report on the terrible performance of some aftermarket refills of HP cartridges can be found here.

My understanding is that there are three main factors that affect print longevity when discussing the ink jet process:

1. Ink set;

2. Environment; and

3. Paper.

When it comes to the ink set there are two factors; dye based inks and pigment based inks. Dye based inks are transparent, man-made chemicals that stain the paper to impart the colours. These are what are used in non-photo printers and traditionally have a much shorter life than pigment based inks. Longevity of these inks has been improving, especially when we look at the ink sets produced by the OEM manufacturers. Third party manufacturers are a big unknown, but longer lasting dyes tend to be more expensive to produce and are less likely to be found in inexpensive third party inks.

Pigment based inks are created by grinding up minerals to be very fine and mechanically bonding to the paper. The colours come from the pigment that sits on the paper. These inks tend to be less brilliant than dye based inks, but also generally fade much more slowly.

Environmental conditions are also an important factor in print fading. There are two main sources of environmental fading:

1. Light, especially the UV component. The greater the exposure to light, either through intensity or length of the exposure the more quickly the image will fade; and

2. Environmental contaminants in the air - regardless of the cause (cooking, smoking, cleaning compounds, etc.) these contaminants react with the inks (and paper) causing fading and discolouration. Framing behind UV absorbing glass ans spraying the image with an anti-fade lacquer both combat this issue and can effectively double the print life.

Finally the paper itself can have an impact on longevity. There three factors in play here:

1. pH of the paper - acidic papers will affect the inks and will break them down. Most papers are naturally acidic, especially lower cost ones. Manufacturing processes and raw materials play a large part in creating archival papers. Cotton rag papers tend to be slightly alkaline and alpha cellulose (wood based) papers can include chemical buffers in them to create papers that are slightly alkaline. Archival alpha cellulose papers are processed to remove lignin from the wood, which also increases life.

2. Cheaper papers often include lignin, which is what gives wood the yellow to brown colour. The effect is reduced by either bleaching or chemically masking the lignin. The effect from both of these additives eventually breaks down and the paper will yellow and become brittle.

3. Optical Bleaching Agents (OBA) - All paper has a natural warm tint. To make the paper appear whiter, many papers contain OBAs which fluoresce blue under ultra-violet light; sunlight, fluorescent lights, LED and halogen light sources. These do break down in time and result in a colour shift in the paper, which is not necessarily even. OBAs have gotten better and are more resistant to break down, so this is less of an issue than it used to be, especially with archival papers. Baryta papers include barium sulphate to create the surface finish of traditional photo papers are particularly good this way. Barium sulphate is an OBA that is quite resistant to break down.

Will we see faster colour breakdown on cheap paper; yes? But the cheap inks are part of the problem, not just the paper.

[DanK]

I think there is more than those three factors influencing the durability of images. Epson legacy etching is both OBA-free and lignin-free (it is 100% cotton), and I assume it is acid-free, yet it showed half the durability of canvas satin.

Likewise, while dye inks are less durable than pigment inks, there are variations within those two categories as well.

[Manfred M]

I think there is more than those three factors influencing the durability of images. Epson legacy etching is both OBA-free and lignin-free (it is 100% cotton), and I assume it is acid-free, yet it showed half the durability of canvas satin.

Likewise, while dye inks are less durable than pigment inks, there are variations within those two categories as well.

Dan - I suspect that there are several factors in play here:

1. The combination of the various factors - while the list of the main factors that affect print life is short, what is more complex is the interaction of those factors. The breakdown process is primarily a chemical process / photochemical process, so the materials themselves plus factors like temperature, humidity, contaminants, light levels all interact in a complex way that will affect ink life with a specific paper.

2. The factors listed are important, but we don't know the specifics of each paper. What does "ligin free" mean? 100% removed, 95% removed? Likewise when a paper is buffered, what is the actual pH and what is the variability of the pH. Remember that pH is a logarithmic scale (base 10), so the actual reactive chemical level of a paper reporting a pH of being slightly alkaline (pH 7.5) versus a pH of say 8.5, which we see in some papers. These (and others) are all variables that could affect print life, but the subtle differences in the actual manufacturing processes and in the specific paper formulations will have an impact as well.

The problem with the data from Wilhelm Research and Aardenburg is that they just report test results without going into any analysis as to what underlying considerations are driving those numbers. Just as an aside, Mark McCormick-Goodhart who founded Aardenburg originally worked for Wilhelm Research.

[Shadowman]

For those that advocate use of 3rd party cartridges, I think for the OP a list of recommended manufacturers might be of interest, I can only provide suppliers of hp 7960, I've purchased some good and bad cartridges over the last few years, I've also found a few work arounds for defective cartridges involving clogging issues; mainly methods of cleaning.

[loosecanon]

Maybe there is a need for an ink that will fade quickly, then I would be able to reuse the very expensive paper.