Digital BW, The Print

"tim_knapik" <mistylightphotography@...> wrote:
>
> Hello. What would happen if I were to use an original Claria black ink cartridge and non OEM cartridges in the other 5 positions in an Epson 1400? I only want to print black only with this setup. Thank you.


Usually the printer won't print if OEM and third party chips are mixed.  I've seen some claim in works on the 1400, but my memory is that mine did not.


Claria K without more is greenish on most paper, so I'm not sure that's a great solution.  If you have the standard Claria setup in all positions and use QTR you'd be able to use some LM to control the green.  Still, black only may not give you the smoothest results.  Some of the early work with this that looked so good was very high contrast, hiding most of the Claria BO issues.

A full inkset would be much better, but for Claria, this means mixing your own.  I've come up with a "simplified" mixing procedure for a generic, full inkset that can control the green tendency on all papers, but I think it's still way too complicated for most to bother with.  See the draft at http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/N2.pdf

As an alternative, to the above, a simpler 3-level 13% magenta to 87% Noritsu K monotone is probably the way to go.  Frankly, I use just a 2-position 13% monotone for glossy (in the Eb4+ setup).  Most of the excessively green papers are matte, where I use carbon, not dye.

In addition to the problem of mixing, with the Noritsu-Epson (read Claria bulk) approach, one still does have the cost of the 500ml cart at $187, which is a barrier although still much cheaper than the OEM inks in small quantities.  The way to avoid the second cart -- magenta -- is to just buy a Claria 1400 magenta cart and pull out the ink.

As with all of these user-mixed solutions, the big savings comes from the fact that full inksets are mostly water.  So, if one buys the water and mixes the base it's the dilution base and dilute inks were the huge savings are.  The net inkset cost is about what you'd expect from MIS bulk ink prices.  But if they did it, they'd have to raise the prices much more to make any profit.

So, bottom line, there is no easy way for most to get to the good Claria B&W.  I'll continue to explore alternatives to open this up to more.



Paul
www.PaulRoark.com