Digital BW, The Print

I don't know about using the Epson vivid inks in a 3800, but I am happily using the Conecolor vivid types with their refillable cartridges in my 3800.

I went for the vivid inks on the assumption that I was more likely to get a colour gamut that matched the standard K3 gamut. I know from doing hundreds of profiles for other people (my small business) that third party inks seldom give the same colour gamut as OEM inks. I was told by the people at Inkjet Mall that their vivid inks are OK in the 3800 so went ahead and did it.

In the event my initial assumption was confirmed. I have found that the colour gamut of the Conecolor vivid set is marginally smaller than I was achieving with the standard K3 set. This is after a bit of fiddling to optimise driver settings and with careful profiling.

The biggest difference that I found is in the Dmax with PK. I believe this is because the Epson PK has black dye added to the pigment, whereas the Conecolor is pure pigment. (I'm sure someone will put me right on this if I'm wrong.) With MK I find that Conecolor is a bit better than K3, again after optimising and profiling.

I should say that the prints I am producing with the Conecolor are visually very similar to the K3 prints, although a side-by-side comparison does show the slightly smaller gamut. The difference is not big enough to send me running back to Epson inks - except maybe the PK....

Roger

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "jhd622005" <jhd622005@...> wrote:
>
> 
> 
> I read on the http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/index.html
> webpage the 3800 cannot use the newer 3880 Epson inks.
> I would call the Cone office to be sure. The 3880 has a new print head and uses a different algorithim.
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "doggo@" <doggo@> wrote:
> >
> >      I have been printing a fairly large variety of papers on my 3800 for a couple of years and have never had a single problem that was not user induced. I have been seriously considering moving to the Cone inks and refillable cartridges. Cone also offers the Vivid ink in at attempt to provide that newer gamut from the inks of the 3880. 
> >      The Cone website says that it is unknown whether the Vivid inks will work with the Epson drive and further that new profiles would be required, which could be created by the ColorMunki, also avalable at the Cone site.
> >      I'm pretty sure that I will buy the Cone color inks for the 3800, but I am greatly intrigued at the idea of the increased gamut if I buy the Vivid inks. Of course, buying the system and then immediately shelling out another $400-to whatever for profiling is a bit of a puzzler. In short, is going for the Vivid colors worth it?
> >      Does anybody have any experience or information about use of the Vivid inks (designed for the 3880) on a 3800? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
> >      Thanks In Advance
> > doggo
> >
>