Bulk Pigment Ink for a Dye Ink Printer

I'm thinking of getting into the Niagara system of bulk ink through
Media Street. My printer is an Epson R320 which uses dye inks. With
that system, I can use their pigment type inks which is called
Generations G-Chrome. Cost to start with the Niagara system is $269
American. The ink is $116.10 and comes in 4 ounce bottles. Digital
Camera magazine (October 2005) has a favorable preview with this system
using printers made for dye inks. I have several questions and maybe
some here can help.
1. With this ink, what can I expect from an occasional text print from
MS Word? As sharp as those made using dye inks?
2. How about cost savings? They advertise 90% savings going to this
bulk ink. Is anyone getting this kind of savings? I print mostly
photos, maybe six to a dozen a week.
3. I print an occasional B+W text slide using transparency film, for
church that I made in Corel Draw. Would the print be as stable as those
I currently print with my R320 using the OEM dye inks? I would get the
Generations ink with the black ink made for glossy media.
Thanks and any help would be appreciated.
Kayaker

1. With this ink, what can I expect from an occasional text print from
MS Word? As sharp as those made using dye inks?
2. How about cost savings? They advertise 90% savings going to this
bulk ink. Is anyone getting this kind of savings? I print mostly
photos, maybe six to a dozen a week.
3. I print an occasional B+W text slide using transparency film, for
church that I made in Corel Draw. Would the print be as stable as those
I currently print with my R320 using the OEM dye inks? I would get the
Generations ink with the black ink made for glossy media.
Thanks and any help would be appreciated.

The pigment inks, esp the archival ones tend to run $10ish an oz or so
genericly speaking. Mediastreet's pricelist is presently buggered.
Expect to spend $1280ish/gal. I forget the actual ml size of the
T048120, but i'm guessing it's cost ranges $4500/gal class though I
seem to remember $5000/gal.

I don't know how well the pigment ink will work in the r300. I'm sure
the pigments are pretty fine as they are geard for printers with much
smaller nozzles than the r300. The plug and play dye inks are likely
to provide a better solution.

I don't know if their plug and play inks are "Image Specalists" or not.
In the past I used MIS inks with the Epson R200 which near as i'm
aware takes the same head.

http://www.inksupply.com/epsoninks.cfm#r200

Unless you absolutly need pigment ink, or absoultly want external ink
tanks for the R300 you have, the in cost on refillable tanks and bulk
dye ink is far less. You can e-bay a set of refillable tanks for on
average $10 each or less. Bulk ink is closer to $320/gal rather than
$1000 (aprox)ish for pigment and $5000 (aprox)ish for OEM.

While the printer worked the quality was excelent. The MIS ink
(suspected as being Image Specalists) showed the same quality on
non-printable discs as the OEM, as in it beaded up a little but then
dried.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/index.php
You might want to check with these guys on reccomendations for ink,
cartridges, or CIS systems.

The pigment inks, esp the archival ones tend to run $10ish an oz or so genericly speaking. Mediastreet's pricelist is presently buggered. Expect to spend $1280ish/gal. I forget the actual ml size of the T048120, but i'm guessing it's cost ranges $4500/gal class though I seem to remember $5000/gal.

I don't know how well the pigment ink will work in the r300. I'm sure the pigments are pretty fine as they are geard for printers with much smaller nozzles than the r300. The plug and play dye inks are likely to provide a better solution.

I don't know if their plug and play inks are "Image Specalists" or not. In the past I used MIS inks with the Epson R200 which near as i'm aware takes the same head.

http://www.inksupply.com/epsoninks.cfm#r200

Unless you absolutly need pigment ink, or absoultly want external ink tanks for the R300 you have, the in cost on refillable tanks and bulk dye ink is far less. You can e-bay a set of refillable tanks for on average $10 each or less. Bulk ink is closer to $320/gal rather than $1000 (aprox)ish for pigment and $5000 (aprox)ish for OEM.

While the printer worked the quality was excelent. The MIS ink
(suspected as being Image Specalists) showed the same quality on
non-printable discs as the OEM, as in it beaded up a little but then
dried.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/index.php
You might want to check with these guys on reccomendations for ink,
cartridges, or CIS systems.

Thanks for the info Zakejuke. I checked out the web sites and they're
good also. I do want the pigment ink even more than I want the savings
associated with bulk inks. It's the the longer life the pigment inks
give that interest me. The cost savings is good also. I realize the
savings is much greater with bulk dye inks than with pigment inks but
it is the pigment ink that gets my interest.
I am hoping someone has used the pigment inks with one of the Epson
200-320 printers as I would like to find out how it works with an
occasional text print as well as an occasional photo on plain paper.
Lynn

Thanks for the info Zakejuke. I checked out the web sites and they're
good also. I do want the pigment ink even more than I want the savings
associated with bulk inks. It's the the longer life the pigment inks
give that interest me. The cost savings is good also. I realize the
savings is much greater with bulk dye inks than with pigment inks but
it is the pigment ink that gets my interest.
I am hoping someone has used the pigment inks with one of the Epson
200-320 printers as I would like to find out how it works with an
occasional text print as well as an occasional photo on plain paper.

If it's occasional why not consider refillable cartridges? If you're
looking at a CIS from media street you're looking at an incost of $270
vs an incost of less than $100 for refillable tanks, i'd guess $50 to
$60. Most of the aftermarket refillable cartridges I see for the epson
are the no foam vacuum fill type which can be a pain unless you have
the a syrenge with the proper sized tip to match the input of the
cartridge. If you find that you desire the ability to print more than
about 30 full color prints without refilling a single tank than the CIS
is for you, and I imagine they are less prone to being messy assuming
they are working well.

.... and another choice. You can use epson 2200 ink cartridges (pigmented),
put on them the 200/320 chips, and reset the chips with a resetter. This way
you can use both original and aftermarket ink cartridges.

--


--
Yianni
(remove number nine to reply)

zakezuke
If it's occasional why not consider refillable cartridges? If you're
looking at a CIS from media street you're looking at an incost of $270 vs an incost of less than $100 for refillable tanks, i'd guess $50 to $60. Most of the aftermarket refillable cartridges I see for the epson are the no foam vacuum fill type which can be a pain unless you have the a syrenge with the proper sized tip to match the input of the cartridge. If you find that you desire the ability to print more than about 30 full color prints without refilling a single tank than the CIS is for you, and I imagine they are less prone to being messy assuming they are working well.

I think my only recourse if I want to use pigment inks is to buy the
Niagara system and then I must use the bulk inks. You're right, to get
started in the Niagara system, will cost me $269 and the 6 inks in 4
ounce bottles cost $116. The savings is that the Epson ink cartridges
contain less than 1 ounce. I see in the next post someone suggests
using the Epson 2200 ink cartridges (pigmented) by putting the 200/300
chips on the 2200 cartridges.
I'll see what that entails.
Thanks,
Lynn

... and another choice. You can use epson 2200 ink cartridges (pigmented),
put on them the 200/320 chips, and reset the chips with a resetter. This way
you can use both original and aftermarket ink cartridges.

Yianni,
That's interesting, how would I do that? Would I have to pay a resetter
each time I bought new cartridges? Or, can I transfer the chips to the
new cartridges myself?
Thanks,
Lynn

That's interesting, how would I do that? Would I have to pay a resetter
each time I bought new cartridges? Or, can I transfer the chips to the
new cartridges myself?

What Yianni is talking about is...
Take your r300 chips, reset them to zero using resetter
remove epson 2200 chips, toss them
place r300 chips on 2200 tanks
print till empty

Viable solution... no real savings in terms of cost as you are still
buying OEM ink, but epson OEM ink is pretty good.
-------------

I would still lean tward bulk 3rd party ink, putting them in refillable
cartridges with self resetting chips. Basicly the same thing as a CIS
but without the tubes that go to external ink. Unless you are printing
in serious bulk, as in more than 30ish pages a month I see the amount
of ink you can put into a refillable tank being adquate so long as you
don't mind manually filling them once a month.

Okay, I can get pigment ink into my Epson R320 printer. My next
question is - How does text print with this ink? And can I use this
printer to print on transparency paper?

I know the best suggestion would be to use two printers as printing
color photos is my highest priority and I also print some text files
and downloads on plain paper, plus some overheads on transparency
paper, but if I only have one printer would I be satisfied with Media
Streets Generation inks? I'm already thinking of a second printer for
black and white photos.
Lynn

WHAT A BUNCH OF BULL****. HA HA HA HA

zakezuke wrote:

That's interesting, how would I do that? Would I have to pay a resetter
each time I bought new cartridges? Or, can I transfer the chips to the
new cartridges myself?



What Yianni is talking about is...
Take your r300 chips, reset them to zero using resetter
remove epson 2200 chips, toss them
place r300 chips on 2200 tanks
print till empty

Viable solution... no real savings in terms of cost as you are still
buying OEM ink, but epson OEM ink is pretty good.
-------------

I would still lean tward bulk 3rd party ink, putting them in refillable
cartridges with self resetting chips. Basicly the same thing as a CIS
but without the tubes that go to external ink. Unless you are printing
in serious bulk, as in more than 30ish pages a month I see the amount
of ink you can put into a refillable tank being adquate so long as you
don't mind manually filling them once a month.