Printing Digital Photos

‘Printing Digital Photos’ Category

Epson 81N Cartridge Value Pack

October 6, 2010 by Frank

Have one of the following printers?

Artisan 725 • Stylus Photo 1410 • Stylus Photo R290 • Stylus Photo R390 • Stylus Photo RX590 • Stylus Photo RX610 • Stylus Photo RX690 • Stylus Photo T50 • Stylus Photo TX650 • Stylus Photo TX700W • Stylus Photo TX710W • Stylus Photo TX800FW • Stylus Photo TX810FW

Then try the great value pack cartridges from Epson.

Product code is C13T111792, and the pack includes one each of – 81N Black [C13T111192], 81N Cyan [C13T111292], 81N Magenta [C13T111392], 81N Yellow [C13T111492], 81N Light Cyan [C13T111592], 81N Light Magenta [C13T111692].

Great value and an easy way to buy 81N cartridges!

Epson 81N T0811 Value Pack Ink Cartridges High Yield C13T111792

Category Inks, Printing Digital Photos | Tags: Epson | No Comments
Canon PIXMA iP6320D Printer

April 30, 2007 by Frank

Canon’s PIXMA iP6320D photo printer boasts 4800 x 1200 dpi printing as well as direct printing from compatible memory cards, digital cameras and mobile phones.

It features a 2.5 inch LCD screen to preview photos and basic photo editing functions such as red eye removal and retouching. Chromalife inks ensure that prints are long lasting.

Dot size is a as low as 2 picolitre and 6 different colour inks make photos and prints look great.

The PIXMA iP6320D prints borderless photos up to A4.

Interfaces include:
PC: USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, Bluetooth printing with optional BU-20 adaptor and Bluetooth enabled computer
Camera Direct: Direct Print Port (PictBridge)
Mobile Phone: IrDA 1.2 (JPEG only), Bluetooth Ver. 1.2 with optional BU-20 adaptor (JPEG only)

Canon PIXMA iP6320D ink cartridges include the Canon CL-41, Canon CL-51 and Canon CL-52 Photo Ink.

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Compatible iP4200 Cartridges

April 27, 2007 by Frank

Update below original story

…Found this on a US website today, which was quite interesting:

“Thank you for visiting our website…

Unfortunately, there are no compatible brand cartridges available for the following Canon printers:

iP1600, iP4200, iP6210D, iP6220D, iP5200, iP5200R, iP6600D, MP150, MP170, MP450, MP500, MP800, MP950

We have recently inspected the new Canon cartridges for the printers listed above and spoken to the compatible brand manufacturers. Canon now has proprietary (patented) parts on the cartridges meaning no one except Canon can make the cartridges or work around the patented parts, at least not at this time.

There is a distinct possibility new non-genuine compatible brand cartridges may never be available for any of the Canon printers listed above. We are still hopeful the compatible brand cartridge manufacturers will find a way to make the ink cartridges in the future.

What this also means is that you can only buy the expensive Canon brand ink cartridges. For example, the Canon iP1600 printer costs about $50.00. One black and one color cartridge cost $45.00, nearly the price of the printer itself. Also, the iP1600, MP150, MP170, MP450, iP6210D, iP6220D have tri-color cartridges, which means if you run out of only one of the three colors in the cartridge you have to replace the cartridge, even though you may not be out of the other colors.

Fortunately, Epson and Brother have not gone this way yet. Epson and Brother printers have inexpensive compatible brand ink cartridges readily available, which we carry.

At this point, we will more than likely be suggesting that customers consider selling or possibly not purchasing the newer Canon printers, if possible and buy an Epson, Brother or one of the few remaining Canon printers that have compatibles available. Depending on how may cartridges you plan on using, purchasing another printer that has compatible brand cartridges available can save a considerable amount of money over the life of the printer. ”

When they say patented parts, of course they mean the proprietary chip which measures the ink levels. I believe there will be compatibles made for these however they may not have the chip in them. All this would means is that the printer will detect non-genuine cartridges, give you a warning that Canon’s warranty does not cover damage caused by refills, and then disables the low ink warning. You will need to frequently visually check the level of ink in the cartridges because if the ink runs out it will fry the printhead (and of course this will not be covered by warranty as you have acknowledged that you used compatible cartridges!). Watch this space.

Update

Several companies are now offering compatible cartridges for the iP4200 – with one problem. ~~As the chips are still copyrighted, they are not supplied with the compatible cartridges~~ (~~and they won’t work without the chip~~) (see update below). This means you have to prise the chips off the empty originals and stick them onto the compatible. If you damage the chip, you will need to buy a new original cartridge.

Also when you change the chip you will get a warning message and the ink indicators will no longer work (which could result in burning the heads out). Be careful!

Further Update

Compatible cartridges with chips are now freely available. If buying compatibles, clarify with the seller whether the chips are included or not.

Category Inks, Printers, Printing Digital Photos | Tags: | 14 Comments
Reliability Comparison Study

August 4, 2006 by Frank

Although this study dates back to September 2005, I was reminded about it by regular reader Randall Philips. Randall has tried a lot of refilled inks for his HP and has had some disasters with a few cartridges but he has persevered because he is trying to save money.
The HP study, conducted by an independent body, tests the reliability of refilled cartridges bought over the counter and represents various vendors. Quality Logic, the testing company, found refilled inks just didn’t match with HP quality. Some problems they found with refills were leaking cartridges, poor quality printing, premature failure and low yields.

I have to say that even though some cartridges were classed as poor quality, they weren’t too bad and a lot of people would be happy with that quality considering the amount of money they will save by buying a refilled cartridge.

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Cartridge World Doomed to Failure?

April 20, 2006 by Frank
Cartridge World is one of the big success stories in Australian franchising. Cartridge World specialises in refilling ink and toner cartridges, and from one small store in Adelaide they have grown to 1,000 stores worldwide in 9 years. Can this phenomenal success continue? Unless Cartridge World evolves, the answer is no. There are several reasons for this:

The OEM Manufacturers
The major printer manufacturers have a vested interest in making sure that refillers such as Cartridge World don’t succeed. HP, Canon, Epson and Lexmark make alot of money from printer cartridges, and although refillers have only a slice of the market this represents billions of dollars in lost sales. HP last year let off a warning shot over Cartridge World’s bows by issuing a warning that some franchisees were using inks that infringed HP’s patents. (More on this later in the article). Canon recently successfully sued a company which was refilling it’s cartridges. Epson has been stopping companies from making compatibles of it’s cartridges that infringe it’s patents (Cartridge World has it’s own line of compatible Epson and Canon cartridges).

Manufacturers are making it difficult for refillers in 3 other ways:
1) By placing chips and other proprietary designs on the cartridge to make it more difficult or time-consuming to refill cartridges;
2) By making the cartridges a lot smaller and a lot cheaper thus making it uneconomical to refill – for instance some new HP cartridges cost just $10 – and if you factor in the cost of labour, rent, franchise and advertising fees and utilities (plus the inevitable failures) the average Cartridge World franchisee would be lucky to break even when they refill one of these.
Other Epson and Canon cartridges are time consuming and difficult to refill. The newest Canon cartridges even let the printer know they have been refilled and if a user inserts refilled cartridges into their machine they are prompted with a warning message that says their warranty won’t cover damage by these cartridges, and the printer disables the ‘ink low’ warning which may result in the printheads burning out;
3) Creating vastly superior inks and toners that are difficult to replicate. For instance, toners used to be manufactured by making a ‘porridge’ of toner then drying it out and crushing it to a fine powder. This was very efficient, however this process resulted in toner particles which varied in size by up to 1000%, and particles which looked like chipped pieces of rock under a microscope. These days OEM manufacturers’ toner is made to the finest tolerances, and they have patented processes to make the particles a spherical shape. See an article here about the different processes. Presently replacement toner of such quality is difficult to obtain, resulting in print quality from newer type remanufactured cartridges being noticeably lower quality. Colour inks too are becoming more and more complex and difficult to duplicate. A lot of newer inks are covered by patents so anything close to the original just can’t be used to refill ink cartridges. Even though most ink formulations are covered by patent, at the time of writing Cartridge World stated on their site:

“We use premium inks that have exactly the same chemical and physical properties as the original inks. Our inks are specially formulated for your printer.” (my italics).

If the inks are exactly the same, Cartridge World can expect more warning letters not only from HP but also Canon, Epson and the rest.

The rise of digital photography
The fuel for the latest burst of activity in the printing industry is the huge growth of digital photography. Consumers are printing out literally millions of photos on their home printers and consumers demand photo quality prints. This requires not only quality ink but also quality paper. This market will continue to grow. Unfortunately Cartridge World has positioned itself on price, not on quality. The OEM’s have the upper hand here. HP, Canon and Epson all advertise that best printing results are achieved by using genuine inks and paper, and when people want to print photos they think OEM ink. While refill inks can produce brilliant prints if of a high quality, Cartridge World just doesn’t seem to have entered the digital printing world. None of the Cartridge World corporate websites even mention that printing quality photos is possible with their refilled cartridges. Cartridge World inks have not been tested for permanence by Henry Wilhelm. (09/06/2006 UPDATE: They have now been tested). Cartridge World does not mention that photo prints can be produced at half the price using their refilled cartridges. The corporation psych seems to have ignored the future of printing!

Color laser printing
Another strong growth area is color laser printing. Color laser printers have dropped substantially over the past 2 years and machines can be had for less than $500. However, this poses problems for Cartridge World. As their own website says:

“At present, continual research and development has yet to produce a toner which can be used successfully in the reloading of a colour laser cartridge.”

The reasons are here on a story about color laser cartridge refilling.

This will only cut into the “pool” of cartridges that can be refilled, reducing Cartridge World’s market further.

Competition
Cartridge World have been fortunate in that there is no real large scale competitors to their business. That will change of course. Caboodle Cartridge, although comparitavely small with 44 stores, is set to expand because consumers don’t even have to wait for their cartridge to be refilled, they have ones on hand. And there are the big chains: Walgreens – opening ink refill stations at 1,500 of their stores; OfficeMax , installing 900+ ink refill stations across America; and Office Depot is trialling a similar ink refill service in 15 stores in Chicago.

Can the refill market grow to absorb these new competitors? While awareness can increase the refill market, the OEM’s will not tolerate losing market share – every 1% increase in refill sales hurts their sales by $3 billion. This is the real competition for Cartridge World – a squeeze on one side from new entrants to the refill market, and a squeeze on the other side from the big manufacturers (through upscaled marketing, deep discounting or legal action).

What to do?
Cartridge World will need to add value to avoid the squeeze.
- As mentioned, digital photo printing is huge and marketing efforts, quality control and staff training can help Cartridge World become “digital printing experts”, offering a total print solution. A range of quality photo papers and displays of printed samples would make this an easy proposition to sell.
- This one may be controversial as it may ruffle some feathers. Team up with a printer niche player such as Sharp, Xerox or Olivetti to offer a range of Cartridge World brand printers (with easy to refill inks and toners of course). With a large enough installed base this could be the product that ensures Cartridge World’s continued growth and survival. And what better salespeople are there than the ones already giving advice to customers about which printer to buy, and ink and toners?
- Misc: Keep being innovative and staying ahead of the pack – use whatever means possible to differentiate itself from the competition. Build the technical skills of Cartridge World operators with training on a regular basis (not just 2 weeks at the start). Ensure standards are set out and stores are following those standards. Find out why the best franchisees are successful and apply that wherever possible to other franchisees. Encourage forward thinking at head office, who should be thinking about the state of the industry in 3-5 years time.
It’s been fun…
…dissecting Cartridge World. There is a comments box below, use it! I would especially love to hear from Cartridge World people. Do you think this assessment is accurate? Have I made any factual errors you would like to see corrected? I will approve all comments (except frivolous, repetitive or abusive posts). Cheers!
Category Inks, Photo Paper, Printers, Printing Digital Photos, Toners | Tags: | 22 Comments
New HP Color Laserjet 3600

March 2, 2006 by Frank

HP have released a new ColorLaserJet – the 3600. This printer is aimed at small offices with a street price of around $950. First impressions are very favourable, it is very easy to set up and use.

One of the main features is the printers use of the new HP ColorSphere toners. These toners promise a more glossy print (even on plain paper). You can use glossy paper in this printer as well. Another unique feature is that unlike most other mid-end colour lasers, the HP Color LaserJet 3600 cartridges also include the drum. This means you replace the drum every time you replace the toner, which will result in clear prints every time. Often on color laser printers the drum (or photoconductor unit) can cost as much to replace as the original cost of the printer!

One drawback of the HP Color Laserjet 3600 is that it is a host based printer, which basically means it uses your computers processing power and memory to render the page for printing. This can put a strain on your workstation, so be careful. It is, however, compatible with both Macintosh and Windows. The HP Color Laserjet 3600n and HP Color Laserjet 3600dn also support out of the box networking making them very easy to set up and connect.

All in all a great colour laser for small offices.

Category Printers, Printing Digital Photos, Toners | Tags: | No Comments
Photo Paper is taking too long to dry

February 28, 2006 by Frank

The time taken for a print to dry depends on several factors:

• The amount of ink printed which in turn depends on the density of the image.
• The type of photo paper used.
• The humidity and temperature of the surrounding air.
• The brand of ink and printer.
• The air circulation in the room.

For best results:

• Use the same brand of paper as the printer.
• If you use other brands of paper such as Ilford or Celcast, make sure it is suitable for your printer.
• If you use generic or other brands of paper you may need to test several different types with your printer.
• If using refilled or generic cartridges and the photos dry too slowly, try using genuine cartridges
• Carefully remove the print from the printer once it has finished printing and place it flat in a warm dry environment with good air circulation.

Category Inks, Photo Paper, Printing Digital Photos | Tags: | 2 Comments
Samsung SPP-2020 and SPP 2040 Printer Review

February 9, 2006 by Frank

Today we had the opportunity to look at the new Samsung SP-2040 Photo Printer. This printer is a dye sublimnation printer, which means it doesn’t use ink cartridges but a film with the colours impregnated. The unit is very sleek and looks great, not taking up much room – until you add the paper tray that is. Then it looks like an ugly duckling! Once you’ve finished with printing though you can pack the cover away and it will look great again.

Photo quality is very nice as is expected from a dye sub printer, colours are laid one on top of another to build up the image. Each photo takes about a minute to print which is OK if you only need to do a few but may be too much if you have 1-200 to do. The Samsung SPP-2020 and SPP-2040 don’t need a computer to print photos, you can just hook up your camera using Pictbridge and off it goes, however the SPP-2020 doesn’t have a preview LCD screen like the SPP-2040 so will need to use the camera’s screen do decide which to print. The printers print onto 100 x 150mm photo paper.

The software that comes with the printer is PhotoThru, and includes both Windows XP and Mac OS X 10.3 and above versions. The software formats everything automatically making photos easy to print.

Overall these 2 printers are great, the only drawbacks being the ugliness of the paper tray, the not so fast printing and that the paper tray holds only 20 sheets – however the superb quality of the prints really counter that. If you need quality but not speed, this is the photo printer for you.

Category Printers, Printing Digital Photos | Tags: | 2 Comments
HP Consumables Price Rise

February 7, 2006 by Frank

Last month Hewlett Packard announced an across the board price rise of 5% for all HP inks, HP toners and papers. While we have been lucky over the past 2 years with our appreciating dollar causing great price drops in consumables, unfortunately things are now going the other way and we are going to have to start paying more. The vast majority of printer consumables coming into the country are paid with US dollars, so any changes in the exchange rate are reflected in the prices end users pay. With the US dollar rising, this means we will be paying more for consumables.

Category Inks, Photo Paper, Printing Digital Photos, Toners | Tags: | No Comments
iP 4200 PIXMA Cartridges

January 31, 2006 by Frank

Canon has released new PGI-5 and CLI-8 cartridges for the Canon Pixma iP4200. These cartridges have a special chip in them which tells the printer how much ink is left in the cartridge. The cartridge numbers are

PGI-5BK – Black pigment ink
CLI-8BK – Black dye based ink
CLI-8C – Cyan dye based ink
CLI-8M – Magenta dye based ink
CLI-8Y – Yellow dye based ink

Unlike traditional dye based inks, these inks from Canon are highly resistant to fading from light and gases in the air. Canon claim a 100 year life from these Chromalife inks.

These cartridges are also suitable for Pixma iP5200, iP5200r printers, MP500, MP800 and MP950 multifunctions

Compatibles are not yet available for the PGI5 or CLI8 inks probably for 2 reasons:
1. The ink formulations are quite complex – refill ink manufacturers need to make sure their inks will perform equivalent to the original Canon inks; and
2. The on-board chip has a patent from Canon on it so compatible manufacturers will have to be very careful not to infringe that patent, which could leave them open to litigation.

At the moment it is best to buy genuine Canon cartridges.

Category Inks, Printers, Printing Digital Photos | Tags: | 3 Comments

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