Convenient, high-quality color printing is what we enjoy the most from digital printing, and you can achieve excellent prints without leaving your home by deciding on a few key options when it comes to your digital printer. The type of ink you use has a large influence on the overall final quality. Let’s take a look:
Ink Types (Dye vs. Pigment)
With an inkjet printer there is a decision to be made about the type of ink to use - there are two types: dye-based and pigment-based. Now you’re asking yourself, “What’s the difference between them”? Dye-based inks are water-soluble and the paper absorbs the ink. Pigment-based inks consist of a neutral color carrier with the pigment suspended inside and pigment settles into the paper’s tiny fiber; so when the ink dries, the pigment is fixed on the fibers. Thus, the pigment inks are more water resistant than the dye-based inks. Dye-based ink also deteriorates when exposed to UV light, and water is the ultimate killer. Dye-base ink prints therefore require a finishing coat. Pigment inks take a considerably longer time to fade or decompose to any noticeable degree, and are basically water-resistant.
Metamerism
When make digital inkjet prints, you need to watch out for Metamerism, which is an undesirable phenomenon in which two colors appear to be identical in hue, tone and saturation under one type of light source (say a tungsten lamp), but then those same two colors do not match under a different light source (say sunlight from a window). You’ve probably recognized this phenomenon with clothing, when a blue shirt and pants look the same in your bedroom, but look different in the sunlight. This is a potentially serious problem, because your photo prints will appear different in different lighting display scenarios. Metamerism typically results from using generic or substandard print drivers (the computer software that allows the computer to talk to the printer). This will affect the way the print driver instructs the printer to blend the inks to achieve a desired color. To overcome metamerism, we suggest you use Raster Image Processors (RIPs), which are special print drivers that give you more precise control of color management. RIPs are recommended when you’re striving to make high-end, top quality fine art digital prints. In addition, metamerism is especially visible with glossy photo paper, because of the way various light sources interact with the glossy finish. You can eliminate this symptom of metamerism by using special anti-metamerism paper.
Continuous Flow System
It’s no secret that the cost of replacement inkjet printer cartridges can easily outpace the cost of a new printer within two or three refills. So a cost-effective solution was developed called the Continuous Flow System, in which your printer ink is stored in very large vats that connect to the printhead nozzles via tubes. You refill the ink by refilling the vats instead of buying the expensive and limited-in-ink, ink- cartridges. What’s interesting about a CFS set-up is that the ideal ink level is always in the cartridge that sits in the printer, so if you’re printing in color or B&W you don’t have to worry about one cartridge running empty faster than the others and giving you a printer “out of ink” error. These CFS or Bulk-in systems enable the user to use inexpensive aftermarket ink as well as specialty inks for T-Shirt transfers or the multiple Black inks that you want for B&W printing. Therefore the CFS set-up enables digital printers to make specialty prints at a fraction of the cost of purchasing special cartridges.
Third Party Inks
What are these? Well, it’s like this. The OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) highly suggests that you ONLY use their brand-name inks (i.e. Canon wants you to use Canon inks only) in their printers. The OEM advises minimum standards, and this helps deter second-rate replacement ink manufacture, but you can find top-notch Third-party materials through cursory research. What you should remember is that the OEM makes a tremendous amount of money on their inks (a couple refills and you’ve exceeded the cost of your printer). Whereas you can save up to 96% on Third-party inks. Some of these Third-party ink cartridges provide higher quality ink than the OEM, while others are inferior and your images will fade faster. Now let me warn you right now, Third-party ink cartridges can sometimes cause the printer’s ink level sensor to malfunction, and if the cartridge doesn’t have its own print head and it runs dry, it can overheat and damage your printer. To avoid this costly mistake, it’s important to change the cartridge once your digital prints start to look faded. It is good to know that non-original inks will not void your printer’s warranty.
Using RIPs (Raster Image Processors)
If you are looking to make high-quality prints, digital printing can be a tricky process. The most difficult task is accurately reproducing the Black-density in a print. To overcome this difficulty, third-party software companies have developed a specialized printer drivers, Raster Image Processors (RIPs) to handle the details and specifics of color management, especially black. RIPs enable the photographer to have the printer’s final output match the colors of a calibrated monitor. RIPs give you the ability to set your printer color space profiles to react as favorably as possible to the particular light source in which the prints will be displayed (halogen, tungsten, fluorescent, etc.). This way, you’ll have the best possible looking image by taking into account the display conditions. RIPs are calibrated to specific paper types, so you can take into consideration what type of photo paper or other printing media you use to print your photo. RIPs provide you with the type of demanding control that you need when working in either color or B&W.
Recommendations
Something else that you must consider is the kind of printing you are going to do. This will help determine what inks to use. If you are printing mainly text, then stick with the OEM cartridges and use dye-based inks. If the majority of your printing is going to be photos and graphics, then it’s recommended that you employ the Continuous Flow system, because the ink costs will be cheaper. For this (photos and graphics) use pigment inks because pigment inks are designed to blend the blacks better. However, if photography is the overall printing, it really depends on the printer design. For example, Hewlett Packard (HP) printers use pigment inks for regular printing, but HP’s special photo cartridges have an additional dye-based photo black. Epson uses both types, but the older Epson printers are prone to metamerism.
Conclusion
The possibilities are quite extensive when it comes to digital printing with inkjet printers, so do your research, ask questions and make test prints – if you can – before you decide upon which printer and what ink choice you’ll utilize for your digital print house. Be wary of metamerism and use RIPs to obtain the highest level of control over the quality of your prints. Nothing can frustrate a photographer more than seeing a final printout where the Blacks are off (milky, cloudy or otherwise non-uniform). You will need to make the choice of either dye-based or pigment-based inks. Remember dye-based prints will get ruined if water touches them, but pigment-based prints will last longer, though they cost more. The choice between dye-based and pigment-based inks can be made easier by taking into consideration how you hope to use your prints. Since there are so many choices, you have many options that can be tailored to suit your current and future needs.
