I am looking for ink cartridges for the Epson RX420. I have bought compatibles in the past but the ink quality is not so great or the chips dont recognise. Any help would be appreciated

To my fellow Americans… I would certainly not recommend the R2880 because of my experience with ink consumption. I remain a supporter of Epson printers based on my 7600 and 2200 which served me well… but not their R2880!

Regards,
Paul Bonnichsen
Kansas City, Missouri

Run one test on each grade of paper at every resolution listed in the driver. A cheaper way is to choose the paper and resolution you think you will use most often and just run one test on that paper at that resolution.

Using your graphics software (anything from MS Paint included with every copy of Windows, to Corel or Adobe or anything you like) to produce a 1″ square filled with the color of the inks you want to test (I use black because it is easiest to designate in either RGB or CMYK, and has no other color mixed in). Now copy that 1″ square in an 8 1/2″ X 11″ background (or whatever size sheet you will use) so that the page is as full of 1″ squares as you can put there.

Next, print 50 copies. If the cartridge hasn’t emptied print another batch. Keep printing until the cartridge is empty, then count the squares printed and you will have the number of square inches one cartridge will print.

It also provides a fair approximation of the other colors as well as show how sturdy the print heads are (if the print head fails during the test or just clogs up and can’t be unclogged you might have problem).

Any cleainings during the print process will enhance the results because, as most of us already know, many inkjet printers will do cleanings during larg batch printing.

I hope this helps a little bit. Although the procedures and results here can give a good idea of how much ink can be used, the “print-a-square” method gives very precise data, and is repeatable, although rather expensive.

Printer manufacturers need to begin thinking about respecting customers and treating them as customers rather than ‘consumers’. They need to start making products that last and that don’t encourage wasteful usage, even if they need to charge a premium-price. There’s enough waste. Epson et al, stop thinking about profit above all else, please.

Epson should be ashamed of them self. They come out with 3800 which hold all nine ink cartridges now they with R2880 which is the same as R2400 & 2200 which you half to change over photo black to black matted ink, in doing so you waist
a lot of ink, they know this. They are ripen of the consumers & they know this.
BILL N

For silver halide, this includes cost of paper, plus cost of chemistry, plus labor. For ink jet prints, this includes cost of paper, plus cost of inks, plus labor. Capital costs are generally captured elsewhere.

Bean counters will inevitably argue against ink jets for all the wrong reasons. A silver halide print costs roughly one fourth to one fifth what an ink jet print does to produce in very large volumes. But if you trust Wilhelm, it also lasts about one fourth to one fifth as long.

Add to print longevity the advantages of choice of substrates, process stability, lack of serious environmental issues, and user control over the entire process, and you have the value added proposition sold by Epson, HP, and Canon.

In the end, an ink jet print is special, and should be priced to the end consumer that way. We do need accurate costs for comparison purposes, but we needn’t be terribly concerned if we properly place ink jet printing in its proper niche, at the high end of the photo printing market. The margins are great there.

Use similar papers from each vendor and do a side-by-side comparison. If you decide to mix glossy and matte, the ink loss based on swapping the blacks in Epson would be part of the prints per $200.00.

Steven

Weight is something we’ve discussed as an option, although there are some issues there as well, especially if we worked on comparing printers from different vendors. But that, including the cost per ml of ink on each vendor’s part, might give us a metric that is accurate and repeatable.