Mark Pickavance explains the options for alternative ink systems and how they can be a doubled-edged sword
Coloured ink for printers is often considered expensive stuff, isn't it?
It irks those who use it that it comes in receptacles that make a thimble seem spacious by comparison and that it is dispensed by the printer in picolitres, yet the cost is mind-numbingly high.
Take, for example, the classic Epson T0713 Durabrite Ultra cartridge that works on about 30 or more of the company's Stylus range of printers. A typical high-street cost is £10.49, and it contains a mere 5.5ml of ink.
A bottle of wine general has 750ml in it, so if a wine bottle contained this ink, it would cost a staggering £1,430.45. Or, put another way, almost the same as a Vintage 1982 bottle of Krug champagne delivered in a hand crafted wooden case.
That's silly, isn't it? I don't really care what exotic chemicals Epson puts in its ink: I will never accept that it makes it worth the same as 30-year old vintage champagne, however Epson chose to brew it.
Of course, you don't need to use official ink, because despite all manner of legal efforts by the major printer brands, you can still get ink from alternative sources.
If you decide to take the path of lowering printer running costs, there are a number of options you have, each having different advantages and drawbacks.
Refillable Carts
When you see how small the cartridges are on most inkjet printers and how rapidly they empty, almost the first thing that crosses your mind is wondering if you could refill them.
There are two problems with doing this: getting the ink in there and the chip that is on each cart that tells the printer how much ink is in it.
You can solve the first problem by drilling a small hole in the top of the cart and injecting third-party ink in using a syringe. It's a messy job, and you need to make sure you block off the hole after filling or the ink will dry out in the cart.
The send part requires a special piece of kit called a chip resetter, which will reprogram the chip to believe that it's new and the cart is unused.
If you do both these things, then you can reuse the cart, maybe even indefinitely if you're careful.
However, you can make life a bit easier by buying pre-modified carts that are designed specifically for this purpose.
To that end, they have a hole and associated rubber plug that you can remove and replace when you need to fill the cart. That makes the process less prone to leaks, and they also have the chip issues covered too. Refillable carts usually come with special chips that automatically reset themselves each time the printer is turned on, telling the printer that they're full.
That isn't always as helpful as it seems, because you get no feedback about ink left in the system, so you can run out midprint. But you can refill them almost indefinitely with bulk ink, so the cost advantage over original supplies is substantial.
Where they're not so great a deal is when you do lots of printing, because you'll be refilling on a regular basis, and you'll end up with inky fingers if you don't wear rubber gloves. You can streamline this process by having more than one set of carts, with spares ready to go when you need them, but there are ways to make this less of a chore.
Typically a set of carts for a popular printer type cost around £25, and you can get them usually with an ink starter pack for around £50. Ink costs vary wildly, but a 100ml bottle of a specific colour usually sets you back about £7.50, and it will contain roughly 20 refills for the cost of a single original cart.
For those with serious printing requirements, you can get ink in one-litre packs for less than £50 a colour, should you intend to run your printer until it completely falls apart.
Advantages
• Cheaper ink
• Limited modifications needed to printer.
• Works on almost any printer.
Disadvantages
• Can be a messy job.
• Reset chips don't generally relay ink levels.
• They can leak.
CISS For Heavy Duty Printing
For the hardcore colour print generators, the ultimate solution is to buy and install a CISS (continuous ink system). What this does is replace the internal ink carts with external ones, holding substantially more ink, and it then pipes the ink in through a head that emulates the cartridges.
The advantages of this are numerous, but clearly the possibility of running out of a specific colour part way through a print are massively reduced, if not entirely eliminated.
The makers of the systems don't claim that the ink is a chemical match for that made by Epson, HP, Brother or Canon but that it will work without clogging your printer.
My experience is that while the colours usually aren't generally as strong, the results are usually acceptable given that the ink costs are usually 10% of the branded product.
Once the CISS is on the printer - and for most designs this only takes minutes to achieve - bulk ink can easily be added to the external reservoirs, extending print runs almost indefinitely.
When you source the technology you need to get one made for your specific printer, and it is worth reading the comments of those who have used the solution provider you've chosen before you purchase.
But (and this is the clincher for many) if you decide you don't like using a CISS or you don't like the ink quality, you can return the printer to normal use very easily, and you can change ink supplier as easily.
That's the good news, but as you probably guessed, it isn't all plain sailing. Depending on your printer, you may have to modify the case to mount the CIS, because most don't have an obvious hole through which all the ink-carrying tubes can easily pass.
On many printers you can get away with leaving the cover open, but if it has a sensor to detect access you may need to disable this microswitch. Others actually require either extra parts adding or deployment of plastic-cutting power tools.
If that sounds drastic, on what might be a new printer, then a CIS is probably not for you.
There are also other significant hardware issues that you need to be aware of, which are indicative of these printers being designed for a specific lifespan by their makers.
At Epson, Canon and other firms, they build a printer with an idea as to how often it is likely to be used on a monthly basis and over its working life.
Let's imagine (because they don't hand this data out) that a typical consumer inkjet is made to use a set of new carts once a month for five years. What happens if you exceed what number? The printer will refuse to print.
Epson's, for example, have a counter in them that records each print, and once you reach a certain number, the printer will tell you, even if it works perfectly, that parts of the printer have reached their 'end of service life'.
Part of this is true, but it's also a rather backdoor means to get you to buy another printer when the one you have could probably carry on.
The truth is that all inkjet printers pump ink through their heads to clean them or prepare for printing that never ends up on paper. This excess ink is redirected to a foam pad, usually in the base of the printer, where it soaks into the absorbent material.
It's possible to reset the internal counter with a software utility, but once the pad is completely saturated with ink, it will start leaking out of the printer in a generally unhelpful and unpleasant way.
The obvious action would be to replace the pad, though the printer is designed to make this task all but impossible for the owner.
Epson does offer a service where it will switch out the absorbent pads, but the cost for most models is more than purchasing a whole new printer, perversely.
The best home grown solution is to locate the plastic tube that directs unused ink to the pad, and redirect it to an external container which you can then empty when it becomes full. This stops the printer filling with ink, getting heavier, and pouring it away every few months isn't a major problem.
More of an issue is the increasing amount of clutter that a CISS printer generates around it, as the external ink dump is just another item to make space for.
It also makes, along with the external ink tanks, the printer even more challenging to relocate, but it does solve the printer overflowing with old excess ink.
For those wanting to take this step, a CISS costs about £50-60, depending on the host printer, and ink another £45 or so, depending on how many colours the design uses. Printers with just four colours have generally cheaper CISSs, but you can get ones for those that use seven colours, like the Epson Stylus Pro 4000.
A CISS modification can drastically reduce the cost of printing, but it's not a perfect solution in many respects.
Advantages
• Almost unlimited ink.
• Can be uninstalled.
• Cheapest ink costs.
• Long print runs.
Disadvantages
• Printers aren't designed to work this way.
• Needs physical modifications to printer.
• Voids warranty.
• Accidents can happen.
• Not original ink colours.
• Difficult to move the printer once in place.
Third-Party Ink - Is It Any Good?
Before I answer that question, it's worth understanding that the colour accuracy of any ink is entirely dependent on the paper stock you use it on, because when a droplet of ink strikes paper, there's a tiny chemical reaction that can alter the colour it appears to be by the time it fully dries.
Because of that critical element, the colour representation that many printer makers claim is only true if you use their specific paper stock, designed to work with their special ink blends. So unless you intend to use official ink with official paper (and who really does that?), then colour accuracy is probably a moot point from the outset.
And when you realise that cheap photocopy paper can't accept the amount of ink that a heavy gloss stock can, the picture is completely confused even before you introduce non-official ink and non-official paper.
But accepting that we use some good-quality gloss paper and third-party ink, can the results be anything like the official product?
Well, according to numerous tests, in many cases a reputable third-party ink can be as good, with some producing even better and brighter colours than the official products.
That should be qualified by stating that some alternative inks aren't good and don't compare well, but some do, and a small amount of forum research should identify the non-official ink that many customers like and would recommend.
The repost to that sort of statement by the printer makers is that their special inks won't fade over time, and they won't clog your printer, extending its life.
The first part of this assertion is the one with most validity, because cheap inks can fade over a relatively short time if the print is exposed to ultraviolet sunlight every day. However, all inks will eventually fade, because sunlight changes the chemical structure, eventually breaking down the pigment/dye compounds. It also isn't the only factor, because air pollution and ozone levels can also interact, causing other subtle changes.
Therefore the environment a print is kept in (lighting conditions, under glass or exposed, humidity levels) can have an impact on the long-term appearance of a print over time.
And again, inks makes are differently, and some brands have very good fade resistance, at least comparable with official, while some is very poor.
In terms of clogging, the problem comes when you use pigments on printers that were designed for dyes (see Dyes Vs Pigments boxout). But generally reputable ink suppliers won't offer you ink that will clog your nozzles, because they like repeat business.
The one thing that official ink can genuinely claim is that it is consistent, because the printer maker has complete control over the batches of ink it makes.
If you do want to use alternative ink, it's worth doing some research first, trying relatively small amounts and then deciding on a specific supplier and sticking with them once you're happy.
Though not always the case, official ink is often better but not to the degree that it's worth ten times the cost of some perfectly acceptable alternatives.
Cheap ink isn't necessarily poor quality, and branded products aren't always the very best and certainly not the best value.
Refurbs
Though technically not radically different from manufactured third-party ink carts, I thought it was important to mention these, because they're environmentally friendly. Well, as much as anything to do with computers and printing on paper can be, anachronistically.
The appearance of these was first driven by printer makers, who insisted on copyrighting the design of their carts and then wouldn't license anyone to make their own to compete with official ink.
What happens with refurbing is that empty original ink cartridges are collected up, sent to be cleaned out and then refilled like they were in the original factory that made them. This isn't something that is unique to printer ink, as it's often done with laser toner cartridges, where you get a discount by sending your existing empty cart in when ordering a refurbed one.
Are these a viable alternative to branded products? As with most things these days, the term 'that depends' applies here too. How good they are can be very dependent on the quality of the operation, what quality ink they're refilling with and how eco-friendly you want to be.
What you get is the convenience of branded replacements and much lower cost, but no great guarantee about the quality of the product or what it might do inside your printer. Those things said, I've had a branded cartridge fail and dump ink all over the inside of a printer and clog a print head up, so going the official route isn't devoid of risk either.
If you want to use refurbs then find a reputable dealer with a good level of positive customer feedback, and be prepared for the occasional cart that didn't care for a second or third trip around the track.
Dyes Vs Pigments
The ink in printers comes in two distinct types: pigments and dyes. According to those in the print industry, dye offers punchy colours, where pigment is more fade resistant. That's because at a microscopic level the two inks are quite different structurally, with dyes being made of smaller particles that generally soak into paper and pigments being larger ones that coat the surface.
So which is better? Well, that depends which printer brand you use, because different makes have opposing views, and many mix dyes and inks even in the same printer.
Canon, for example, uses dyes for its photo printing but pigment for printing black text. Epson and HP use all dye inks, and Lexmark is exclusively pigment based.
What those that use dyes do to avoid fading is to make papers that have an ultraviolet resistant coating, which will protect the ink once the dye has soaked below the surface. These coatings aren't unique to the brands, and good third-party photo paper has this level of protection too.
Some paper makers, like the excellent photo paper company Ilford (www.ilford.com), actually make specific profiles for their stock based on its performance with specific branded printers.
Ilford also predicts under various conditions how long a print might reasonably last on its paper, which is some of the best available. It's sobering to realise that even Ilford only claims a five-year life for a print placed in a well-lit lobby (2000 lux), printed with original Epson ink, and only a few more years with HP or Canon. However, it predicts the same output would last 40-50 years in an average home.
Pigments might be more fade resistant than dyes, but they're both a long way from being permanent.
Final Thoughts
With two of my previous colour printers I implemented alternative ink strategies, but I haven't used a CISS with the current Canon Pixma that I have. It did use refillable carts but got very bored with the mess and being the only person who would do the job of filling them when others wanted to print. For me, continuous ink and refillable cartridges both ended up being more trouble than they're worth.
A major factor in that statement is that I don't print images that often, and when I do, I don't want any hassle getting the printer to work flawlessly.
However, if I was printing every day, I'd seriously consider alternatives, because the cost of using official ink is so high it's just not realistic for any large volume of printing.
My compromise is to use alternative inks in pre-made carts that are much cheaper than the official brand but deliver good enough results that I can live with.
It might theoretically shorten the life of my printer, and the colours might not be perfect, but no mortgage arrangement is required prior to printing.
It's also worth pointing out that even with a CIS or refillable carts, photo service printing is often cheaper per print, especially at the smaller paper sizes.
What's good for the printer owner is that for the most part you can choose the level of cost you're prepared to accept and tailor the solution to fit your budget.
For those who print very rarely, maybe branded carts make sense, although with them often being date controlled, you could get stung with full carts that the system will no longer accept.
CISS solutions are for those who like to print every day and don't want to pay through the nose for the experience. Refillable carts offer low cost as a trade-off against hassle, and third-party cartridges provide the same level of convenience as official ink, but at a fraction of the cost.
Whatever you choose, there isn't anything forcing you to live with that choice, and you can, as I did, reverse course if one option doesn't fit your expectations.