sim_jo

<p>Has anyone figured out a hack to stop the Epson 3880 from ever switching th black ink? I only use Matte ink. I never want to use glossy ink, but once in a while I forget to check the printer profile and there it starts switching and wasting ink. Although I never made a glossy print in my life, I was recently forced to buy a new glossy print cartridge because it was empty from all the switching back and forth. It is driving me insane! I run a high volume business, very stressful, I would like to be able to just take my mind off off having to constantly check what type of ink a document is set to. I wish before it switched a dialogue box would open up asking you if you're sure you want to switch the ink. But of course then Epson would sell less ink. It's like this machine is built to waste ink. Forcing you also to print at 1440dpi even when 720dpi or even 360 dpi looks just the same. </p>

<p>Exactly Andrew, except you can pick other paper options, which doesn't effect calibration, but it does effect the amount of ink the printer lays down. So I was curious to see if anyone else had experimented with the different paper options and come up with a decent combination. Don't know why I'm explaining myself. I thought my first question was pretty clear. </p>

<p>oh boy... I'm talking about the print dialogue box in photoshop, where you set paper type and printing ink resolution. Has nothing to do with pixel resolution peter. </p>

<p>Printing to epson luster photo paper, I'm unable to select a lower dpi than 1440. I spoke with Epson on the phone and they confirmed that printing at higher dpi consumes more ink, even though the dots are smaller. They suggested I pick plain paper instead, but now the options are only 360 and 180 dpi. I would like to print at 720dpi. Has anyone figured out a workaround to this issue yet? How to best print at 720dpi to epson photo luster paper? <br> thank you.</p> <p> </p>

<p>My new Epson 3880 shuts off automatically after a few hours of no use. When I start it up again, it goes through a cleaning cycle wasting ink. How do I stop the printer from automatically turn off? I called epson technical support line and spoke to someone in the Philippines to no avail… Didn't know what I was talking about.</p>

<p>The best solution I've come up with so far is to under "Color Handling" in print dialogue box select "Printer Manages Color" instead of "Photoshop Manages Color". Now the prints come out almost color correct, but pretty desaturated and still inferior to the Epson 4800. Doesn't feel like a "professional" solution… </p>

<p>Just got a new 3880 and it's printing dark, contrasty and over saturated. It's obviously a printer profile issue. Been on the phone all day with epson, who's telling me that versions of photoshop, later than cs3 are not compatible with this printer and printing dark and contrasty like this is a common issue. Anyone found a solution to this issue? I've tried various profiles without luck. printing on epson presentation matte paper at the moment. Yes I realize that this paper is not optimum, but same images on this same paper print fine on my epson 4800. It's epson printer, epson paper, epson profiles. Why is it not working? </p>

<p>Buying a used printer is a bad idea no matter what considering their short life span and clogging problems whatever ink you use. Also The 3880 is only $928.99 and comes with $452.79 worth of ink and free shipping. My 4800 will be free for anyone dumb enough to pick it up. </p>

<p>Not sure <a href="/photodb/user?user_id=6468358">Mac Hordam</a> why you keep feeling inclined to respond to this thread, being that you have no experience neither with cheap paper or ink. You're basing your answers on fear and assumptions. Don't assume that just because you can't relate to a question the questioner doesn't know what he or she is doing, or what his or her needs are. Unable to get much real info on this forum, I was able to find other sites that did help. For those of you who want to cut your printing costs, and only use the epson for sketching and tests like myself, there's cheap popular kirkland photo paper sold at Costco, produced by ilford, and http://www.inksupply.com seems to be the go to place for 3rd party inks at 1/6th of the cost of epson inks. Users claim they don't clog more than Epson, and some even claim they have done tests that showed less fading over time or in direct sunlight than Epson Inks. For me, this will provide a saving of $300+ a month so I'm gong to try it out. </p>

<p>Come to think of it, for my intents and purposes I don't need any fancy paper, just one that reproduces color correctly and holds together for at least a year. What is a good cheaper paper than epson luster photo paper? If I found a cheap cut paper I wouldn't need to do the roll paper thing. </p>

<p>Thanks Andrew, didn't know the 4900 you could clean ink in pairs. that changes things. I only use roll paper as it's the most economical, but was going to trim and flatten for the 3880. and Eric, yes you're free to comment, but I didn't want this tread to get swamped with off-topic information. It's tiring to read preachy criticism on 3rd party inks from users who've never actually tried it for themselves. Let's hear from some folks who actually use 3rd party inks, hear some real life experiences.</p>

<p>Thanks Lenny. I'm pretty annoyed with Epson myself. Especially how they've built their printers in such a way that you need to waste every single color in order to clear a single clogged color. It's literally costing me $100s every time I need to clear a clog on my 4800. I doubt using non-epson inks could clog any less than epson inks, being that epson inks clog in less than 24 hours. I'm curious about print quality though, if it's comparable to using epson inks once you have a good printing profile. </p>

<p>ok guys, I thought I was pretty clear in my original question, but I'll repeat: PLEASE ONLY RESPOND IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE PRINTING WITH THIRD PARTY INKS. </p>

<p>oh Mac Hordam. You couldn't help yourself could you? </p>

<p>I'm ditching my epson 4800 after 7 years because no matter what I try it keeps clogging, and I hear the 3880 doesn't have the same clogging problem due to pressurized inks. I just discovered ink supply.com and their much cheaper MIS inks. Does anyone have experience with using these inks for color printing on the epson 3880? How do they compare to epson inks? <br /> Please only respond if you have extensive practical experience with 3rd party inks.</p>