Refillable K2 ink sets for colour and B&W

[ola_tuvesson]

<p><em>I originally posted this as a reply to <a href="../digital-darkroom-forum/00XMzm">another thread</a> but noticed that threads don't pop back to the top when replies are posted. Since the thread was more than two months old I doubt anyone would see it - so I thought I'd post it as a new thread instead. Hope this isn't against the forum rules! </em></p>

<p>Ok, so, after a few months of procrastination, and the gradual realisation that good B&W printing will never be possible to achieve with my SP 5500, I have now become the owner of an Epson Stylus Pro 4000. Unlike the 5500 this machine is supported by QuadTone RIP and there are several alternative ink options available, including dedicated black & white ones. It also does A2 and handles roll paper so quite a nice upgrade for my tiny budget. I am pretty sure the banding issues I had with the 5500 when printing black only were caused by poor rasterisation algorithms in the Epson print driver and I'm betting on QTR being the solution.<br /><br />Since the printer only just arrived I'm currently happy to use the ink it came with and print some colour pictures with the standard Epson driver - but I will eventually start to run out of ink and at that point I would like to invest in a refillable cartridge system. Now I have heard horror stories about clogged up heads from third party inks but I'm prepared to take that risk in the interest of saving a sizable chunk of $$$. Besides, I'm fairly confident I can unclog the head by reverse flushing should this happen (I did this for the 5500 a couple times which was pretty easy - and from what I've seen removing the head is even easier on the 4000). But since I do all this on a budget which would make most of you laugh I have to try to keep costs under control. I've done a fair bit of searching on the web, reading in various forums and browsing web shops to get an idea of prices. A plan is formulating and it goes something like this:</p>

<ul>

<li>Get a full set of transparent, spongeless, refillable cartridges </li>

<li>A set of 500ml or 1L bottles of the standard colour ink set</li>

<li>Add an additional set of cartridges of the same type for printing with MIS carbon based inks</li>

<li>And of course some bottles of B&W inks</li>

</ul>

<p>But how big should these sets be? Do I really need to swap out all eight carts every time or can I get a B&W inkset which shares one or more "blacks" with the colour set? And does the B&W inkset really need to be 8 carts in size? Won't I get sufficient quality from QTR with just four? I don't worry about tone at this point, decent neutral tone B&W is more than enough for now. <br /><br />I haven't been able to find a clear answer to any of these questions, can someone here perhaps shed some light? <br /><br />Many thanks, <br /><br />Ola</p>

[peterbcarter]

<p>I bought a Eboni6 '6 colour (shade) kit' for my 1400 at inksupply.com and have been impressed. It is carbon based and will not clog (2+ years running so far). I don't know what is available for yous, as the printer is a bit more complex, but you should have little trouble.</p>

<p>Oh, spectacular results.... ;)</p>

[ola_tuvesson]

<p>You might find this list of compatible inks useful, I've included all the bulk load inks I've been able to find that are designed to work in the UltraChrome K2 printers (4000,7600,9600). Note that prices are for 500ml single bottles and in different currencies.</p>

<ul>

<li>AIS

<ul>

<li>£44</li>

<li>advancedinkjetsystems.com</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>ITL Digital Chrome

<ul>

<li>£45</li>

<li>bulk-ink.biz</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>Lyson

<ul>

<li>£63</li>

<li>marrutt.com</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>Fotospeed Ultra Pro

<ul>

<li>£70</li>

<li>fotospeed.com</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>Inkrang

<ul>

<li>€38</li>

<li>inkiostro.it</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>Can-Ink

<ul>

<li>C$85</li>

<li>ebay.ca</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>MIS Pro

<ul>

<li>$50</li>

<li>inksupply.com</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>ConeColor K2

<ul>

<li>$75</li>

<li>InkjetMall.com</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>Mediastreet ink2image

<ul>

<li>$87</li>

<li>mediastreetbyink2image.com</li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

<p>The MIS Pro inks stand out to me as the best deal - Inkrang is cheaper but I've never heard of them while MIS have a pretty good reputation. But as I haven't been able to find a UK supplier of their inks I am instead leaning towards the ITL Digital Chrome inks; ITL seems to be a well regarded manufacturer and the price is very good compared to the competition.</p>

[ola_tuvesson]

<p>Actually, that's not quite correct, after checking current exchange rates the MIS Pro inks are actually a tiny bit cheaper than the Inkrang inks - but shipping from Italy should be a lot cheaper than from the US.</p>

[manuel_odabashian]

<p>When others used an inkflow system on their machines it was fine but then eventually something<br>

happened with one of the parts and it had to be replaced they were able to do it themslses but it still cost<br>

£70 for the disk that gave instruction my epson even though i didn't use it for 18 months was easily unblocked</p>