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Changing inks on a 7600/9600 without wasting huge quantities of ink

This method was suggested by Rudiger Schafer on the Epson wideformat list. I recently noticed a couple of errors in the menu selection section (6 & 7)"About changing photo/matte black carts - I use the following procedure without draining the printer:(e.g. photo black installed - want to change to matte black)

For purging the old black he suggests the following:

  1. Printer is not switched on.
  2. Open the ink lever.
  3. Replace the photo black with the matte black cart
  4. But, leave the ink lever open!
  5. Go into Maintenance Mode 2 by switching power ON while pushing the 'Paper source', 'Cut/Eject', and 'Paper Feed down' buttons.
  6. Press the 'Paper Feed down' button until you see "SERVICE CONFIG" on the display - press "Enter" button (Should be 'SelecType' - KC)
  7. Press the 'Paper Feed down' button until you see "NPD" - press "Enter" (Should be 'SelecType' - KC)
  8. There are 3 possible settings for NPD:
    0 - no ink check
    1 - pigmented ink (there should be a star "*" at this setting)
    2 - dye inks
  9. change NPD setting to '0' (no ink check) and press "Enter" - a star should show now next to the '0'
  10. Switch printer off.
  11. Switch printer on.
  12. Close the ink lever.
  13. Printer and driver shows matte black.
  14. Print a solid black print-out until photo black in the tubing is all used up (I understand something like 4' on the 9600)"

For purging the old black he suggests the following:

"The 7600 uses ca. 10-12ml of ink before the tube is flushed out. I create in PS an image of the size of 23"x40" and fill it with pure black (RGB 0,0,0). Than I use cheap matt double-weight paper and print that image with 720dpi. When you look at the finished print you see that 2/3 is photo ink as it looks a little bit dull and the rest of the print shows the nice dark matte ink. The system is now charged with matte black.

The 9600 uses ca. 20-22ml of ink. I use the same procedure but the image is 43"x40". "

You can follow the discussion thread on the list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EpsonWideFormat/message/43923

If you consider that an ink change the 'official way' wastes this much ink for all colours, you can see why there is such a huge saving. If we had one real complaint about the 9600 here at Northlight, it would be the huge amount of ink wasted if you want to change black inks - we are very grateful for the tip!

If you are curious as to what over a hundred pounds worth of waste ink looks like - see here :-)

Note -- We printed four 40"x10" solid black rectangles on cheap matt paper to purge the black line. The first 3 were a light black and the third much darker.

There have been reports that you need to reinstall the Epson driver on Macs after doing the change - if you are using a Mac and get 'COMMAND ERROR' on the display, and blinking ink cart lights, then a reinstall might be tried. As with any Epson driver installation on Mac OSX, it's best to run a permissions fix (using the disk utility in Utilities) afterwards. A lot of the drivers for older printers incorectly set file permissions. As general Mac 'housekeeping' it's good to do a permission repair before and after and new software installation anyway.

Changing black inks on the 4880/7800/9800/7880/9880

Printers we've reviewed

Supplies

Techniques

Assorted info on using a graphics tablet to work with when editing - I have one and find I just don't use it much, others use them all the time.

Scanning

Colour Management

It's definitely worth getting to know the principles, as Keith comments:

"I've found that an understanding of colour management (even if you don't have the equipment/software to do it 'perfectly') helps no end in the creative process. I'd suggest that getting your monitor right is an essential first step. Whilst it is true that to do it properly requires either an expensive (self calibrating) monitor or some external hardware, there is much to be gained by starting with doing it by eye. If nothing else, you will realise some important things about the human visual system. For myself it then becomes important to get the printing right - having profiles for ink/paper/printer combinations will go a long way towards getting consistent results. The 'default' or 'canned' profiles that are available are often good enough for marked improvements. The less you are concerned with the technicalities, the more time you have to think about your images. You also understand when the technology is a limiting factor. For example, that really powerful bit of colour in an image that just can't be represented with your particular ink/paper combo"

Colour management information on this site

General Colour Management

Equipment and software reviews

X-rite (ex GretagMacbeth)

Sept. 2008 X-rite and the current i1 range

It now consists of two options. The functionality is the same as we have reviewed, but exactly what you get varies. As a result of this rationalisation, the i1Photo, i1Photo SG, i1Proof and i1XT have all been discontinued, and the i1 range now consists of:

With the i1XTreme you can calibrate and profile:

*Requires Digital ColorChecker SG Chart - available separately.

Datacolor (aka ColorVision)

Pantone

Others

Other colour management resources

Color Management bookI often get asked for suggestions about learning more about the nuts and bolts of Colour Management.

My usual suggestion is Bruce Fraser's Real World Colour Management. My own copy is well thumbed. It's my first port of call if I'm asked a question and I feel I don't quite understand an issue well enough to be absolutely sure of an answer.

Check latest price/availability from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

RWCM 1st Edition RWCM
RWCM 2nd Edition RWCM

Other Amazon sites
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See some other books Keith has on the shelf, on our Books Page

We are updating this section - Please do feel free to forward any useful new ones you find?

Note -anything- whatsoever ordered via Amazon helps us run the site - thanks to everyone contributing!
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Digital Imaging

Dust - Digital sensor cleaning (at your own risk)

Camera Drivers and software

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Firmware updates

Other areas of our site that may be of interest...

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