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    I must say that your service is absolutely exceptional and I have recommended your company and products to several friends today; all are serious "printer" people.I retired last year and my friends are all into, or are still working in the photo industry. Sincerely,Gerhard

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    Dear, just to let you know than i realy appreciate your costumer service.
    Thank you
    Denis

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    Just a Thank you and all the best
    Grigore

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    Ce message est simplement pour vous dire que j'ai bien reçu la commande XXXXXX et que je suis très satisfait de la rapidité de la livraison et aussi de la qualité de l'encre. C'est la première fois que j'utilise de l'encre "autre que l'originale" et pour le moment je suis très satisfait. Soyez certain que je vais vous référez à mes amis et collègues de travail et c'est certain que je vais commander à nouveau de chez vous. Merci beaucoup.
    Stéphane

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    Je veux seulement vous dire un gros merci pour la rapidité avec lequel vous avez traité ma demande et aussi pour le petit extra en papier photos,c'est très apprécié.

    Céline

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    I received my order, thank you for your great customer service..
    Judy

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    Hello:

    It is not often people write emails or letters of praise but consider this one of the rare ones!
    I must say, ordering your product was about the easiest imaginable. Coupled with the fact that it arrived here basically “next day” I am thoroughly happy. To tell you the truth, I was expecting to have to go pay full retail for one black cartridge thinking that your’s would take at least a week to arrive but I was wrong, the order arrived before I could even go out to get one!
    Congrats people, I WILL tell all my friends and neighbours about you!

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Back to School Buyer’s Guide: Saving on Supplies

OK, now that it is time to get you children all set up for school and supplies making sure your inkjet printer is working, and that you have a cost effective solution is important.

First and foremost if you are still buying OEM supplies for your inkjet printer you are loosing money, and it is time to rethink how to go about saving money.

Here are three questions that every owner should consider BEFORE purchasing additional supplies:

1.  How much does it cost to purchase an entire set of replacement ink or toner? 

2. What kind of printing will I be doing and what type of paper will I need to accomplish it? 

3. Does the brand offer a low cost alternative if I purchase a certain model?  Does the manufacturer offer high capacity cartridges and what are the potential savings?

Once you’ve answered these three questions, you can start considering your options whether it is choosing a different manufacturer, an alternative form of ink, using off brand paper or perhaps using a rewards program.

We have found the most cost effective suppliers of inkjet (Third Party Products) are the Canon and Epson lines of inkjet printers that HAVE the HEADS built into the printer, and not attached as part of the inkjet cartridge. The reason being is that the replacement cartridges only contain ink and no sophisticated electronics and are therefore cheaper to manufacture and purchase. You can typically purchase their cartridges for under $5.00 e.a.  versus up to $60 for some OEM cartridges.

If your printer has the head as part of the cartridge then chances are there are no third party products available (except refurbished), and they are not nearly as reliable based on their increased complexity, and limited lifespan design.They are a lot more expensive to boot.

Once you have decided if you are going to take the plunge and purchase a new printer (Epson or Canon) then you must make sure that their are 3rd party cartridges available for the printer your are looking at purchasing.(What they are not available for all printers !) Nope, due to the competition in this marketplace the manufacturers many years back started to add electronic chips to their cartridges, to track ink usage, as well as imbed some proprietary identification code, that needs to be re-engineered by the Third parties before products become available on the market. This normally takes about 6-9 months (we have seen up to 2 years) before you’ll see products being available.

So this is one instance where buying the latest and greatest will not only cost you more, but you will not be able to tkae advantage of 3rd party cartridge products for at least 6-9 months after purchase. (There are no guarantees)

SO look for those clearance sales at the big box stores (Future Electronics, Best Buy, Costco) and take the plunge.

 

Don’t be tempted by the low price of the HP, Lexmark, Kodak or Dell inkjet, as you will pay the price for cartridges later. Look for the Canon or Epson… albeit harder to find, you’ll be happy in the end.

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Don’t printer with Empty Cartridges

Printing With an Empty Color Cartridge Can Damage Your Printer

If you think your color inkjet printer should print in black when a color cartridge is empty, you’re not alone. It’s reasonable to think your color printer can act like a monochrome printer when a color cartridge is empty, but you still have plenty of black ink. After all, your car still runs when you’re out of windshield fluid.

When your printer stops printing and cries for a color cartridge, open the printer properties page and look for the black-ink-only option. You will find that there is no such option. You can choose the next best thing, grayscale printing, but the printer still cries for a color cartridge and does not allow you to print. What gives?

Inks Play Multiple Roles

Printers use some color ink when you print black text and black ink is used when you print color images. Also ink cools and lubricates print heads. If you could print with an empty cartridge, you might destroy a print head from the friction of printing without ink to cool and lubricate the head. Also, if your printer indicates a color is empty, there is still residual ink left at the bottom of the cartridge. The residual ink can easily clog the print head and blot ink onto pages and even permanently block the print head.

You may be able to trick a printer into thinking a cartridge has ink when it does not. This trick may enable you to print in the short term, but it may also reduce the useful life of your printer in the long term.

Ink Blots

Printing Tip:

Ink Is Designed to Dry on Paper, But That’s Not Always What Happens

 

 

Ink in ballpoint pens and inkjet printer cartridges share a common trait — they’re designed to dry quickly. Fast-drying ink works well when the ink dries on paper, but not so well if the ink dries on the printhead that dispenses it. When ink dries on a ball point of a pen, the ball no longer rolls smoothly on paper to evenly distribute ink, which creates blots of ink on a page. The same is true for inkjet printers when ink dries on the printhead — blots of ink appear on a printed page.

To prevent your inkjet printer cartridges from this blockage, follow these tips.

Always Turn Off the Printer With the Power Button

When you turn off the printer using the power on-off switch, the shutdown process places the printhead in an off position and seals it. When the printer is turned off by simply unplugging it or from another power failure, the printhead may remain in the on position without a proper seal, resulting in ink drying on the printhead, which can create blots of ink that smudge and tarnish output.

Use the Printer Regularly

You should use the printer regularly to keep ink flowing so it does not dry and crust on the printhead. At the least, print a test page every week. If you do not use a printer regularly, then an inkjet printer may not be the right fit for you. Unlike an inkjet printer, a laser printer will not suffer from long periods of inactivity.

Print a Diagnostic Test

Print a diagnostic test using the printer software or from the printer’s console display. If you see any thin white lines across any of the printed blocks, clean the printheads.

A thin white line may indicate that the printhead has a blockage. Check the operator’s manual on how to clean the printheads with the printer software or from the printer console. You can also try turning the printer off and then on. It may initiate diagnostics and automatically clean the printhead when it boots up. After cleaning, if another diagnostic test still indicates a thin white line across the printed blocks, clean the printheads manually.

Inkjet Photo Printing (As Easy as 123)

A few quick tips.

It is important to make sure your printer is properly set up for the type of printing you will be performing.

This means matching 2 printer variables.

a) Quality

b) Paper Type

When you set the printer to high (Photo) quality it uses finer ink droplets for a higher resolution and prints in 2 passes.

Paper type

Paper types vary wildly, and this is the most important characteristic in ensuring your highest quality.

Paper types come in

a) Standard

b) Inkjet Quality

c) Matte

d) Photo

a) Standard is what is used by photocopy print machines… Although good for Laser Printers it doesn’t have a sealed(waxed) coating and so when used with a inkjet printer the ink, when it hits the surface, it spreads like a drop of water on a blotter…Making the image unclear…

b) Inkjet Quality the paper is treated to minimize the spreading of the ink by the application of a wax like coating there-bye allowing the ink to dry without spreading significantly

c) Matte has a rough finished like matte pictures and due to these lines requires a little more ink, to fill in the gaps, but is effectively photo quality paper.

d) Photo paper is completely coated, and the ink dries entirely on its coated surface.

a. Photo paper does have varying quality

i. Dollar Store (Coated but the ink is not absorbed into the surface allowing it to run… DO Not use Dollar Store Photo Paper

ii. Manufacturers grade (High quality specifically designed for their printers/inks)

If using a Epson printer I highly recommend using Epson Photo Paper (Get it at Costco Cheap)

Inks

OEM Inks are always best for archival photo’s but the third party (Compatible) inks have come along way with their retentivity…

I have been actually

a) scanning old faded  photo’s

b) retouching them and enhancing the colors

c) reprinting them (TO Replace old worn pictures)

for 5 years and haven’t seen any fading what so ever even when leaving these new photos exposed to light….

So

If you want outstanding pictures to print on your Epson printer….

All these setting can be found under printer properties

(Devices/printers, Select Printer, Right click & select Preferences/and or Maintenance)

a) Make sure the heads are clean before you start by performing a Nozzle Check before you start…

b) Set up the printer for the correct paper type  (Photo)

c) Set up the printer for Photo Quality

Enjoy…….

The right font can save you money

Point size comparison of the typefaces Georgia...

Image via Wikipedia

Do you want to save some money on printing? Try Century Gothic.

Hit by the high prices of inkjet and toner cartridges, we’re all looking for ways to shave some bucks off the cost of printing. New data has found that because different fonts use different amounts of ink to print, using the right font could save you as much as 31 percent off your inkjet and toner cartridge expenses.

Testing was performed by  setting up two printers–a Canon inkjet and a Brother laser printer–to see how much money could be saved by using different fonts.

Both printers were left at their default settings of 600×600 dots per inch.

printing costs

Can the right font cut your printing costs?

The winner: Century Gothic, which delivered a 31 percent savings in printing costs over Arial.

 

As a thin and light font, Century Gothic managed to beat out Econfont, which was specifically created to cut costs by spewing out less ink. But if Century Gothic doesn’t look like the right style for your documents, third place and always popular Times Roman could also help ease your printing budget.

Low Use Reduces Page Output

Using an inkjet printer less often actually lowers the amount of pages you can print with the same cartridge.

This is because the printer uses a small amount of ink to clear the printer nozzles each time you start your printer.

For example, if you printer 1,000 pages with your printer all in one day, you would use less ink if you printer the same 1,000 pages if you printed them over a period of a year.

This is one quick fact about how to measure your ink cartridges usage to gauge how to get the most prints out of your ink cartridges.

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T069 2 Chip Cartridge

Why do you ask that we recommend you purchase our Epson T069 compatible inkjet cartridge rather than refilling the cartridge ?

Full details of refilling can be found here.

Thats right, now it is not only required to refill your cartridge and reset the chip on the front of the inkjet cartridge, but it is also required that you fill it before ink has run out.

Why ! Simply put epson has gotten really tricky now and they have an internal sensor in the cartridge that senses when the ink used is more than 75% used.

It then trips a Electronic fuse that disables the future resetting  of the cartridge preventing its re-use. 

To counter act this second device you now need to refill 2 chambers inside the cartridge and to ensure it is done prior to the 75% use timeframe.

Overall we still think the prudent advice for our clients is to purchase new compatible T069 Series cartridge  products from Metawatch Inkjet supplies.

ISO standard for inkjet printer cartridge yield

Friday, February 02, 2007

Ink Jet Cartridge Yield

Well for quite some time there has been bickering in the industry about how many pages you can print from an inkjet cartridge. As there were no standards in place each manufacturer could select a methodology that suited their specific printer/cartridge benefits and use that to advertise page yield.

ISO Defines Standards for Inkjet Cartridges

The ISO/IEC JTC 1 N8170 proposal defined a “Method for the determination of ink cartridge yield for colour photo printing with inkjet printers and multi-function devices that contain inkjet printer components”. This committee was established in June 19, 2006 to defined standards that could be adopted by the inkjet industry (OEM, Remanufactured Products,Compatible Products) for inkjet page yield per cartridge. On December 13, 2006 the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) body in conjunction with a consortium of printer manufactures (HP, Canon, Epson, Lexmark, etc) approved new standards for inkjet (ISO/IEC 24711) and color laser (ISO/IEC 19798) printer cartridge page yield measurements.

Scope of Standard

This standard provides a method to determine ink cartridge page yield for colour photo printing with colour inkjet printers and multi-function devices that contain inkjet printer components.

This standard applies to colour inkjet printers with four colour inks as well as printers with more than four colour inks. Note: See section below “What is not covered by this standard”

Size of paper for this standard should be equal to or less than A4 (8.5×11).

Printing mode for this standard should be photo printing mode.

Test file ISO/IEC 24712:2006 shall be used with this standard .

End of ink cartridge life will be determined based on fade or ink out signal generated by printer.

Four colour inks that are depleted first are defined as primary cartridges. The rest will be regarded as supplemental cartridges.

The minimum number of printers to be used in the test should be three. For each printer used in the test, at least three cartridges will be consumed for primary colours.

The declared yield of primary cartridges will be determined by the method specified in ISO/IEC FCD 24711.

The declared yield of supplemental cartridges will be estimated by the least squares method.

The testing environment is controlled at a temperature of 23.0°C ± 2°C.

Benefits to the average home user

In the immediate future you can expect to start seeing one or more of these options when you purchase inkjet cartridges.

a) Yield will be displayed on the package denoting its conformance with the new ISO standard for Measurement.
b) A web site link will be displayed on the packaging to allow the user to review specifications on a pre defined web site, as well as pertinent details relating to the methodologies used for determining the yield rates for that cartridge.
c) Cross manufacturer yield statistics will be made available for users via independent agencies denoting yield by manufacturer.

What is not covered by this standard

6 Color: The ISO/IEC 24712 print suite is designed for office printing. As such the ISO standard recommends 4 color printing (K, C, Y & M).

4 x 6 prints: The ISO/IEC 24712 print suite is specified for A4 or 8.5×11″ paper. There is currently no ISO page yield specifications associated with 4×6 prints. There is a new ISO committee that is starting to address this issue. It is estimated that the 4×6 page yield specification will be ratified in 2008 or 2009.

Most Popular Models of 3rd Party Inkjet Cartridges

Popularity 3rd Party Inkjet Cartridge Models

Well if you want to go with the pack, and select a printer with the most compatible 3rd party inkjet cartridges here are the stats.

Canon 3rd Party Inkjet

There are 2 sets of Cartridge winners here

The BCI-3E Series

BCI-3E Black
BCI-3E Cyan
BCI-3E Magenta
BCI-3E Yellow

and

The BCI-6 Series

BCI-6 Black
BCI-6 Cyan
BCI-6 Magenta
BCI-6 Yellow
BCI-6 Photo Cyan
BCI-6 Photo Magenta

If you are a Epson aficionado here are the winners.

T044 Series

T0441
T0442
T0443
T0444

T048 Series

T0481
T0482
T0483
T0484
T0485
T0486

T060 Series

T060120
T060220
T060320
T060420

These by far are the most popular 3rd party inkjet cartridges for Canon and Epson models of Inkjet Printers. By selecting a printer that uses these cartridges you can maximize your savings as these are the most competitive products. In addition, as your printer gets older the chances of still finding these products increases substantially as these will be the models retained the longest by 3rd party manufacturers.

Top 3 Problems with Compatible Inkjet Cartridges

1st Forget to Remove the Yellow Tape

Believe it or not the most common problem is that customers complain that they have intermittent printouts after inserting the new inkjet cartridges. Even after performing a cleaning cycle the printer still fails to print properly.

Solution

Read the installation instructions carefully, and ensure that the YELLOW tape is completely removed from the top of the cartridge. Each cartridge has small grooves in the top of the cartridge that allow air to enter the cartridge under normal operation. This allows the ink to flow freely through the cartridge, and drain through the bottom.The yellow tape is for shipping purpose to ensure that the ink remains in the cartridge during shipping.

2nd More than 1 cartridge is Empty

The second most common problem is that the customer complains that there printouts are intermittent after installing a new cartridge. After performing a cleaning cycle the problem temporarily corrects itself but quickly re-occurs.

Solution

Whenever you change an inkjet cartridge the printer puts itself through a cleaning/priming cycle automatically. During this cleaning cycle a significant amount of ink is used to re-prime the head assemblies. If a second (different) cartridge was previously also low on ink, the cleaning cycle can use the remaining ink, causing printouts to fail to print properly due to a shortage of ink in the tank reservoir. Examine the printouts closely to determine if a second cartridge needs replacing.

3rd Fail to seat the cartridge Properly & confirm Non OEM cartridge.

The 3rd most common problem is that the customer says the printer is not recognizing the cartridge.

Solution

Each cartridge comes pre-packaged in a vacuum sealed package. Reinforcement clips are located on the cartridge near the top snap-in arms to prevent deformities of the plastic when the vacuum seal is applied.These plastic clips must be removed, and the cartridge must be firmly seated in the printer (Snapped In). If the cartridge is not seated properly and the uppermost retaining clips do not fully secure the cartridge in the assembly, contact with the electronic chip can not be made properly causing the printer to fail to recognize the cartridge. The customer should remove and re-insert the cartridge to ensure secure contact is made in the front and rear of the cartridge. If correct contact is made the printer (or Computer) will identify the cartridge as a non OEM cartridge and ask if your would like to continue to use the cartridge. You must say yes.