Printability of Different Epson Ink Jet Ink Sets

Abstract

The development of high performance inkjet printers and inks is advancing rapidly. Presently, manufacturers seem to introduce their new technology inks to the market on an almost daily basis. Chemists in the ink laboratories are still fighting with the issue of combining the wide gamut of dye-based inks and the lightfast and weather resistance qualities of pigment-based inks into their new-age ink formulations. Simply, the evolution cannot be stopped!Three different inkjet printers and inks were investigated in this work: the Epson Stylus® Pro 5000, using a dye-based ink set, the Epson Stylus® Pro 5500, employing Archival ink technology, and the Epson Stylus® Photo 2200, with 7-color UltraChrome™ inks. A number of different commercial and experimental substrates were sampled. Printability tests were carried out to test and evaluate ink/printer/substrate interactions. Particle size analyses of the three ink types were investigated. Color gamuts for each of the different printer/ink/substrate sets were compared. In addition, the accuracy of each printer's color profile was investigated. The results of the profile accuracy measurements were expressed in terms of CIE L*a*b* coordinates and Root Mean Square (RMS) ΔE. In addition, the operating costs of ink/media sets were taken into consideration.