Hi, 1st post here

I'm in a spot of bother. A while back i bought a CIS system from Echostore.com (that was an unpleasant experience) for an Epson R1800. I used OCP inks which i acquired from where i work (Cartridgeworld).

Now that installed all well and no blockages. However, prints always came out too blue/cyan. I tried to counter this by using sliders but always made the shadows go a bit purple and basically not right.

So, i thought it was the inks, bad batch or not from OCP. So i bought from a reputable ebuyer and asked previous buyers (~10) of the ink on what there experience with the inks were like. They came back very pleased with the inks. Needless to say i bought them.

Flushed the old ink out,put the new stuff in, head cleans and nozzle checks. Ahhh! Exactly the bloody same!

Sure, i can put up with a slight mismatch in colour but i am yet to get a decent print out of it using CIS. I have had no problems with CIS for my C66 and that is providing better colours and greyscale ( using cheapy inks) than my expensive R1800 setup.

What is causing this problem. Could it be the CIS system is allowing too much cyan through, which i find highly unlikely. I have wasted a lot of money and have been wanting to do high volume printing for ages.

Cheers in advance for any help.

Might help if we knew what program you are printing from? Are you printing RGB or CMYK file to the printer? Does the problem occurr when you use various print media (good quality inkjet paper, plain paper etc.)?

Mac? PC?

Doesn't matter what you are printing from. Non Epson inks are just a huge pain. You will never get it right. Use Epson. Enjoy.

Its an sRGB file. I kept the programs, paper, and settings the same.

Windows Printing Utility

Epson Premium Glossy

Default settings for the paper (worked fine for original)

Ant: That is not true in my experience. I have dealt with 3 different 3rd party inks that work (im an Employee at Cartridgeworld so i deal with customers who use 1 of them). MIPO, Signal Inkjet, and InkRepublic. I didn't use them because i realised (long after i bought my 1st CIS) that I'R are overpriced, Signal Inkjet do not do pigment, and MIPO do not do CIS or cartridges for R1800

Well, it's been my experience for about 12 years and I have never heard of a CIS doing as good or better of a job than original inks. They will not be consistent in color from day one, not consistent upon refill, will clog, have drying problems, smears, the list goes on. I'm sure some are better than others, but you get what you pay for. If it needs to be spot on, use original inks. They might be overpriced, but they work time and again.

regomodo, welcome to RetouchPRO.

the first question is, before you installed the cis system, were you getting good prints with the default inks and cartridges? and specifically, on the picture you printed where the colors were off, did you try that one image without the cis system installed? that would be my first test. this would tell you if it was the cis system and inks or something else.

there can be a number of reasons you dont get good color matches between the monitor and the printer. you need to isolate at least the general reason this is occurring. so, start with the cis system versus the default cartridges/inks that came with the system. if the image prints correctly with the cis removed, then you've found the problem. but if it doesnt, then it could be something else like gamut, monitor calibration, drivers, or something else.

and, are you using this with a mac or a pc?

Yes, the printer was working fine before installing CIS and nothing changed other than installing the kit. It was working fine after instalation, just colours were off.

Its Windows XP laptop and has had no changes.

I printed off the same 2 images. One Bnw the other colour with subtle shade differences.

Somebody else, who commented on my ebay comments about ink seller (another story) suggested i should vary the height of the ink tanks. I would try this but the yellow and blue (violet) chips have died on me randomly (not the 1st time).

I do not compare images from the printer and the laptop screen as know its uncalibrated. I compare previous prints (Epson inks) with the CIS prints