Continuous Ink Printers for Covers

[JakeHC]

Hey everyone,

So I'm thinking of re-doing my covers to be of higher quality and more of a universal design (half of my game boy cases are all different designs, black system logo, silver system logo etc).

Does anyone have experience with these continuous ink systems i.e. Epson EcoTank etc for photo printing? It's probably going to cost me $400 AUD to get one, pretty expensive for a printer but the amount of ink is pretty enticing.

Would love to see photos if anyone has any of the results they've achieved with one of these printers.

In addition, has anyone done double-sided printing for covers? Would love to do case inlays for gameboy / ucg cases.

[ShoothimNow]

I had never really had luck with inkjets and printing covers.  Waaaaay too much ink on a page (slow speed + tons of ink).  By the time it would finish, the page would be a puddle of instability and would need flattened, however... the ink was wet for minutes.  Would become warped in places, and the price of inkjet ink, well... Decided to get a laser printer and haven't looked back since.

Double sided printing never worked out as the paper was too warped in places and seeped through to the other side

[JakeHC]

I had never really had luck with inkjets and printing covers.  Waaaaay too much ink on a page (slow speed + tons of ink).  By the time it would finish, the page would be a puddle of instability and would need flattened, however... the ink was wet for minutes.  Would become warped in places, and the price of inkjet ink, well... Decided to get a laser printer and haven't looked back since.

Double sided printing never worked out as the paper was too warped in places and seeped through to the other side

That's a good point. I went to the shops last night and grabbed some double sided matte paper and good quality photo paper. Found out a friend has one of these continuous ink printers so it'd be cool to try. I guess the great thing is that ink is cheap to replace for these ones by the looks of it. Mainly wanting it since I've got a huge amount of snes covers to print, the black ink would cost me a fortune otherwise.

[TDIRunner]

Wet ink is the result of either the wrong print settings, or an absolutely lousy printer, but it's not typical of inkjet printers.  If I print with matte settings on glossy paper, the ink will be wet for days.  But if I print with glossy settings on glossy paper, it will be dry to the touch by the time it leaves the printer. 

[ShoothimNow]

I would set the settings to use the most ink, haven't had an inkjet printer in over 3 years now, but it was something advanced with the "Photo 2400DPI" settings, otherwise it was not black enough

[ShoothimNow]

From my laserprinter











I could never achieve such quality from an inkjet

[TDIRunner]

I don't care enough to get involved in the debate between inkjet and laser.  I'm only commenting that something is wrong if you are getting wet ink.  Wet ink should not be the basis of any argument for laser over inkjet. 

[ShoothimNow]

Oh I already know that I had the wrong paper type and was using too much ink, but, based on my moms old printer, that was the best I could come up with.  Between the wet ink (again, was more of a "me" problem) and the fact that we were using a TON of ink on small amounts of covers printed, I started getting better results (and not being yelled at at home was a plus) from the printers at college and work.  To each their own on which way they want to print, but inkjet would not be my choice.

Mom has a new inkjet now (oh thank God), and when she is printing images for her work (again still printing on the highest ink usage settings) there are times where a straight black line is present.  

I am not talking about "repeatable black lines", as that is a drum issue on laser printers,


It's more of a one and done to never repeat for another 50 prints type thing


Smudges for the win, *facepalm

But when that now happens on a $10 (per page) papersource, that really sucks.

Would love to switch her to a laser printer as well, but yeah... laser printer ink is not edible  


Complications on both sides, for sure, just saying that the OP shouldn't be locked down to one type of printer when looking to drop $400 AUD

[wiggy]

Wet ink is the result of either the wrong print settings, or an absolutely lousy printer, but it's not typical of inkjet printers.  If I print with matte settings on glossy paper, the ink will be wet for days.  But if I print with glossy settings on glossy paper, it will be dry to the touch by the time it leaves the printer.  

It’s also an indicator of the wrong paper being used. Bond paper and the like aren’t meant to take on that amount of in.

This isn’t a known issue with inkjet printing. This is user error.

From my laserprinter

I could never achieve such quality from an inkjet

While those look fine, laser struggles with bright colors and has some other color reproduction issues which are inherent to the design. Inkjet (when properly set up) is capable of creating a much more accurate image.

[ShoothimNow]

Take cost of ink ( / toner ) into account and how many things you have to print with that $400 AUD, and with print yields per color

[JakeHC]

Just checking in,

Some good points guys. I'm gonna give the friends printer a go in the next couple of days. While a large upfront cost, it's meant to be able to do 6000 black pages and 4500-5000 pages until ink needs a refill. It's about 30 dollars to refill the black and maybe 15-20 per colour, Relatively cheap. Granted those page quotes aren't for heavy duty photo printing. I've seen figures quoting something like 30 times the amount of ink compared to conventional inkjet printers.

I'll post results when I've got them.

[JakeHC]

Just an update with some results. Tried the epson printer with continuous ink. A little disappointed to be honest. Didn't have a whole bunch of time but just tried printing using my wifes mac laptop. Set it as photo paper and on best quality. As you can see the black is very washed out.

https://imgur.com/a/HQ55Tfu

The comparison cover is from a repro I bought off of someone and it came with a case. The colours are quite good but I want that deep black

EDIT: I've just seen this site. I think I'll have to give this a go. http://printingplusfl.com/true-cmyk-black-printing/

[JakeHC]

After long deliberation, I decided to go with a photo printer that isn't continuous ink but offers photo black ink as well. Got the Epson XP-6000 for $129. Does exactly what I needed it to do, replacement XL cartridges will run me around $30, something I'm willing to part wth.

Here's an update shot, starting casing up my NES games in 27mm DVD cases. My conversion was a touch off for battletoads with the spine being too wide but I'm very happy with the result.

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[wiggy]

Take cost of ink ( / toner ) into account and how many things you have to print with that $400 AUD, and with print yields per color

That is indeed a concern for anyone trying to print a LOT of covers.  I don't know how much I spent on ink for the 1,000+ covers I've printed before switching over to the shop's digital press (fancy/stupid name for a commercial laser printer), but it weren't cheap

Still, I'm constantly fighting with color correction on the laser, and some colors I simply cannot reproduce