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angelic_endeavor · February 5th, 2008

By now, I'm sure many Forum members know that I've been having a problem with the Durabrite ink. Every transfer was pervaded with yellow, necessitating going to the Advanced printer settings, and playing with the levels of yellow (-20), magenta (+5) and cyan (+5). Doing that changed colors completely -- gray turned purple when printed! However, if no color adjustment was made, what was gray when printed, turned GREEN after being pressed! Depending on the material and whatever else, sometimes it changed back to gray, sometimes it didn't!

Well, I got tired of paying BIG MONEY for Durabrite, and THEN having to endure these color shift problems. I mean, how can you tell a customer, "I know it LOOKS green now, but once you wash it, it will turn gray... really!" Obviously you can't do that -- and I am certainly NOT washing it before selling it to the customer!

So, my solution was to purchase heat transfer inks and use refillable cartridges. After a ton of research between this Forum and the Yahoo Groups, I purchased the refillable cartridges from Inkjetcarts.us., and the ink from Inksupply.com. I must mention that the Customer Service from Inkjetcarts.us was SUPERB. I placed an order and then wanted to cancel it, and I received an email from them the next business day confirming the order was cancelled. Then, I had a hard time understanding the directions, and had difficulty getting the refillable carts to work. Ross from Inkjetcarts.us contacted me the next day (and I believe it was on a weekend too!) with instructions on how to fix the problem I was encountering. TERRIFIC!

I got both the carts and ink working last night, and so far, I am impressed by both! The carts worked flawlessly, and I was really impressed by the ink! The black is really black, and I purposely printed a design with a soft gray shadow, to see if it would turn green or not -- IT DID NOT!!! It printed gray, and STAYED GRAY!!! With the Durabrite, no matter how much I turned the yellow down, I ALWAYS saw a lot of yellow hue on the paper that was peeled. With the Inksupply HT inks, I didn't see a TRACE OF YELLOW ANYWHERE!!! When I showed my husband the shirts this morning, he was too was impressed. In fact, he said, "You should make another shirt of my Javelin, so you can see the difference in the gray "spraypaint" swish in the background and then post it" In the aforementioned shirt, I used Durabrite, and the gray swish turned green -- it hasn't changed back after 6 weeks either. So, I think I will do just that -- I'll print another with the Inksupply.com HT ink, and then post both shirts here on the Forum...

To be fair, I haven't done any washing testing with the Inksupply HT ink yet, but I plan on putting the shirt printed last night in the wash tonight. I will update this thread when I have the results.

Melissa

Chani · February 5th, 2008

Cool beans, Melissa!

This is great to know that you found an ink that stays the color it's supposed to be!

I'm pretty sure that the inks from Coastal stay their inteded colors, too, but they're limited in what printers you can buy for.

What printer do you have, BTW?

I just bought a CIS from somewhere else, but the only reason I did was that it appears to be the ONLY pigment CIS for my Canon i9900. Hopefully I'll have the same luck you've had!

angelic_endeavor · February 5th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chani


	Cool beans, Melissa! This is great to know that you found an ink that stays the color it's supposed to be! I'm pretty sure that the inks from Coastal stay their inteded colors, too, but they're limited in what printers you can buy for. What printer do you have, BTW? I just bought a CIS from somewhere else, but the only reason I did was that it appears to be the ONLY pigment CIS for my Canon i9900. Hopefully I'll have the same luck you've had!

Hi Chani!

I'm using a C88+, and since the lawsuit and their discontinuation, finding refillable carts was not an easy task. I bought an extra set, just so I have them on hand in the future!

I didn't want to go the CIS route because of the clogging problems if you don't use it everyday. Right now I am somewhat of a hobbyist, trying to start up a micro home business at night, so sometimes I don't print for a week.

As far as the ink goes, if I'm correct, you can use any brand heat transfer pigment ink you want -- the only thing that is printer-specific would be the CIS or refillable carts. I saw that you found the pigment CIS for the Canon -- good for you! I'm all for getting the most from the printers we already own and (in some cases) love. I didn't want to give up my HP Photosmart printers because the photo resolution is fabulous compared to the Epson, but at the time the Vivera ink wasn't out and it would be pretty stupid to keep replacing a tri-color ink cartridge all the time anyway. If you don't like the pigment ink that comes with your CIS system, all you have to do is dump it out and refill it with the heat transfer ink from Inksupply.com -- simple as that!

It was SUCH a relief not to deal with the yellow problems or the color shifting for once!! I was so intent on inspecting the new ink that I completely forgot to mirror the image, and actually pressed it on the shirt backward too! Once I stopped looking at it so closely, I was like, "Huh?!? What the heck did I do?!?" LOL

Melissa

Chani · February 5th, 2008

LOL! I've accidentally printed backwards, too, but only pressed backwards once...after I realized I printed it wrong. But it was okay for that image.

The thing about Canon printers is that their nozzles are so small, so most pigmented inks clog these printers.

The inks that come with the CIS I bought were specifically designed for Canon printers.

Unfortunately I don't think just any ink will work.

plan b · February 5th, 2008

The nice thing about the c88 you can use a cis without much or none at all of the clogging issues.

R.

Chani · February 5th, 2008

Yes, but I wanted to use larger transfers.

My Canon i9900 is a 13x19 printer.

I bought it long before I knew the difference between pigment and dye inks.

prometheus · February 5th, 2008

Thanks for the post. Look forward to seeing the warsh test.

angelic_endeavor · February 5th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chani


	The thing about Canon printers is that their nozzles are so small, so most pigmented inks clog these printers. The inks that come with the CIS I bought were specifically designed for Canon printers. Unfortunately I don't think just any ink will work.

Aha! See, you DO learn something new every day! I didn't know that! Well, good luck with the new pigment ink and CIS -- hope it works great for you!

There have been a few times that I would have liked to have a bigger format printer, but I've been lucky that those times, I was able to use a sheet and a half of the transfer paper, and just pressed them one after another on my 15 x 15 press. I've spent so much money in the past few months that my husband will kill me if anything else comes in!

Melissa

angelic_endeavor · February 5th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chani


	My Canon i9900 is a 13x19 printer. I bought it long before I knew the difference between pigment and dye inks.

Chani, just in case your CIS doesn't work out, inksupply.com carries refillable cartridges for your printer - the full set of 8 is $36. Here's the link: Inkjet Printer Cartridges For Canon InkJet Printers - Inksupply.com

They also carry ink for your Canon printer, but they say all colors are dye based ink, except the black, which is pigment. Sorry! Thought I could find another pigment based Canon ink for you...

Melissa

Chani · February 5th, 2008

Thanks for checking, Melissa.

If anyone else knows of somewhere to buy pigment inks for Canon printers, I'll be happy to hear it!

angelic_endeavor · February 5th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chani


	Thanks for checking, Melissa. If anyone else knows of somewhere to buy pigment inks for Canon printers, I'll be happy to hear it!

No problem, Chani!

I actually just checked inkjetcarts.us, and they also have refillable carts for your printer: Canon:Canon Cartridges

They have ink for your model too, but again I think they're dye based, and only the black is pigment...

Don't give up, we'll find some more options for you!

Melissa

Chani · February 5th, 2008

Don't worry about it too much. From what I've read people have had good luck with the system I'm getting.

Thanks!

angelic_endeavor · February 6th, 2008

Last night I washed the 3 shirts pressed on Monday. They were washed right-side-out along with towels, socks and underwear in warm water with cold water rinse, and with Cheer detergent. I even rubbed the Cheer directly into the transferred area because my daughter got paint on her shirt at school. Then I threw them right-side-out into a dryer on HOT setting for 60 minutes. THEY CAME OUT FABULOUS! I DON'T EVEN NOTICE ANY FADING! THE BLACKS ARE STILL A DARK BLACK TOO! WOW... Even my husband commented about how fabulous they looked, and asked if it was because of the ink we just switched to, and I told him it was both the ink AND the Jet Pro SofStretch. The transfers are crisp, clear, vibrant and oh so soft! There really is next to no hand.

Now I have to say this: DURABRITE AND IRONALL, YOU'RE FIRED!! FOR GOOD!!!

Melissa

Ernie · February 6th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by angelic_endeavor


	If you don't like the pigment ink that comes with your CIS system, all you have to do is dump it out and refill it with the heat transfer ink from Inksupply.com -- simple as that! Melissa

Melissa,

Which Epson Equivalent heat transfer ink did you buy…their “New MIS Heat Transfer ink?

Ernie

Clem · February 7th, 2008

I am new here. Can you tell me about the lawsuit and Epson C88? I notice they are not being sold now... should I snap one up if I can? I only print occasionally so continuous ink would make no sense.

Thank you.

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