Epson R4800 refillable ink/Heat transfer/RIP questions

1725 Views 5 Replies 2 Participants Last post by BeHulls, Mar 19, 2012

BeHulls

Discussion Starter · Mar 15, 2012

Hey guys,

I've just recently purchased an Epson 4800 and have a few questions. I am also looking at an optimal ink system to print film positives, but potentially keep either the photo printing functionality or being able to print heat transfers.

I am looking at buying a set of refillable cartridges but need some advice on what the best setup would be. The majority of my printing will be for positive film. I currently print my film from an Imagesetter at work, but I leave in 2 weeks. So I need to get onto this ASAP.

I'm on a budget and if a RIP isn't needed this would be great. I sort out my halftones and separation manually atm, but in the future may look at buying one.

The questions I have are:

• Will I need a rip to get the density needed, if loading 1 or more cartridges with black? (I'm not sure what is possible or which is best). What Black refill ink is recommended?
• If a RIP is needed, what would be recommended on a budget to do the job. I've read about MultiRIP, which seems interesting.
• If replacing just one channel, could the black dye ink take the place of the pigment ink when printing photographs?
•Which inks are good for printing heat transfers, can they be refilled using the same cartridges?

And any other info you could help me with would be great

.

Thank you in advance!
Brian

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sben763

· #2 · Mar 16, 2012 (Edited)

If your already separating manually then your color is probably 100k in halftones you may be in RGB depending on your separation methods. If so change to CMYK. Change all your black to 100C 100M 100Y 100 K in your graphics program. Print photo or best photo, premium photo glossy paper. Ultra gives me too much inks. I don't mess with any advanced settings. This will work for pigment, Dye, or all black. Pigment printed this way may not look dark enough. It usally will block out almost same UV light as dye ink but dye ink or film black dye in all channels is prefered. I do use a RIP only for halftones cause I like the results better than from Corel or Photoshop although a guy sends me files and I print them manually no rip and all they use is Adobe products and there perfect halftones.

Blackmaxx, or just about any black for films works great.

You will not likely get good results printing dye and pigment together without a lot of adjustments.

Heat transfers...pigment ink stock is ok. Cobra ink is good there are a few other pigments for heat transfer. Try films with stock ink if you have like mentioned above you maybe surprised. Get some JSSP heat trans for lights and test heat transfer. I have never tried cobra inks pigment ink for films maybe I'll try one.

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BeHulls

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 18, 2012

Hi Sben763, thanks for your reply!

Good idea, once I get my refillable cartridges in I'll try separating in rich black. Will this print from all 8 cartridges? When I bought it, one of the tanks were already empty so I haven't had a chance to print anything yet. Do you know of a way to print only from the left four or the right four without a RIP? That way I could have four dedicated black inks for film and four transfer colours on the other.

I didn't think the two types would work together, thanks for the heads up!

Thank you, I'll have a look into those two options. I'm new to transfers, so I'm trying to take in as much as I can to get out some quality product

. With any luck I'll have all this sorted in two weeks when I cut the strings from my Design/Pre-press job of 6 years. No more free film them

Thanks,
Brian

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BeHulls

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 18, 2012

Also I have read that you can fill unused cartridges with distilled water or cleaning fluid. I may not get transfer ink straight away and I have also read that every time they clean they spit out and waste a lot of the ink. Do you know anything about this? Hopefully I could use the three black channels as my black film ink channels for the time being (printing in grayscale) and put a distilled water solution in the others. Do you think this would work?

Thanks,
Brian

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sben763

· #5 · Mar 19, 2012 (Edited)

I don't know of a way without multi rip it is the only Rip for running all black in one side or sublimation or transfers from the other side that I know of but I could be wrong. Yes using that method should use all 8 channels. I actually been looking into the a 4800 or 4880 and was thinking of getting 2 refillable set use pigment when needed keep the dye in so heads don't clog but I am currently making sure that the 4800 series doesn't store any ink like the 1100, 1400, 1800,1900 printers which I Switch back and forth all between pigment and dye and a separate printer for sublimation.

Some epsons use a little amount from each channel even when printing black so the water might not work out. Don't know about this particular printer.

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BeHulls

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 19, 2012

Thankyou, I was thinking as much. I'll have a snoop around to see if I can see any other alternatives. MultiRIP does seem the way to go though. For now I may be able to get away with 8 channels of black until I get a RIP and the need for printing transfers. When printing grayscale, do you know if the 4800 only uses the three black channels?

That's a good idea, I was thinking of something along the same line. I didn't even think of the printer storing ink. Maybe having a 3rd set of cartridges filled with diluted water and performing a clean would flush out the remaining ink? Definitely let me know what your conclusion is

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