Just wondering what you guys think about generic inks. I know all important docs should be printed using original inks/paper, etc. but for general purpose prints say for showing a friend your new "toy (whatever it is)", or for printing out school projects for your kids, maybe generic inks are good enough.

Wanted to get your inputs, I know the warranty is lapsed the moment you stick a converted unit in your printer but financially speaking, provided you print enough over a 2-3 cartridge change does this make sense? Or do prints printed on generic ink fade quickly (say a week or a month) or do they gum up your printer right away (say a month).

Any input would be highly appreciated.

Joey

Do you know what the most expensive liquid on the planet is? I'm sure the Saudi's are cringing cause all their oil can't hold a torch to INKJET INK. Think about it. We are paying on the average around P30/ml for ink if you buy Branded inks. A litre of Coke is what now around P25? Gasoline is around P38. A litre of branded inkjet inks will cost you around P30,000. Pretty crazy huh? That's why there is such a thriving third party market out there for generic inks.

Having said the above, I still use branded inks simply for the quality and ease of workflow. Branded inks match branded paper thus relieving you the headache of your prints not coming out correctly. You also get the benefit of longevity and now water and smudge proof. Or what about if you want to print the same image again but after a year. I bet you the generic inks won't allow you to do that because the quality is incosistent.

I guess you can dedicate one printer to generic inks and the other to genuine if you want to go that route. But if you have only one printer, I'd say its better to stick with the genuine. You don't want to flip flop between generic inks and genuine inks too often in the same printer. Its a sure fire way to blow out the head.

Not a fan and never will be. These already killed 2 of our printers. One was intentional with an old Epson so never again with generics!

The second was because the store we bought inks from, sold us fake Canon BCI-3 inks for the Canon i850. It was clearly labeled as original with a fancy fake hologram to boot! But after sending photos to Canon Phils, it was determined that these were fake inks which leaked like hell.

The ink residue that was left in the head slowly burned the print head after a year. >__<

I now have a fully functional Canon i850 printer without a printhead! Sad to say, the printhead costs as much as a new printer. So we decided to the get a new ip4200 instead.

I've never used generic inks. I know that it isn't exactly cheap to use branded inks. But at least I get consistent results. I regularly print my kids school projects on my Canon iP3000. Okay lang. Its still cheaper than having to go to the photo lab because my kids need a family photo ASAP for the nth time for some school project:D

generic ink, no way after it broke my canon A3 printer. Now i have HP d100 42" i wont use a generic. ink will bleed to your printer.

Comparing the price of the printers vs the price of the inks, especially for small desktop printers, it's worth the risk to experiment with generics if you're going to print for personal use and in volume such as school projects. There are printers which go for 2k whose ink will cost you close to 1200 for a new set?

There are actually a lot of kinds and levels of quality for generics. I suggest you buy the best generics available, and companies who are willing to guarantee their inks are a good bet.

We use generic ink at home with the less expensive printer to print text-only documents. For photos I use another printer that only uses original ink.

I print at home using a Canon iP3000. I wouldn't even consider using generic inks even if I am printing personal photos or my kids' school projects. But different strokes for different folks as usual :D

I have a lot of personal prints displayed around my house. I wouldn't want to compromise the quality of my images since visitors to my house I would not want them to associate inferior images with my name. My kids deserve the best from me even if I am just printing their school projects.

You mentioned that there was a risk. That's a risk I simply do not want to take. Yes, there are people who have used generic inks to their satisfaction. There are generic or third party inks from reputable manufacturers (i.e. Lyson).

Comparing the price of the printers vs the price of the inks, especially for small desktop printers, it's worth the risk to experiment with generics if you're going to print for personal use and in volume such as school projects. There are printers which go for 2k whose ink will cost you close to 1200 for a new set?

There are actually a lot of kinds and levels of quality for generics. I suggest you buy the best generics available, and companies who are willing to guarantee their inks are a good bet.

I have a friend who regularly uses generic paper and inks for some of his jobs. He's happy with the results and the savings because he usually prints images for press release purposes.

But, I also know of one studio chain that prints on generic paper but uses original inks.

To each his own I suppose. But using unprofiled inksets and papers sort of makes a calibrated monitor or color management useless. Of course its a different story if all that you will be printing are documents :D

Thanks for the input guys. Will most likely have a cheap printer with generic inks and later on when I can afford it, a more high tech printer using original everythings (inks and paper).

Until then, quality shots will go the straight to the Photolab.

Joey Z

Joey,

Try this, a friend bought an epson printer(cheapest colored) comes w an ink, after the ink was consumed he would prefer buying a new printer and sells the other one. Funny maybe not.

never will I go back to generic as it broke my canon s820 photo printer.

Jo is absolutely right! there is no point in even doing color management for generic inks.

Paper Profiles don't match, monitors won't match, gamut all over the place. Contrast and saturation will be off by a lot.
Photo Gamut is all over the place.
DOn't even bother calibrating, just use auto for everythign and save you a lot of time.

Definitely not for business, or print proofing either since NO printing press would dare accept the challenge to match the printouts produced by these generic inks.

If only for playing around and test printing and printing text documents and volumes of PDF files or ebooks into hard copies, these generic inks would save you a lot.

But quality work, you need a separate printer just for final outputs.

BUT for play, drafts and graphics - generics will do most of the time.
Imagine seeing your kid print an entire page red with a few white fonts using original inks. or maybe they ran out of yellow colored paper and wanted to print some on their own, you'll be happy you have generic inks.

Enjoy



I have a friend who regularly uses generic paper and inks for some of his jobs. He's happy with the results and the savings because he usually prints images for press release purposes.

But, I also know of one studio chain that prints on generic paper but uses original inks.

To each his own I suppose. But using unprofiled inksets and papers sort of makes a calibrated monitor or color management useless. Of course its a different story if all that you will be printing are documents :D

@ Enjoy

Why should I worry about my kids doing that sort of work on my inkjet printer? I do that sort of thing myself for some personal projects :D LOL!

But I do wish that original inks were cheaper.