Need some printing advice

Jock Elliott

Hall of Famer
Location
Troy, NY
I have a Canon Pixma injet printer and made some 4 x 6 prints to include with cards.

Here's the problem: on one of the prints -- a sunset, heavily saturated with ink -- the ink rubs off really easily, even though it is completely dry. I don't remember this problem last year. . .

Is this a problem with all injet systems? If so, what do I need to get more durable prints? Or do you use external printing services?

All advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Jock
 
I finally lost patience with inkjet printers earlier this year. I was forever buying ink cartridges for them (my last two printers used seven colours each I think) but what really pushed me over the edge was constantly having to deal with blocked or partially blocked print heads. That was with the proper manufacturer's ink too.

So I gave up on inkjets and I now use a colour laser printer instead. It's not ideal for photographs, but the vast majority of my printing is text so that's not a concern. My local photo shop can produce far nicer photographic prints than I could ever achieve at home, and with none of the frustration. It may even be cheaper getting them done by the shop, all things considered.

-R
 
Last edited:
Pretty much the same experience here. Basically every time I came back from a longer trip I found something dried out, clogged print heads and had to waste ... knows how much ink for cleaning cycles, many times in vain. These days I send all my print jobs online to an external service. They provide all the necessary ICC profiles for their line of products, print up to 100 inches (2,5m) and at the end of the day I end up with better quality and save quite a bit of money that way. I still have a Brother monochrome laser printer but that's just for the usual paperwork.
 
Add me to the list... Sold my Epson R3000 earlier this year. Everytime I got into the mood for printing, something didn't work (wifi setup didn't work, or prints stopped halfway through, etc.) With the constant inkhead cleaning (5 min everytime I switched it on) I went through a set of inks without printing all that much. Didn't see the point of spending 300$ for a new set of inks...
Going with online services (or the local print store) now...
 
I don't do ink jet printer anymore either.

I've bought a Canon Selphy photo printer for local 4x6 prints. Dye Sub, very good quality. $99 for the printer, buy the ribbon and paper in bulk to save money.

Anything bigger then a 4x6 and I go to a print lab. Way less hassle.
 
Last edited:
Well, I think I found part of the problem. You have to be careful with the paper settings. I had the printer set to print on "plain" paper when in fact I was using 4x6 glossy paper that came with a twin pack of printer cartridges.

Plain paper is far more absorbent than glossy paper, and the printer was over-inking the print. I produced three more prints yesterday, and they seem to be as durable as the ones I had made some months ago.

I have not yet tried to reprint the heavily saturated sunset, but I will give it a go today and let you know.

The pixma printer I have is one of those do-it-all models (prints, faxes, copies, and scans) and I have been very well pleased with its overall performance.

Cheers, Jock
 
Hrm. And here I was thinking about getting a pixma pro the next time they have it on sale plus rebate.

Jason, I did that very same thing 3-4 years ago. Bought some nice paper, printed off 2 small prints and a bigger one. Thought, "Wow", these things look cool printed out. It has sat idle ever since. I re-learned that cheap isn't a good deal if you never use it.

Before you jump in because it's a good deal, think about whether you really need or want prints. I still have some pretty blank walls at the place we moved into a couple years ago, but I can't seem to work up the desire to sort through photos and decide which ones are WORTH printing, let alone trying to re-learn how to get the best results.
 
Looking at the prices for ink (full set in the $250-300 region), makes me wonder what the state of digital photo frames is (do they still make these?) and what kind you could get for that sort of money(?)
Not sure if they're better (there's always the problem of "portrait-orientation photos in landscape-orientation frames"), but I'm curious... haven't looked at any of these in a long time...
 
I'm using a Canon Pixma Pro 100 with no problems. I either use Canon or Finestra Art paper and always Canon ink. No problems at all except when I inadvertently put the paper in backwards. Then it's quite a mess.
Good luck.
. . . David
 
I thought long and hard about buying one of these but with a bunch of new Fuji instant photo kiosks in a drug store 5 minutes around the corner it just doesn't make much sense anymore.

True, but I have business use cases as well as travel use cases that make the Canon Selphy a viable option for me. I don;t always use the Selphy for printing 4x6 prints, but sometimes I travel and like to give my street subjects the option of a print. I have the Selphy printer as well as the Fuji Instax SP-1 - both of which can be powered by battery or by a juice pack.
 
I don;t always use the Selphy for printing 4x6 prints, but sometimes I travel and like to give my street subjects the option of a print. I have the Selphy printer as well as the Fuji Instax SP-1 - both of which can be powered by battery or by a juice pack.
I thought about this as well but found the Selphy a little on the large side to carry it around all day - I rather hand out cards with a web address where people can download their images or get a decent print mailed if they want one. Anyway, the Selphys are great little printers. I'll probably end up buying one once I'm back home (no photo kiosk around the corner) but no more ink jets for me.
 
Back
Top