The HG-2 ink set’s lack of photo grays to replace cyan, magenta, yellow (and perhaps some orange and red inks) when printing low chroma and neutral gray scales make it inevitable that some light fastness differences are going to exist when comparing prints made on the SC-400 to other Epson photo printers like the SC-600 and SC 800 desktop models. What’s novel about the HG-2 ink set is that it has no photo gray inks but adds a gloss optimizer and doubles down in the red-orange (e.g., skin tones) part of the color gamut with the inclusion of both an orange ink cartridge and a red ink cartridge. Aardenburg Imaging and Archives has received more than one request to test Precisioncolors inks for light fade resistance compared to the respective OEM ink sets, and with help from the printmaking community, we have been able to obtain these PrecisionColors samples printed accurately to our test target image specifications.Įpson currently has four variants of its UltraChrome branded aqueous ink sets, each with its own print permanence properties: The 8-color UltraChrome HD ink set used in the new SC-600, SC800, and SC 60 printers, the 10-color HDX ink set (standard edition) used in the new SC 70 wide format printers, the 10-color HDX commercial edition (where a light grey ink is permanently swapped with a violet ink cartridge in the SC 70 wide format printers) and lastly, a novel HG-2 ink set that has seven colors plus a gloss optimizer. has gained popularity and respect among amateur printmaking enthusiasts because it offers reliable and affordable third party inks for both Epson and Canon photo printer models. Also, a Precisioncolors dye-based ink set for the Canon Pro-100 printer will be compared directly to Canon’s own OEM set for the Pro-100 on a popular RC photo paper, Canon’s Photo Paper Pro Luster. A Precisioncolors pigmented ink set for the Canon Pro-1 printer and another for one made as a replacement for K3 or HD inks in various Epson Printer models are being evaluated. ![]() Lastly, we will be evaluating some third party inks made by Precision Colors and comparing to their respective Canon and Epson OEM counterparts. Epson’s proofing paper differs from the Canon and Epson photo luster media because it contains no OBAs in the PE layers, only OBAs in the paper core where they are more isolated from direct light exposure and also certain light- reactive aspects of the PE/TiO2 chemistry. Here, Canon Photo Pro Luster and Epson Ultra Premium luster will be evaluated for media stability against a third RC paper, Epson Proofing Paper White SemiMatte. Second, some ink sets are paired with resin coated (RC) media where the media whitepoint properties are expected to shift during light exposure due to more rapid fading of the optical brighteners (OBAs) in the media, but also further change is expected to occur in dark storage due to their RC-layer polyethylene (PE) with incorporated titanium dioxide(TiO2), and optical brighteners (OBAs). Thus, these media should better reveal fundamental light fade properties of the inks themselves with less confounding of the results due to poor media stability. Some of the choices represent a direct paired ink set comparison on specific media, notably Moab Entrada Rag Natural and Red River Palo Duro Soft Gloss Rag which are both OBA-free and expected to have stable media white point properties. First, there are specific comparative tests of three different Canon pigmented ink formulations (including the latest Canon LUCIA Pro-11 set made on or new Canon Pro-1000 printer purchased in 2016) to Epson’s newest UltraChrome HD ink set with its significantly improved yellow pigment ink. Underlying the choice of these 16 samples are some deliberate experimental design objectives.
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