[pastusza]

Hello all,

I'm currently using an Epson Artisan 835 printer in my house.

I'm doing a lot of printing on Staples 65 lb. Cover Stock, and I am finding the text just isn't as crisp as I'd like it to be. Printing on regular 25 lb. inkjet paper looks significantly better than it does on the 65 lb. cover stock.

The Artisan is a Dye Ink printer. I've been doing some research on the Internet, and it appears that a pigment ink printer may offer sharper text, since the ink does not get absorbed into the page, but sits on top of the paper.

Has anyone ever done a comparison between the two inks to see what kind of difference in quality there is?

[OreoCookie]

A lot of printers nowadays use pigments for black ink while the other colors are dye-based. Pigment-based inks are superior for office applications, because printouts don't smear from water (e. g. sweat or text markers).

[pastusza]

Epson is claiming that their Workforce printers use pigment ink. I bought a Workforce 2640 last night. On plain paper and cardstock I can see a huge increase in quality over my Epson Artisan. The only thing that it doesn't do is print on photo paper, which seems to be less of an issue with pigment based ink.

[howieho]

From what I remember from my days working for Office Depot, pigment inks last longer and resist fading making it more archival quality. I think text also look sharper because where as dyes spread as they get absorbed by the paper, the pigments sit on top of the paper the way toner would on a laser print. Having owned several Epson printers that used pigments, the one downside I found that is if it isn't used regularly, the nozzles dry out and get clogged easily. It takes several cleaning cycles to unclog them if this happens which wastes a ton of ink. I also found that only OEM cartridges would work with pigment ink printers. Remanufactured ones tend to clog.