Larry... I appreciate your rather hostile reply, because it gives me the
opportunity to correct the misunderstanding you read into my posting.
In spite of the fact that the postings I was replying to referred to the
"all in one" CX3200 (a CMYK printers) versus other printers using
tricolor and a black cartridge, I did fail to be specific enough (for
you, at least) to mention I was not referring to six, seven or eight
color printers, which I would predict you are (I believe all the
printers you list are indeed CcMmYK printers).
So, in my defense, I stand by my original statement that separate color
cartridges in FOUR COLOR CMYK printers tend to average out their color
usage and tend, especially in photo image use, to use up their inks
fairly evenly, and that they offer little to no savings over tricolor
cartridges for EPSON printers because of the way Epson purges all the
cartridges each time any one individual cartridge is replaced, and the
fact that the individual color cartridges are more costly per unit ink
measure. But I will, for you LARRY, make the following clarification.
One of the biggest rip-offs in inkjet technology was the introduction of
the CcMmYK printers, which added the light cyan and magenta colors. Not
only are these basically just watered down versions of the other colors,
costing the manufacturers even less to make (since the dyes and/or
pigments are usually the most costly part of the ink mixture), but the
drivers are so designed to use up the light cyan and magenta inks at
about DOUBLE the rate of the other colors (as you imply).
Although the result from these 6.7 or 8 color printers is somewhat
superior in photographic applications, the truth is as the dot size
decreases and variable dot technology has improved, the resultant color
fidelity has become considerably less of an issue, and for the average
inkjet user (the poster was looking to buy an all in one for under 100£
UK and he indicated he would not be using the color very often), the
difference between the result of a 4 color print and 6 or more color
print, is difficult to see.
Further still, with dye inks, the light cyan and magenta inks are much
more fugitive than the full dye load inks, because, in part, the dye
itself helps to protect the dye below it from fading. When the dyes are
highly dilute and therefore very light in color, they fade much more
rapidly that similar dots of full dye load.
Just as you quote your experience, I will quote mine. I own and use six
different Epson printers, all CMYK models, and have gone through quite a
few cartridges in the last nine years. They are mainly used for
photographic image production, and I would say my images are variable
and typical in subject matter. I actually remove the ink left over in
the cartridges prior to refilling them. My empirical tests based upon
first use Epson and other cartridges are that typically, the yellow runs
out first, followed by magenta and then cyan, unless I have been
printing an abundance cyan skies. However, although there is a pattern
to the inks running out, the amount of cyan and magenta ink left when
the yellow runs out, is on average only 5-15% of the cartridge capacity.
In fact, I tried an experiment at one point where I reinstalled the same
cartridge which had run out of yellow ink, and allowed it to go through
an initiation purge process, and the magenta ran out by the end of that
purge, and the cyan soon after, meaning very little ink was left in the
other two colors.
I cannot predict how other people's image subject matter may alter their
ink consumption, in terms of colors, but under average conditions, the
colors in a tri-color cartridge will tend to run out at nearly the same
time.
And, by the way, I too have been using color inkjet printers for a
rather long time, in fact, since Epson started making them. I still use
two 2nd generation printer (the Stylus Color Pro and Pro XL) which were
upgraded from the original Stylus Color.
Art
