Dr Editors/others concerned

I am trying hard to understand the tremendous discrepancy in INK cost for Epson Ink Jet printers. I cannot see how the amateur or semi pro or for that matter any serious user of these fabulous machines ( mine is the 1200) can go ahead and use the standard 300 dpi/ 1440 dpi settings and print 11 x 17 prints and not go broke . The pair of espon cartridges cost 46-50 dollars . With optimal settings you might get 10-15 prints. There is a COBRA system by MIS Supply. i have attached it for your perusal

A commercial printer has the system, he says it costs 22 cents an 8 x 10 print. The way I see it with the Epson supplies it costs about 2.50 to 3 dollars a print. Now I find this outrageous. It greatly limits the use of the machine and I dont think Epson wants dissatisfied customers. I have 3000 digitized files. @ 300 dpi and if I want to use the 1440 printing setting Im gonna eat ink up in no time

Cant your magazine publish a facsimile of this letter and let the companies know that they are draining us on accessories?

Please dont disregard this letter. It seems to take a very long time for you to reply.

thank you

Glenn Losack MD

this is the attachment From a commercial printer for 30 years who obviously is outsmarting Epson:

I gave up on the idea of buying Epson ink cartridges a long time ago! used generic cartridges for several years... then moved on to buying bulk ink and re-filling cartridges, and most recently have switched to a

brand new inking system called the Cobra System. I have Cobra installed on one of my Epson 900 printers and just love it. I'll be installing Cobra on my Epson 3000 as soon as it becomes available for that model. Cobra is new, but it is available for a lot of the major brand of ink jet printers. It uses a special cartridge (that never gets changed) and is "fed" (via tiny, surgical tubing) by ink from bulk resivoir bottles. I've been buying bulk ink for some time, but really didn't like the mess

of doing the re-loading..... now, with the Cobra system I can enjoy the cost benefits of bulk ink without the hassle of re-loading cartridges!

The Cobra system costs about $70 to install, plus the cost of the = ink.... Ink for my Epson 900 costs $8.00/4-oz... or, $24.00 per pint. A = pint provides about 32 color-cartridge re-fills and 24 black-cartridge =

refills. This brings the equivelant cost of a set (one color and one = black) of cartridges down to about $3.25 total.

Printing at my "standard" of 1440 dpi and a 300 dpi file.... I had = estimated that I was getting between 15 & 20 8x10's per = cartridge-set....... figuring worst case (15 8x10's), and buying ink in = pint bottles.... the Cobra system brings the cost of ink for an 8x10 = down to about 22 cents. I can afford that.

If you're interested in more information about the Cobra system... try =

this link:

http://www.missupply.com/store.cgi?cart_id=3D6790490.12005&page=3Doutlet_=

frontpage_query.html

and click on the COBRA icon....

--------------53F4875EC9896D0C955D37A2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="74747874"; name="e mail COBRA" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: Unknown Document Content-Disposition: inline; filename="e mail COBRA"

>From a commercial printer for 30 years who obviously is outsmarting Epson:

I gave up on the idea of buying Epson ink cartridges a long time ago! used generic cartridges for several years... then moved on to buying bulk ink and re-filling cartridges, and most recently have switched to a brand new inking system called the Cobra System. I have Cobra installed on one of my Epson 900 printers and just love it. I'll be installing Cobra on my Epson 3000 as soon as it becomes available for that model. Cobra is new, but it is available for a lot of the major brand of ink jet printers. It uses a special cartridge (that never gets changed) and is "fed" (via tiny, surgical tubing) by ink from bulk resivoir bottles. I've been buying bulk ink for some time, but really didn't like the mess of doing the re-loading..... now, with the Cobra system I can enjoy the cost benefits of bulk ink without the hassle of re-loading cartridges!

The Cobra system costs about $70 to install, plus the cost of the = ink.... Ink for my Epson 900 costs $8.00/4-oz... or, $24.00 per pint. A = pint provides about 32 color-cartridge re-fills and 24 black-cartridge = refills. This brings the equivelant cost of a set (one color and one = black) of cartridges down to about $3.25 total.

Printing at my "standard" of 1440 dpi and a 300 dpi file.... I had = estimated that I was getting between 15 & 20 8x10's per = cartridge-set....... figuring worst case (15 8x10's), and buying ink in = pint bottles.... the Cobra system brings the cost of ink for an 8x10 = down to about 22 cents. I can afford that.

If you're interested in more information about the Cobra system... try = this link:

http://www.missupply.com/store.cgi?cart_id=3D6790490.12005&page=3Doutlet_= frontpage_query.html

and click on the COBRA icon....

--------------53F4875EC9896D0C955D37A2--

-- Dr. Glenn Mark Losack MD (losackmd@worldnet.att.net), June 24, 2000

Answers

I wholeheartedly agree about the price of inks, especially since their fading properties are so bad. I have had my Epson printer for almost two years now and I have bought cartridges one time. After that I learned how to refill my cartridges at work where we buy the inks by the pint from Encad. I don't use the inkjet printer much at home, but it's pretty great not having to buy inks. We also have a 42 inch Encad printer and we buy paper in rolls. Whenever we print something we invariably have scrap paper. I cut this down and bring it home to use. Otherwise it would only go into the dumpster. For those of you into experimentation, I have also recently been trying out both watercolor paper and charcoal paper purchased from the local art supply store. I really like the results, especially the charcoal paper, but it does require some tweaking of the printer drivers for optimal output.

Fred

-- fred (fdeaton@hiwaay.net), June 24, 2000.

We had a similar system installed on an A0 colour plotter at work (it may have been Cobra - i can't remember). Despite the undoubted savings we soon went back to good old cartridges. The problem was continual feed problems, blockages and air trapped in the small capillary pipes that frequently led to colours missing from plots. (we made sure that all pipes were straight). Every time we had a problem we had to get the suppliers in which could take over 24 hours- not an option in a productive environment.

-- Martin Ellis (inca@globalnet.co.uk), June 25, 2000.

Couldn't agree more.

I bought Epson 680, then bought 2 ink heads, which cost a fortune and also some photopaper (which is btw. total shit as printouts fade in 6 months!)

Then a friend give me old HP printer 640c or something like that, so I can print my text and drawings.

Photos I take to local photo lab where they develop them on classic photo paper which lasts for 100 years.

-- tomash stropnik (tomaz.stropnik1@uni-mb.si), November 22, 2002.

Well... http://www.InkRepublic.com is always the best choice.

Try them out!

They are using Spongeless Continuous Ink System, much better than MIS. Besides, you can always use dye or pigment ink as you want. No need to flush out ink.

-- Freando (fdo@g5i.com), October 28, 2004.