My CIS experience over 6-7 years

I have a small business where I make recordings at conventions, retreats and the like, and I duplicate and sell CD copies of those recordings on-site moments after each presentation has concluded. Everything is mobile including sound reinforcement systems and studio-quality recording gear.

Everything that I can do to reduce costs without making serious quality sacrifices I have to do in order to remain competitive. To be fair, I can honestly sacrifice a little more print quality than audio quality as the recording itself is the key focus of those that would purchase my discs, but you'd better believe they still need to be aesthetically pleasing too.

I've been using Epson R220 printers with continuous inking for several years now, both to print the CDs themselves, and to print covers and every other paper product I need. I've had to buy most of the printers I have now used, and have yet to come across a print head I couldn't eventually get perfect nozzle check patterns from no matter how long they'd been sitting. Aside from one printer that recently started having paper and CD tray transport issues, I'm still using all of the R220s I bought several years ago. I have printed tens of thousands of discs on the same four printers using the same CIS systems on them all and have had zero issues that could in any way be attributed to the use of the continuous inking systems or to the bulk ink I've used, which has also been the same product from the same source, thought the 100 ml bottle they package in changed a year or two ago.

If you're interested in the same high quality (German material) dye based inks & CISS's to use them in, the company that I've been using is called SuperToBuy/CISInks. I am not only thrilled with the quality of the product / results, I'm also very pleased with the customer service I've received. The "CISInks" name ties to their website, which offers all of the ink supply products they carry. The "SuperToBuy" name, however, is their Flea-Bay user account name. The reason I point out their ebay info is because everything they sell on the website, they also offer on ebay at a substantial savings over the website pricing. There are a couple other ebay stores that price the same products at or near the same prices too if you'd like to try them out, but I've been happy with these guys so I just stick with them.

Just a heads up, their ebay pricing is amazing, but even so, I was making a larger purchase so I messaged them and asked if they could offer a discount on a bulk order for a long-standing customer. You know, as good as their pricing is, they actually put up a special buy it now auction with the exact products and quantities I needed just for me, and saved me nearly another 20%!

I'm telling you, my CD print costs printing at standard (VS "Best") photo quality has got to be real close to a couple pennies per disc. I'm certain it's not more than $0.03. In all fairness you have to consider that my disc labels typically consist of a graphic that's had a 73%-85% opacity white color overlay applied to it, making it very faint, with a good deal of large font print over the top for event labeling, then a good deal of smaller font information including event dates, location, presenter's information and the disc stock number. It probably is nothing like the ISO standard for measuring full coverage printing, but that should give you an idea, roughly.


This company does carry pigment based inks too, but I've not used them so I'm not going to try and say anything one way or the other about that. No question, these guys have saved me many thousands of dollars and if there is any color difference between their products and Epson Genuine Inks, I have adjusted to that a very long time ago.

Yeah yeah yeah, I've heard the scare tactics of the printer manufacturers, "if those inks clog your nozzles or ruin your printer... no longer under warranty... this and that and on and on....." Like printer manufacturers are the only ones that have figured out how to properly manufacture various ink formulations. I am still running Epson Stylus Photo R220's that have had literally gallons of this ink run through them and they still print just fine. Sorry printer manufacturers with exceedingly high costs on puny little cartridges, I was over your scare tactics years ago.

I know I'm amongst mostly real professional print folk here, and I'm sure many of you could spot some variation between prints made using the bulk CIS inks I'm using and Epson Genuine product. The question becomes, are those variances enough to ruin you project, or would they go completely unnoticed? Me? I've never looked that close. I look at the prints made using the bulk inks and they look great. Sharp, vibrant, and completely accurate so far as my untrained eye can see.

If anyone is interested, you can send me a few sheets of the stock(s) you'd like to use, no wider than 8-1/2" please, and please, no more than 8-10 sheets total, plus some digital images you'd like test printed on that stock, and a self addressed stamped return envelope, I'll happily print them however you specify and send them back to you for your approval. I truly hope someone takes me up on this as I'm sure these inks (or printers) will not match commercial print standards, but it would be nice to hear someone that knows infinitely more than I do about printing be able to say something like, "for the cost this is a reasonable solution. I'd recommend trying such and such ICC color profile and those printing wedding photography photos will be pleased," or such.

Continuous Inking Systems, CIS, or Continuous Ink Supply Systems, CISS, (which mean the same thing and are the same thing), are a worthwhile and very viable option. My experience over the last several years using them in a professional capacity has proven this. I am certain there are limitations and variances with regard to the type and manufacture of bulk ink that is used and this is unfortunately outside of my scope of knowledge.

This I can say with complete authority. If you are:

- Printing enough that you have to replace even just one cartridge per month, even if it's usually just black

- Using a reasonably small format (17" or less or 13" or less), consumer or prosumer model printer

- Printing material that is not going to be compared to an original under a microscope by NSA agents that will shoot you if they see even the faintest color variance

- Using Epson printers (Other brands may yield the same great results with CIS, but remember, this is what I can say with complete authority)

... and you are doing this all using, "Factory Genuine," priced cartridges, or even refilled/aftermarket cartridges, especially if you're replacing more than one cartridge a month, YOU ARE NEEDLESSLY THROWING MONEY AWAY.

Rich or poor, or somewhere in the middle like most of us, I really hate to see people taken for a ride. Give yourself a break and try this out. It's so simple to use and you'll never think about the cost to print something again. You'll just print it.

I know this is a long post. If it helps just one person, you know, I'll be happy about that. Please post here in this thread if you give CIS a try, be it from the place I buy mine or elsewhere, and let us know what you think after the installation and a few prints, and after a few weeks.

If you wish, let us know what you bought, where you bought it, maybe even what you paid should you wish to share that information. It'd be helpful if you could share experiences with different sources for both hardware and for ink, and also different printer makes and models. I personally would be especially be interested to know if anyone finds a reasonable price on a CIS and inks for the Epson Diskproducer. I'm aware of one source only, and they are very pricey.

I hope that the message finds all of you who read it well.

- John

 

Since I have been using CIS on my Epson R2000 for less than a year my initial prints were coming out great until I had a "dry cartridge" which I assume caused my first Epson to fault out and not recognize the CIS. The prints I did get were very nice and ready for display. I did some updating with a decoder that plugs into the board that the OEM cartridges responded with the firmware. My early experience has produced images that could be used. I have replaced my old Epson with a new one and first few prints , 8x10 or 13x19, were good, but now I am getting banding that is vertical on a landscape image in all areas that have a low density to them. I have changed papers, glossy and matte, but the banding is still appearing on my image. Different printer profiles have not corrected it either. I attempted to clean the nozzle on a band new Epson printer and that has not helped to resolve this issue. The banding, from what I can remember, did not occur until I removed a jam of regular printing pager. I am soaking the print head and I let it set for around 24 hours to see if that will clear this up. Please let me know if there is something else that I could do to fix this problem.