Nearing the end of this fun project. Everyone is jealous that I was selected and that I got to print so many pictures. (I didn't tell them that as part of the study many pictures are the same, just looking for differences over time.)
This week's project included printing a Power Point presentation on both printers and comparing. Both printers did a good job with the colors. I saw the persistent banding on the refill prints, when looking very carefully, but they would have been acceptable for a project. The bigger thing was that I ran out of black ink half way through the last page. The print below is the HP ink. If you look closely there are some lines but they are on the scanner, not the print. So, two things: First, I have used twice as much ink during this project, to date. There is still ink in the HP printer. (I just looked--slightly under half of the color is left and 90% of the black). The second thing is that my frugal nature would not generally allow me to print a picture with so much black background. Though it does look good.
In addition to the Power Point I printed my every week photos and did not notice much difference in quality. The green of the refill is definitely darker...would it bother me? Probably not. The streaking or banding lines would bother me more.
Also this week we were asked to print out any business jobs we might have. One of my most particular customers (okay, my mom) asked me to print up some flyers for their raffle. All the prints came out similarly. I felt the Refill ink was a little more blurry in some of the small detail areas. Though you can see the text on the photo came out crisp on both pictures. Notice the red text though. The photo on the left is HP ink. I picked a red based on the quilt color and the HP print is very much like my choice. On the right, though, the Refill ink color is much more brown. I'm not really sure why as the quilt colors, particularly the reds look similar.
Now, as you admire this quilt you may be thinking it would be fun to have. Give me a shout and I'll set you up with some raffle tickets. In fact, if you win and live out of state, I'll spring for the shipping. The drawing is in February coordinated with our state centennial celebration. Your donation will go to help the club find more prospecting sites out in the Quartzsite area.
So to recap: This week I ran out of black ink. I can purchase HP brand for about $30 a cartridge (or less as I have seen lots of 20% off ads). Each color refill cost $15, the black is $10. Plus three trips to the store. And don't forget that one of the color cartridges had contaminated colors. I thought I was being smart saving money with the refill cartridges but this side by side challenge has showed me the error of my ways. So week 5 score HP 5 = Refill 0
I read every one of these posts and unless you're coming to California and staying in my house, I will not ever again use a home color inkjet printer!! You know why? I've bought several HP inkjet color printers and every time I use them I get one use and then I get serious banding - buy a new set of ink cartridges (which as you know aren't cheap) both before and after cleaning the printheads and aligning the printheads and they never work again!!! UGH! Just thinking about it makes me crazy! But your photos looked great. I have no idea what the secret is - I have a "brown thumb", so to speak with those printers. I just send everything to Costco! Cheap, easy and I am still sane (somewhat!)
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to tell you Karen. I've had similar experiences. A few years ago I bought two printers, one for me and one for Mom. Mine quit and was replaced under warranty. The second one stopped working right in less than year. All the while, Mom's was being hauled all over the desert, in dusty, bumpy conditions and continued to print beautifully. It didn't make any sense.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that uploading pictures to be printed at a store is pretty cheap and gives me an excuse to do some shopping.