Anyone can help? inks+info for encad pro 60e?

[Kev Mayger]

One piece of advice, stick to the Encad print heads. We tried to use compatibles and all we had was grief.

As far as i’m aware you have to use a rip to get anything out of the printer. We used to use Wisp that came with the bundle from Colourgen then went onto use Onyx which is alot better for colour management and general ease of use.

For starters i would suggest using Encad media as a starting point then you could start testing other media for compatibility.

We tried ‘outdoor’ Go inks but found them not much better than the GS set. This is not a solvent printer, so printing banners for external use is really not a good idea. You will find that Go inks sit on the surface of the media and can quite easily scratch.

Everything (apart from Tyvek) we ran on the pro60e was laminated before use. Even for internal displays.

Hope this helps and i’m sorry it’s a bit vague, i haven’t used a pro 60e for about 8 years now

[danny_uk]

no, thats ok, i appreciate your answer.

I was just talking with someone earlier and they mentioned Ilford inks and cartridges and they were saying that are no issues with their cartridges and you get amazing results with it

Also they mentioned something about Polymeric material? heard about that?

I don’t have to much money to spend on a rip, & also don’t want anything complicated…what will be the easiest rip to use, something cheap as well. Was that Onyx good with this printer?

[Kev Mayger]

If i remember rightly you have to take the chip off the back of Encad cartridges and tape them in place on the machine before installing Ilford carts. The chips on Encad Carts have a life span of ????mls of ink before needing to replace them. We used Ilford inks and carts for about 9 months and in that time we were supplied about 30 dodgy carts that just wouldn’t work – very frustrating!!! Also the media profiles that were supplied for their papers/banner materials were simply not very good. Things may have changed in more recent times but i’m not to sure.

Onyx Postershop rip is the dogs danglies as far as i’m concerned but again it’s down to preference. There are other options available such as
Troop, Shiraz (demo CD available from http://www.applied-image.com)
Flexisign has a built in rip & Colorgate from Granthams. I also believe there is a hardware rip that was an option when the machine was first introduced. You’ll have to check this out with Encad/Kodak whoever they are now!!!

[danny_uk]

Thanks.

Yes the chips are taped in place already. You are right, the chips on encad have a life span of 1000mls of ink ( they say )

About using illford inks – heard about the same problems, so that is out of question.

Onyx postershop – Yes I heard that is good, i would like to see if I can get a demo to see how easy its to use, I have contacted Applied-Image.com and requested a demo cd of their SHIRAZ.

I know its an older printer, but I hope that would do the type of jobs for beginning and then go and get a new machine or something Eco solvent. Will go to the exhibition in April, for the signs, and see the actual machines working.

I really appreciate your help so far with this.

Do you know what would be a good supplier that would stock different types of media to be compatible with this printer and offer good value for money?

[Martin Pearson]

These machines are really only suitable for indoor graphics, yes with go inks or compatibles you will get short term outdoor life but go inks are a lot more expensive and the colours tend to be a bit flat so I wouldn’t use them for indoor graphics.
As has already been mentioned you should laminate everything that comes off the printer, if you are useing dye based inks then even condensation will affect the print if not laminated.

Polymeric material for inkjet printers is still available I think but you need a special unit to cure the print and I don’t think they gave much of an improvement over the lifespan of the print. You may be able to pick up a curing unit but it will probably cost more than the printer cost you.

[Kev Mayger]

Grafityp who have an ad on the uksignboards home page would be a good place to start. Go to Sign UK and blag some samples to take away.

[danny_uk]

thanks martin.

Yes will only be use for indoor graphics, but just wanted to find out if i can use the same ink for “short” term outdoor laminated.

I found another supplier of inks called Inktec and you mentioned that the Go inks are more expensive.. they do compatible inks for £ 34.00 for 500 ml..

Now you said that Go inks will give ” colours tend to be a bit flat so I wouldn’t use them for indoor graphics” so my only option will be the GX ( graphics extend ) type of ink, original or compatible.

Will this type of ink be the right choice for indoors?

Heard about Inktec inks before, are they any good?

[RobGF]

Just to quickly jump in; GX inks (dye) even with lamination will not hold up very well for even short term application. Before we had solvent abilities the odd client would come by and beg us to do outdoor on our Encad 880 with GX. Without fail we always had those graphics fail within a month (with lam). If you want to do anything close to outdoor and use Encad supplies you’d need the GO pigmented inks. If you do choose one type of ink system from Encad you might want to look at their media compatibility charts from Kodak… there you will see that certain medias are for dye inks and others for pigments. The medias don’t always work on both. Anyway, the short of it is that if you want to play outdoors you will have a reduced colour gamut with GO inks.

I haven’t tried them but there are Encad users who like Dicojet pigmented inks. There are reports that for a aqueous ink they hold up fairly well outside (whatever fairly well means).

I won’t tell you which RIP to get but we have both Postershop and Wasatch here. Both are serious products and you can’t really go wrong with either.

Have fun.