Tools of the CIS trade: Windex, syringes, a knife, Rubbermaid bin, paper towels. and, uh, broccoli. Not shown: coffee, aspirin, a bunch of crap thrown around in frustration. Note the expensive rug underneath this train wreck of a project.
So, you buy a fancy printer to crank out the fancy images coming from your fancy camera. The first thing you realize is printer companies aren't here to sell you hardware, but ink. Expensive ass ink. $15 per cartridge to be exact, and my printer requires NINE. Three blacks, four including the matte and shiny ones that you swap out! Good lord man! These suckers could be sold on the street by sketchy dudes in trenchcoats. "pst! ey! ey my man! you need some Cyan?"
I decided to not be one of these slaves to Genuine Ink and purchased a CIS, or Continuous Ink System, a series of dummy cartridges hooked up via tubes to huge reservoirs you fill up with ketchup bottles of ink. It's like an enema for your printer. I mean this literally and here's the pun: They're a pain in the ass to install and use! The installation process is torturous, like a game of Operation that makes your hands look like Toucan Sam.
The installed cartridges must be primed using syringes (nine of them). Then there are the computer chips... new cartridges have chips that monitor your ink levels, and when you hit a certain level the Red Light of Death turns on. You can't just shake out a few more photos like in the old days. This monitoring system persists with CIS. The printer software still shows your ink level depleting, but when it "empties" it is supposed to reset itself. This is sometimes the case. More likely, the empty cartridge will malfunction, claim to be empty, and also trigger adjacent ones to feign uselessness. It's like the old Nintendo NES system: take out the cartridge, look down the hole, blow into it, blow on the cartridge, put it back in, jiggle the thing around, hold your breath, reset and... THAT DAMN RED LIGHT AGAIN! I've resorted to prying chips off old cartridges and sticking them on. My next step is to purchase a Chip Resetter, a $10 savior to bring these bastardized chips back to 100%. Where there's a will, there's a way! So to summarize, a Continuous Ink Supply can be a wonderful cost saving tool, when it works. WHEN it works, print like it's your freaking job. Do not sleep, leave the room to pee, or let the dog bump the desk.
That all said, I do love the idea of this system. When it works, I print out 13x19's with reckless abandon. The quality, color, and quick drying are identical to "real" ink, if not damn close. One online reviewer, with better installation luck then me, said the only problem with a bulk ink system is running out of wall space. I agree on this: for around $250, you get about 6 sets worth of ink. No more careful proofing, hitting the abort button a third of the way through to check color, printing dime sized contact prints. Let 'er RIP! (a printing joke...anyone? aww.)
Editor's Note: The broccoli was eaten by Tony the Labrador while my back was turned. This can't possibly end in tragedy, or at least horrible dog gas while we're watching movies tonight.
So, you buy a fancy printer to crank out the fancy images coming from your fancy camera. The first thing you realize is printer companies aren't here to sell you hardware, but ink. Expensive ass ink. $15 per cartridge to be exact, and my printer requires NINE. Three blacks, four including the matte and shiny ones that you swap out! Good lord man! These suckers could be sold on the street by sketchy dudes in trenchcoats. "pst! ey! ey my man! you need some Cyan?"
I decided to not be one of these slaves to Genuine Ink and purchased a CIS, or Continuous Ink System, a series of dummy cartridges hooked up via tubes to huge reservoirs you fill up with ketchup bottles of ink. It's like an enema for your printer. I mean this literally and here's the pun: They're a pain in the ass to install and use! The installation process is torturous, like a game of Operation that makes your hands look like Toucan Sam.
The installed cartridges must be primed using syringes (nine of them). Then there are the computer chips... new cartridges have chips that monitor your ink levels, and when you hit a certain level the Red Light of Death turns on. You can't just shake out a few more photos like in the old days. This monitoring system persists with CIS. The printer software still shows your ink level depleting, but when it "empties" it is supposed to reset itself. This is sometimes the case. More likely, the empty cartridge will malfunction, claim to be empty, and also trigger adjacent ones to feign uselessness. It's like the old Nintendo NES system: take out the cartridge, look down the hole, blow into it, blow on the cartridge, put it back in, jiggle the thing around, hold your breath, reset and... THAT DAMN RED LIGHT AGAIN! I've resorted to prying chips off old cartridges and sticking them on. My next step is to purchase a Chip Resetter, a $10 savior to bring these bastardized chips back to 100%. Where there's a will, there's a way! So to summarize, a Continuous Ink Supply can be a wonderful cost saving tool, when it works. WHEN it works, print like it's your freaking job. Do not sleep, leave the room to pee, or let the dog bump the desk.
That all said, I do love the idea of this system. When it works, I print out 13x19's with reckless abandon. The quality, color, and quick drying are identical to "real" ink, if not damn close. One online reviewer, with better installation luck then me, said the only problem with a bulk ink system is running out of wall space. I agree on this: for around $250, you get about 6 sets worth of ink. No more careful proofing, hitting the abort button a third of the way through to check color, printing dime sized contact prints. Let 'er RIP! (a printing joke...anyone? aww.)
Editor's Note: The broccoli was eaten by Tony the Labrador while my back was turned. This can't possibly end in tragedy, or at least horrible dog gas while we're watching movies tonight.
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And Isabel wants to bring him along on vacation. Silly girl.
ReplyDeleteI like that the printer looks like it is hooked up to some kind of life support!