7100 Inks: Does it have to be Sublijet?

[Subdub]

I'm looking for inks for my Ricoh SG7100. I know most people recommend Sawgrass, but are there any decent and cheaper alternatives? Possibly refillable solutions as I have some empty carts.

Thanks!

[webtrekker]

I have a Ricoh SG3100DN and have had no problems with ink from City Ink Express, who also supply an ICC profile.

[Subdub]

Thanks webtrekker.

I did have them in mind, but the reviews seem polarised so wasn't sure.

[UK Printed Mugs]

Stick with Sawgrass. We have tried many refill options but keep coming back to Sawgrass. Consistent, hassle free and great support.

[Subdub]

Thanks guys. UK Printed Mugs: Have you tried the City Ink?

[UK Printed Mugs]

Yes. Went in the bin shortly after trying. Couldn't reproduce the same colours we got from SG ink even with a custom ICC profile.

[Subdub]

Right. Ok, thanks for your input. See what I mean about polarised opinions?

[webtrekker]

The way I look at it is that the CIE inks produce saleable items at a fraction of the cost of Sawgrass. I've sold quite a few mugs on ebay using CIE inks and have had nothing but positive feedback. I'd like to bet the vast majority of mugs on there aren't made with Sawgrass inks. It's not as if people haven't had their problems with Sawgrass either.

I think that, for the price, it's worth giving CIE a go and persevering with it until you get decent printouts. It could, in the long run, save you vast amounts of money. I'm not being cheeky, but to some members of this forum money appears to be no object usually because they run large businesses. When you are just starting out, with very limited cash at hand, you sometimes have to cut your cloth accordingly.

I should add that it may also be worthwhile contacting the member mags who also produces good sublimation inks.

[Subdub]

Thanks webtrekker.

Yeah I see what you're saying. I'm new to all this so still feeling my way really. At the moment I have the cheapest inks available to humanity, and sometimes get perfect results. That's the problem though - inconsistency.

I think my issues stem from the fact that I only had a limited budget to get started, and not knowing the ropes - probably invested too heavily in the wrong area. So I have a great printer (Ricoh 7100) but cheap Chinese inks, unknown brand paper, £50 unbranded mug-press and cheap eBay mugs. I'm learning slowly... the hard way and trying to replace things wisely and with the most bang for the buck.

At the moment I'm using PowerDriver (even though I'm not using their inks) and I tweak things so much that I sometimes get lost and forget where I was and what worked. Srgb/Adobe 1998, Render Intent, Colorsure on/off, Output to Photographic/Graphics/Grayscale/Classic... and every combination thereof Not to mention pressing variations - pre-heating, times/temps/pressure, dunk or not...

I have had some great results. But they seem like accidents. I'm not selling yet but everyone got a mug for Christmas. So my plan is to get some better ink and use an ICC profile, stick to branded mugs next as I suspect this is a problem, and finally get a decent press.

Thanks for all the advice!

[Lucifax]

The way I look at it is that the CIE inks produce saleable items at a fraction of the cost of Sawgrass. I've sold quite a few mugs on ebay using CIE inks and have had nothing but positive feedback. I'd like to bet the vast majority of mugs on there aren't made with Sawgrass inks. It's not as if people haven't had their problems with Sawgrass either.

I think that, for the price, it's worth giving CIE a go and persevering with it until you get decent printouts. It could, in the long run, save you vast amounts of money. I'm not being cheeky, but to some members of this forum money appears to be no object usually because they run large businesses. When you are just starting out, with very limited cash at hand, you sometimes have to cut your cloth accordingly.

I should add that it may also be worthwhile contacting the member mags who also produces good sublimation inks.

Must be a Northern thing, but that's pretty much the advice I would give too. :redface: *coughtightarsecough*

We swapped over to 3rd party inks on all our printers last year and are now running 6 printers on them. Subli inks currently from CIE and Colourbests Chroma inks for artwork and posters.

It does help that wor lass has circa 20 odd years in print and design though I suppose as she knows her stuff inside out. She just tweaks the profiles til she gets the colours she wants. (She's dead fussy too). There's undoubtedly no more difference in prints, once she's finished, between the inks than there would be from different printers, say epson vs canon vs ricoh for example. Side by side you can tell the slightest differences, but not enough to matter. I suppose it just depends if the hassle of tweaking the profiles is worth the savings to you. (out of interest, our Canon pro-1 prints better large photography prints imo with 3rd party inks than our Epson 4800 did with oem inks).

I've had much more significant differences caused by paper than by inks, which is why I am now unnaturally obsessive about Texprint XPhr and Hahnnemule photo rag :redface:

Each to their own though, of course.