Why I Returned the MIS Dye Ink

even though the spongeless cartridges were fantastic

A few weeks ago I wrote an article on how I though the MIS spongeless cartridges were great.   Click here to read that article.  I still agree with that statement.  The problem I encountered concerns their dye ink for the Epson 1280.  They state:

Dye Based Inks -
Below you will find our Epson equivalent dye based inks. They are made for the Epson printers, but are not made by Epson. These inks are exactly the same as the ink Epson uses in their cartridges. They are dye based waterfast inks made specifically for the printers listed. Each ink has been adjusted for viscosity, drying time, color balance, and surface tension.

This is not what I encountered. 

My Experience

After receiving my custom profiles from Cathy's Profiles, the colors were better.  However, any dark or shadow areas printed as a magenta/purple color.  This the case for all dark colors, for example, dark green shadows printed as purple, dark yellow shadows printed as purple.  I decided not to use the custom profile and adjust the Epson printer driver color controls manually.  After roughly 60 sheets of paper, I wasn't anywhere close to printing something decent.  Moving the magenta slider to -20 removed the magenta/purple cast, but threw everything else out of balance making the print look dull and jaundiced.  After a day of various settings I decided to give up.  I went to the local Office Max and purchased a set of Epson OEM ink cartridges.  My first print with all color control sliders set to 0 produced a better print than anything I had printed using the MIS dye ink.  About 10 sheets of 4x6 later I had a decent acceptable print; nowhere near perfect, but very pleasing on its own.  And there was no magenta/purple to be found anywhere.  Note:  All prints were viewed under a color correct Ott-Lite and compared to a calibrated LCD. 

Covering My Tracks

I wanted to check if the MIS dye inks were loaded correctly into the spongeless wells.  I used a q-tip to swab the ink from each bottle onto plain paper.  I then took a sample from each cartridge well and swabbed those.  Each cartridge well matched the bottle perfectly.  I can come to two conclusions: One, the wrong ink is in the bottles.  Two, my particular Epson 1280 does not mix the MIS dye inks properly.  I say my printer since many internet forums threads state that this combination works with excellent results.  However, a search for purple/magenta with Epson 1280 and MIS dye ink showed many results with similar problems. 

Purple Fading

While writing this article I decided to review the prints I made a week ago with the MIS ink.  The magenta/purple on the custom profiled prints has faded considerably, but is still present and unacceptable.  The Epson OEM ink with color controls at zero still produced a better print. 

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