Citizen Printer

Why does my canon pixma dye based inkjet printer have better qulity then my mates epson pigment based printer?

Yer, it seems to be the case with my canon PIXMA MP630. And im not talking about photo paper either, i mean my DYE based printer is printer better qulity(better colors, vibrant, sharper picture, not grainy) then my mates epson PIGMENT based inkjet(this has a bit of grain, not ass good colors a bit blured), But shouldn't this be the other way round? remember this is on standred matte office A4 white paper, which pigment ink is ment to exel on, and dye is ment to look horrible on... I dont get it, im using the offical genuine epson duraBrite pigment based ink, and same with the canon ink(exept its dye based of corce), and the same paper brand and all, but it just dosn't seem to work what i expected it to do, both printers were set on max qulity, with the right paper selected from drivers, there set 100% correct, for media and qulity ect... The epson has fine dots in it's color, while the conon's just are perfect, cants see dots in colors graphics ect.. and not to mention but the cannons ink is very low also! and the epson is fairly new. both are printers mantained and are run through the neceracery driver cleaing exercises regulary but it jsut dont add up. Shame to becuase I realy wanted a pigemtn ink printer becuase i though they printed out perfect qulity, but it seems my canons dye is printering out better(not that my cannon dont print good in the first place, i just wanted to get somthing new), heck my conon printer qulity has about the same qulity as a laser if not better.. yer mabey not as fast but still the qulity is exelent, only advantage i see in pigment ink is it is a bit more water resestant, not that i would be so careless to spill somthing, but the paper is spoiled anyway, so whats the point. and pigemnt ink last longer, that to i dont see much point as i have never realy seen a print discolor in my life. and yer thats about all, please help me, im confused and torn in weather i should get a pigemtn ink printer or kepp my current one. please expain. and can cannon use pigment ink? perhaps even with my current printer? and what printer should i upgrade to if i want better prints then my current one? ;)

Public Comments

As a stand-alone printer, (your only printer), the Epson leaves a lot to be desired in comparison to Canon models. The price is lower, so if you want a 2nd or 3rd printer for nothing but discs and/or photos, the Epson is a good choice. If you need one printer with maximum flexibility, duplexing, etc, get a Canon. With 2 other Canon printers in my stable, (one PIXMA and one laser), I can live with the limitations of the Epson. The fact that the Epson ink is so easily wiped off with a wet finger is disconcerting. While the Canon compatible ink I have used is less so, it's still an issue with all discs I fear. The Epson disc printing software is a bit crude and limited, but is still functional for basic needs. I essentially just copy disc labels and do very little custom design, so it's not a huge issue. If you have to go buy label software to suit your needs, the cost of the Epson goes up, so again Canon might be the better choice in that regard.
Pigment / Dye doesn't really have any bearing on quality of print. A pigment ideally will stay vibrant longer than a dye, however even with the resin coated papers today, that isn't always the case. For graphics I swear by canon, they have a dual drop print head which places a smaller drop of ink next to a larger which smooths out the dithered appearance you are seeing in the Epson. This is something and EPSON cannot, and will not do because of the design of their print head (they use a piezo electric ink delivery system rather than thermal) Some of the higher end canon image PROgraf series used pigments, however it really will not make any difference what so ever. As stated before, because of the new advances in paper, the pigment vs. dye argument is no longer valid. They will both produce a great and vibrant long lasting print
read this article for the difference between dye and pigment ink. http://ccs-digital.com/dyevspigment.asp People assume that because it is more expensive and highly touted by Epson, pigment ink is better. There are trade-offs. Dye is brighter and less likely to clog the printer.