# Sublinova smart inks in epson 4880 printer



## FLAMBO (May 28, 2012)

I have got an Epson 4880 Stylus Pro 8-colour printer which runs OEM inks at the moment, but i want to run dye sublimation inks through it to print on polyester, coated metal, ceramics and coated wood products.

Herein lies my dilemma; INK! After doing some extensive reading and finding out about Sawgrasses stronghold on an exclusive licence i began to think twice about getting their 220ml SUBLIJET IQ inks which in my opinion are very expensive. The fact that they licence a formulation to INKTEC with the stipulation to only brand it as ink for wide format printers {42" and above} also got me thinking. Also INKTEC have cleverly slipped subliminal info into their brochures about SUBLINOVA inks being compatible with piezo head Epson printers including those with DX5 print-heads which my Epson 4880 stylus Pro printer has. I know that the SUBLINOVA SMART DTI will work in my printer and i don't think clogging will be an issue.

I got in touch with a couple digital printers and suppliers to get their views on my thought process and a lot of them said that to avoid Sawgrass inks in my Epson 4880 printer, and avoid using a RIP, then I would need to use the ink colours that the printer expects – CMYK, LC, LM, LK and LLK, otherwise a standard ICC profiling would not work. Replacing the LK and LLK with SUBLINOVAS ORANGE and BLUE to complement the CMYK LC & LM would require a RIP to control the inks/colours along with a more sophisticated ICC profile.

I guess sticking to colours the printer expects is the way to go with the Epson 4880.
I'll opt for the bulk/litre(s) SUBLINOVA SMART CMYK LC LM LK + the bulk/litre SAWGRASS ARTANIUM UV+ LLK ink and then get a custom ICC profile developed for me.

If I had an EPSON 1500w/Artsan 1430 6-colour printer then I wouldn’t really bother about extra black inks.

Since I’ll be having a custom ICC profile anyway, the mixture of different manufacturers of ink in the same printer is not a problem. I’m in the UK so INKTEC is what I’ll opt for, I hear JTECH and COBRA cover the U.S and i'm guess it's the same concept everywhere

{I hope someone more versed in all things sublimation will shed more light on my quest}


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## pisquee (Jan 8, 2012)

I have to say that it is a shame that InkTec don't have a light light black ink, as so many newer Epsons above basic CMYK need it. Availability of non-Sawgrass LLK in UK seems scarce, and I do know of a few people having to use litres of Artainium in the LLK channel of printers, and then InkTec's Sublinova Smart in the rest of the printer, with a custom ICC profile tying it together.
I would advise anyone who hasn't bought a wide format yet to avoid one which need LLK if you're wanting to not use Sawgrass inks.


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