On 13/10/2018 04:43, Basil Chupin wrote:
Some years ago a friend (now unfortunately deceased) bought the Epson Stylus R2000 printer but then added a 'gizmo' which came from a company in the USA which fed the various inks not from the usual cartridges but via tubes from bottles which made it far more economical to run than buying cartridges. I now don't recall the name of the ink company which supplied that addition to the printer (?The Ink Company?).
I had a client with such a setup. Epson may not have officially supported it, but the company did nothing to block it, making their printers favourites in the repro/graphic-design markets, and ideal for small-run commercial jobs. However I *think* only the pro models supported it, and due to commercial pressures, the company basically had to block such use of its low-end home-market devices. Cheap printers are sold under what's known as the "Gillette model". The actual hardware is sold at a loss -- like Gillette razors -- but the print cartridges (ink or toner) are marked up so high that all the profit comes from them, as it does from Gillette's razor blade cartridges. Q.v. https://boingboing.net/2005/09/14/gillettes-5blade-raz.html Basically all the claims about using special inks or special paper are marketing lies. Some 3rd party inks and media are superior to the manufacturers' options, as Trusted Reviews' "Inkjet Investigation" shows. http://www.bizintouch.com/sampleemails/TrustedReviewInkStudy_MichaelMansy.ht... http://www.cartridgeworldsa.com/business-direct-trusted-reviews/index.html (Sadly the domain name has been acquired and the article removed. Small disclaimer -- TR was staffed by former colleagues of mine, whose integrity I trusted, although I never wrote for them myself.) Due to the markup, plain black printer ink (in its special magic cartridge with a chip to measure use and ensure you don't refill it) is the 8th most expensive liquid in the world. http://www.bbcnewshub.com/the-10-most-expensive-liquids-in-the-world-2018/ -- Liam Proven - Technical Writer, SUSE Linux s.r.o. Corso II, Křižíkova 148/34, 186-00 Praha 8 - Karlín, Czechia Email: lproven@suse.com - Office telephone: +420 284 241 084 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org