HP Vivera Ink

[scrivener]

I recently purchased a few cartridges of HP's Vivera Ink for my inkjet printer. I'm doing a little project for tonight's prom and thought an ink designed for photo prints would be the way to go.

So as an experiment, I printed one photo (on HP's high-gloss 4x6 paper) with the cartridge already in my printer. I planned to swap the cartridge for the Vivera cartridge and then print the same photo, to see if there was any noticable difference.

I was surprised to find that the Vivera cartridge fit into the blank ink slot in the printer, not the tri-color. I printed again and I honestly can't tell a difference.

Am I not seeing a difference because there IS no difference, or am I looking at two photos printed with the same ink? Is the printer using both cartridges in printing the photos?

I'm a little nervous, because I bought two Vivera cartridges, which I figured would be more than enough for my needs, but now I think I'm going to have to run back to Best Buy and pick up two of the regular tri-color cartridges, in case the printer's using both for photo prints now.

[scrivener]

Re: HP Vivera Ink

I just found out that HP is labeling ALL its ink with "Vivera," so I'm kind of an idiot for thinking what I was thinking. Best Buy had mixed stock, but Office Depot must sell more ink, because every box on the shelf said Vivera.

So the real question is what does that "photo" cartridge do? If I want to print non-photo stuff, should I be swapping in and out my black ink cartridge with my photo ink cartridge as the task dictates?

[Pomai]

Re: HP Vivera Ink

Funny you mention this. We (our office) recently purchased an HP DesignJet 130 NR 24" wide format printer (the model with an ethernet port for networking and an automatic 24" rear path roll feed module). This baby has the capacity to produce photo-quality images up to 24"x60 FEET. It uses thermal, replaceable jet heads.

One of the key features it promotes in their brochure are the use of Vivera Inks, which it touts are "archival" quality, claiming to have 100+ years of UV fade-resistant durability.

I must admit, this baby performs nicely, spitting out photo-quality prints on glossy stock that stand up to the Canon IP5000 Pixma I have at home, and as good as the photo lab.

One thing noticeably different between my Pixma and the HP DJ130 are the smell of the print. Yes, the smell. If that's any indication that Vivera Ink is different, than perhaps it is indeed, a special ink.

Interestingly, the boxes of HP brand refill inks we purhased (through PC Mall) don't indicate the trade term "Vivera" anywhere on the packaging. That kinda' made us wonder what the deal was.

That said, I can't attest to the durability, as we've only had it for a few months now.

Being a wide-format (very large) printer, it costs about $30 per cartridge (X's Black, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan & light magenta). So it ain't cheap.

[Honoruru]

Re: HP Vivera Ink

That's the problem with archival ink (or archival anything, for that matter). You have to test it. Can you wait 100 years to find out?

[JAvendan]

Re: HP Vivera Ink

hi,

from what i understand:

if you are using a two cartridge hp printer - one black and one tri-color - the photo cartridge gives you a photo black, light cyan and light magenta.

the tri color cartidge gives you the cyan, yellow and magenta.

when printing photos with black and tri-color cartridges the black you see is coming from the color cartridge by combining the cyan, yellow and magenta inks.

so, the blacks that you see in photos from the tri-color cartridge are a little darker.

when the black cartridge is replaced with the photo cartridge you gain three addtional colors making the once three color printer into a six color printer.

now you will be working with a larger color gammut as you have more colors to work with.

i typically see the difference (if i see the difference) in skin tones/portraits... depending on the complection <sp?> of the person - light skin tone - the skin color appears more pink. and in shadow areas and in the hair as the photo black cartridges uses a "lighter" black which, to me, shows better separation.

in "normal" pictures i tend to NOT see the difference.

i have a friend who is an artist and sees the difference in a three color printer versus a six color printer.

... again, from what i understand.

joel

[scrivener]

Re: HP Vivera Ink

Awesome! I suspected that's what was going on (the cartridge shows three circles of color, just as you describe), but it's nice to hear it articulated like that. I have soooooo much to learn.

[JAvendan]

Re: HP Vivera Ink

hi again,

also, just a suggestion as printer manufacturers make quite a bit in selling their ink...

look at the volume of ink you are buying for the price you are paying.

there are a few manufacturers that state exactly what you are buying.

for example, if you buy a printer for $40 and the black and color cartridges are going to cost you $40 = black $15/5ml and color $25/5ml total=cyan/1.67ml, yellow/1.67ml and magenta/1.67ml.

then it might make sense to buy a printer that cost a little more - $90. where the black cartridge cost $16/26ml and the color cartridges are separate so: cyan $14/13ml, yellow $14/13ml and magenta $14/13ml.

the above example is using a inexpensive two cartridge printer and mid-range printer that uses individual ink tanks. in the examples there is huge savings in black ink - $1 more and you get a little more than 3x the ink.

if this is to complicated i apologize.

for those of you using third party inks this will not apply to you.

if you purchase OEM, factory ink, then look around and see what available.

or course, if you're printing all black then an inexpensive laser is the way to go.

then again... buy a new printer and get ink every time.

what ever floats your boat

again... sorry so long.

joel