[eyewoo]

You may have read in an earlier post in another section of Sijun that I've got myself a new archival printer - the Epson 2000p. Well, that quite effectively puts me in a position where I can sell my work as archival prints - guaranteed for 200 years as long as the prints are properly cared for - no direct sunlight and under glass.

So, how to sell them. Enter PayPal.com. It took about 4 or 5 hours, but in that time I revamped www.eyewoo.com so that I can accept credit card purchases. I already had a PayPal account set up (which is an easy way to pay for things over the web) so when - or if - anyone makes a purchase, the money is instantly credited to my PayPal account and an email is sent to me with the sale information -- who made the purchase and where I need to ship the print. And the best part is it's free to set up. PayPal takes a small commission, about 3% of each sale. No ongoing monthly charges to maintain a credit card acceptance account.

Very cool and once you have an account, this system is very easy to set up with "add to cart" and "view cart" buttons. Check it out at www.eyewoo.com. Ain't the internet so cool!!!

[ December 02, 2001: Message edited by: fleabrain ]

[Red Leader]

Hey, that IS cool!

I've always been happy using Paypal on the client end, I'm happy to hear it was so easy to set up for you as a "server" on your site. Having the prints is one thing, getting them into peoples hands is another. Digital painting may be faster than traditional, but it can suck when you are trying to sell your art for anything other than publication.
I hope the prints sell well for you.

I'm thinking about buying one of those printers myself...hmm...
Have you tried printing anything on Epson's watercolor paper yet? I'm curious to know how saturation and detail hold up with it.

[eyewoo]

Red Leader...

So far the water color paper is all I've printed on. A pack of 50 13" x 19" sheets came with the printer. The results are excellent... but... expensive. It appears that when printing full coverage images on 13 x 19 inch paper, you can only get about 6 or 7 prints per ink cart set. So, each print costs about $10. Not too bad if you can sell them...

The good news: with the printer in house, you don't need to print one until you have sold one. The bad news: artist proofs are expensive...

[ December 03, 2001: Message edited by: fleabrain ]

[Nathan Marciniak]

I'm in the same boat as Fleabrain, although I have the 1280 instead of the 2000p. I had hopes of selling prints from my website. As it turns out, my marketshare is exactly ZERO. Doh!

Anyway, I didn't think it was worth spending twice the price for a theoretical 200 year archival print, and besides, the gamut is MUCH less. I was amazed at how much duller the pigmented inks were than the dye-based ones. I like using saturated colors in my art and I couldn't abide those dull magentas of the 2000p. I really have no clue why the 2000p is double the price of the 1280, I mean the only difference is that it uses pigmented ink and the case is silver. So what?

The Pay Pal system is pretty slick and fairly easy to get working. Now if only there was a person that actually used it on my site. Hmmm...I guess the question one must ask themselves is: will anyone give a sh*t about my artwork in 200 years? Ha! ha! I tend to get bored with my own stuff after a few months, so I don't know if I will care 25 years from now if the inks have faded!

You will definitely want to get the continuous inking system for your printer, because Epson is fleecing the public with their highly expensive, highly expendable ink cartridges. Print out a few 13x19s and you can kiss your color cart goodbye. At 35 some bucks a crack it will add up quickly. I have yet to install mine, but when you look at this huge 8oz. bottle of ink compared to this tiny sponge-filled cartridge, you know you're saving some dough. Also, with that setup you can use a bunch of different inks, Epson-compatible or otherwise. Dye or pigment. Pretty cool stuff.

I wish more artists offered their work in this high-quality yet relatively inexpensive way. I think it's a great way to communicate directly with your audience (or lack thereof in my case!) With the right paper and ink combination the art really comes to life. How sad that much of our work is only seen on screens!

[ December 03, 2001: Message edited by: Nathan Marciniak ]

[eyewoo]

Nathan,

Unfortunately the continuous inking system is not available for the 2000p, at least by my information... so, yup! prints are expensive when using full coverage on 13 x 19 sheets.

I don't mind the slightly muted colors with the pigmented inks... I'm not planning to be around in 200 years, but being able to claim archival printing does add a positive edge to selling prints, particularly to people who are collectors.

I've sold one print using the PayPal system. It worked really well. Now hopefully the next one will be bought by someone other than a close relative...

[Nathan Marciniak]

Yeah, it is available for the 2000p now. Not sure why they are charging more for the 1280 and 2000p than the lesser models. I think it's total marketing hype, or that silly microchip.

I got my CIS from http://www.tssphoto.com/sp/dg/index.html and the ink from http://www.mediastreet.com

[ December 04, 2001: Message edited by: Nathan Marciniak ]

[ December 04, 2001: Message edited by: Nathan Marciniak ]

[eyewoo]

Nathan... thanks for that info. I'm off to check it out.

[eyewoo]

Nathan...

Back... I spoke to Chris at tssphoto. He told me that a CIS system was not available for the 2000p... :<

And searching the Ink site, they do not carry the Archival Inks used with the 2000p... :<<

[ December 05, 2001: Message edited by: fleabrain ]

[Danny]

Nathan,

which inks are you using from Media Street? And how would you rate them against the Epson OEM inks in terms of Gamut?
I'd love to hear some more of your findings about the 1280 CIS as I'm thinking of getting one as well.

Cheerzz.

[Nathan Marciniak]

Fleabrain: Hmph! If you go to the mediastreet.com website, there is indeed a CIS for the 2000p listed right there. The only difference is the microchip on the 2000p carts. It seems tssphoto does not have them yet, maybe. But it appears that they do exist.

from mediastreet:

quote

Quote:

NEW! The Niagara for the 2000P is now shipping! This exciting new model is based on the same custom microchip design as the 1270 unit, so the printer always thinks the cartridge is full!

Danny: Not wanting to "rock the boat" just yet I purchased Epson-compatible dye ink for my printer. The "Enhanced generations" pigment based stuff is allegedly supposed to have an equal or better gamut, but I haven't tried it. I'm still trying to burn down my last black cartridge, so the CIS is still uninstalled. I will post more once I get the thing running. I'm looking forward to not having to worry about ink imbalances!

Now this is just pure speculation, but I think the 2000p has an hyped up price difference that exists only to feed upon this whole "200 year" archival quality thing. (which is such a debatable thing anyway, and dependent on myriad variables. Wilhelm Research is supposed to be the unbiased authority on this, but their website has been down for well over a YEAR! Sheesh!)

I doubt that the mechanics of the print head could be that much different than the 1280 and Epson just stuck more expensive pigmented inks in the 2000p, painted it silver and jacked the price up. With a CIS you can run whatever you want through the thing, Dye-based or pigment-based. (perhaps cleaning fluid would be a necessary step when switching inks)

Obviously there is a chip difference between the 1280 and 2000p, but manufacturers do silly stuff like that all the time, just to be difficult.

[ December 07, 2001: Message edited by: Nathan Marciniak ]

[eyewoo]

Nathan,

Thanks for the info on MediaStreet... They do offer the CIS for the 2000p.

quote

Quote:

this whole "200 year" archival quality thing. (which is such a debatable thing anyway, and dependent on myriad variables.

BTW, Wilhelm Research does have a page up at...
www.wilhelm-research.com/ ...where they mention both the Epson and MediaStreet pigmented inks as being rated more than 100 years.

I'm just getting into this biz of trying to sell limited edition prints. It seems to me that realizing that goal requires that I be able to say my prints are "archival" as defined by the current ink set technologies available... so, whether debatable or not, it seems pretty important to me...

[artboy]

Instead of waiting for people to come to your site to buy artwork, why not be proactive about it and head on over to eBay? You can set up a seller acct there and have your stuff up for auction. Just a suggestion...

-artboy

[eyewoo]

Artboy,

Funny you should mention that...

I've had an auction going there for several days now...
Ebay Auction
...but no bids yet...

[Nathan Marciniak]

Hi again. Well I've installed the CIS unit in my 1280 and so far it works flawlessly. My first nozzle check was perfect! However I did have one time where the Light Cyan and Black wasn't printing at all. I did a cleaning or two and it has been behaving itself since then.

The installation was a bit more tedious than they have you believe, but not bad. I had no major problems. You will want to be very slow and careful when you do it. Don't want to be spilling 200 bucks worth of ink all over the table! Don't get any on your hands either, the stuff doesn't wash off! ha!

I got the Epson-compatible inks and I can't tell any difference good or bad between the regular Epson cartriges. So it did the trick just fine. You will get a silly error message from the Epson software after installing the thing, as documented in the manual. Also, my ink counters did go down as I was printing, but they reset back to full after you turn the printer off and back on again. I could see this perhaps being annoying if you had a hundred sheets stacked up and kept cranking `em out. The false ink level report would force you to reset the counter even though you obviously have bottles full of the stuff. I haven't done any high volume stuff yet, so I can't tell. Remember that this thing is more or less a 3rd party affair, so the chip and the driver aren't exactly on the same team. It's a bit of a kludge, but it works.

Also, the aryclic arm forces you to have to prop the lid WAY up high on the supplied rubber knobbies. A proper modification would be to go at the thing with a dremel tool and make holes for the tubing to pass though so the lid could be set lower or possibly closed all the way. I am not sure why the arm is angled up so high, it doesn't look like it would need to. It rubs on that plastic lip on the underside of the black translucent plastic.

Overall I dig it. I'm looking forward to watching the ink levels not go down for a long time! Woo!

[ December 28, 2001: Message edited by: Nathan Marciniak ]