Ink Yields

Epson Genuine Ink Info

Epson ink cartridge printers are designed for use with Epson cartridges only, not third-party cartridges or ink. Other brands of ink supplies are not compatible and, if described as compatible, may not function properly or continuously. Such restrictions can be avoided with some other printers such as Epson EcoTank cartridge-free printers.

Epson periodically provides firmware updates to address issues of security, performance, minor bug fixes and ensure your printer functions as designed. Your printer was designed to work with genuine Epson ink cartridges; therefore, some updates may affect the functionality of third-party ink.

Document Yields

ISO Ink Page Yields for Epson Ink Cartridges

In accordance with the ISO standard for individual color cartridges, color yields are determined by taking an average yield, based on continuous printing, of all individual color cartridges. Individual cartridges conveniently allow the user to replace just the color of ink that has been expended. When using cartridges with combined color tanks, as do some competitive products, several colors of ink must be replaced when one color has been expended, so ISO ratings are based on the first color to be expended.

Replacement cartridge yields are based on ISO tests in default mode printing continuously. Cartridge yields vary considerably for reasons including images printed, print settings, temperature and humidity. Yields may be lower when printing infrequently or predominantly with one ink color. All ink colors are used for printing and printer / all-in-one maintenance, and all colors have to be installed for printing. For instance, all colors of ink are used for maintenance during extended monochrome-only printing. For print quality, part of the ink from the included cartridges is used for printer startup and a variable amount of ink remains in the cartridges after the "replace cartridge" signal. Epson recommends that customers choose an inkjet printer based on their expected printing needs, considering cartridge yields as just one factor of evaluation. Other important factors include image quality, fade resistance of prints, reliability and printer features.

ISO Ink Cartridge Page Yields – Testing Methodology

Epson provides ink cartridge page yields (the "page yield" means the number of document pages) based on the ISO/IEC 24711 and 24712 standards for inkjet products, which excludes the first installed cartridges. The following is a brief summary of Epson's ink cartridge page yield testing, conducted in accordance with the ISO/IEC 24711 and 24712 standards.

• A suite of five patterns (shown below) is printed continuously, in consecutive order, on at least three printers. Cartridges are replaced when the printer indicates cartridges are expended and will not print without replacing the cartridge.
• Testing is conducted at a controlled temperature in Default Mode on plain paper with print commands from a late model PC with a Microsoft Windows operating system.
• In recognition of various factors that can affect yields, declared yields are rounded down (not up) in amounts that are at least sufficient to fulfil the standard deviation formula built into the ISO standard to assure accuracy and reliability.

Ink Page Yields for Epson Ink Bottles

In accordance with Epsonā?Ts methodology for individual ink bottles, color yields are determined by taking an average yield, based on continuous printing, of all individual ink bottles. Individual ink bottles conveniently allow the user to refill just the color of ink that has been expended.

Replacement ink bottle yields are based on Epson tests in default mode printing continuously. Ink bottle yields vary considerably for reasons including images printed, print settings, temperature and humidity. Yields may be lower when printing infrequently or predominantly with one ink color. All ink colors are used for printing and printer/all-in-one maintenance, and all colors have to be installed for printing. For instance, all colors of ink are used for maintenance during extended monochrome-only printing. For print quality, part of the ink from the included ink bottles is used for printer startup and a variable amount of ink remains in the ink tanks after the "refill tank" signal. Epson recommends that customers choose an inkjet printer based on their expected printing needs, considering ink bottle yields as just one factor of evaluation. Other important factors include image quality, fade resistance of prints, reliability and printer features.

Epson Ink Bottle Yields – Testing Methodology

Epson provides ink bottle yields (the "page yield" means the number of document pages) based on the ISO/IEC 24712 test patterns with Epsonā?Ts methodology for inkjet products, which includes the initial ink. Epson must test ink bottle yields with ISO/IEC 24712 patterns. Epson has developed an internal methodology that adapts the ISO methodology to a CISS printer and adapts the ISO/IEC 24711 methodology because initial ink cannot be extracted from the ink tank. The following is a brief summary of Epson's ink bottle yield testing, conducted in accordance with Epsonā?Ts stringent testing standards.

• A suite of five patterns (shown below) is printed continuously, in consecutive order, on at least three printers. Ink tanks are refilled when the printer indicates ink is expended and will not print without refilling the ink tank.
• Testing is conducted at a controlled temperature in Default Mode on plain paper with print commands from a late model PC with a Microsoft Windows operating system.
• In recognition of various factors that can affect yields, declared yields are rounded down (not up) in amounts that are at least sufficient to assure accuracy and reliability.

Print pattern used during page yield testing for monochrome inkjet printers

Page yields for color inkjet printers are based on the ISO/IEC 24711 standard using the ISO/IEC 24712 pattern.

Print pattern used during page yield testing for monochrome inkjet printers

Page yields for monochrome inkjet printers are based on the ISO/IEC 24711 standard using the ISO/IEC 19752 pattern.

Photo Yields

ISO Photo Yields for Epson Ink Cartridges

Epson provides ink cartridge photo yields (the "photo yield" means the number of 4" x 6" photo prints) based on the ISO/IEC 29102 and 29103 standards for inkjet products. The following is a brief summary of Epson's ink cartridge photo yield testing, conducted in accordance with the ISO/IEC 29102 and 29103 standards.

• A suite of six patterns (shown below) is printed continuously, in consecutive order, on at least three printers. Cartridges are replaced when the printer indicates cartridges are expended and will not print without replacing the cartridge.
• Testing is conducted at a controlled temperature in default Photo Mode on 4" x 6" photo paper without border (if both border and borderless printing allowed) and with a border (if only border printing is allowed) with print commands from a late model PC with a Microsoft Windows operating system.

In recognition of various factors that can affect yields, declared yields are rounded down (not up) in amounts that are at least sufficient to fulfil the standard deviation formula built into the ISO standard to assure accuracy and reliability.

Print patterns used during photo yield testing

Photo yields for color inkjet printers are based on the ISO/IEC 24902 standard using the ISO/IEC 24903 pattern.

Please visit the following link to learn more about ISO: https://www.iso.org/about-us.html

Ink Consumption

If cartridges experience long exposure to extreme environments, ink may evaporate from the ink cartridges, ink packs, bottles and tanks potentially causing a decrease in the volume of ink available. This phenomenon is caused by a number of rare factors including significant altitude and temperature variations.

Remaining ink at "Ink End" point

Some ink remains in the cartridges when reaching the "Ink End" point to prevent air from entering into the printhead nozzles. In cartridges, the "Ink End" point is triggered by a physical sensor included in the cartridge. Moreover, some ink will always remain in the ink cartridge, bottle, ink pack or tank due to the inevitable physical adherence of the ink to its container. For replacement cartridges and ink packs the remaining ink is not considered as part of the ISO page yield.

Printhead Maintenance

A number of Epson printers have scheduled cleaning cycles to maintain the functionality of the printhead and the reliability and quality consumers expect from Epson. These scheduled cleanings consume a limited amount of ink which can vary depending on the printer and cleaning required.

Ink Maintenance

For maintenance purposes, printers include ink pads (maintenance boxes and waste pads): these ink pads are a number of porous pads in the printer that collect, distribute, and contain the ink that is not used on printed pages. Ink is collected by these pads during the initial setup of the product, during cleaning cycles, and when printing borderless photographs.

Continuing to print with non-usable ink pads could reduce the quality of the printing experience or affect the lifespan of other more valuable parts of the printer, the printers will display an end of life service message at a factory chosen point of expected lifespan of the ink pad. This point is chosen in a way that most users will not receive this message before the printer is replaced for other reasons. Some high-volume users or those who use the printer for many years may receive this message about ink pads before other components reach the end of their usable life. Users can always contact Epson Customer Support should this be the case and should the user want to continue using the printer. In the case of user-replaceable maintenance boxes, once the printer indicates it is full, the customer may purchase a replacement maintenance box. It is possible that a full maintenance box shows clean or white spaces.

Initial Ink

The cartridges, ink packs or bottles included with the printer are designed for printer setup not for resale. After some ink is used for priming, the rest is available for printing.

Ink Yield Communication

Epson follows the ISO standard for communicating ink yields. Ink volume (milliliter) information is provided for some inks as required by law or for large format or commercial printers. Where provided, ink volume is the ink fill volume at the time of manufacture. Epson does not recommend using ink volume as a basis of comparison between printers using different types of cartridges, ink packs, bottles or ink supply systems. Different printing systems may use ink very differently. Comparing printing systems based on ink volume of the ink cartridges or other supply systems may be inadequate.