Pigment Inks in my PIXMA G6020

[gdpasteur]

Hello forum, I have a Pixma G6020 Megatank. I recently learned the difference between pigment and dye inks because the photos that my G6020 prints (on Canon Pro Lustre paper) fade within two months in an office environment... and I mean really fade. I could not figure it out and then I realized while my black ink is pigment, the colors are all dye. 

My question, my printer is already printing pigment ink for black, would it hurt it if I started printing pigment ink for the colors as well?

If not, then where can I find some pigment colors that I can use in this megatank? 

Thank you for any help!!

[Patrick]

Hi gdpasteur,

Pigment inks are not available for use with the PIXMA G6020.

[gdpasteur]

Ok, but it is already printing black pigment, can I use color pigment ink from another manufacturer without damaging the print heads?

[Kjc1]

Did you ever solve this issue? I am having the same problem with my Pixma G5020. I was horrified to find that my prints faded within just a few hours when exposed to sunlight. Not sure what to do now!

[gdpasteur]

Never found a solution. I even sprayed my photos with UV protectant spray and they still faded in a few weeks 😞

[Kjc1]

Thank you for your reply! Preliminary experiments indicate that the paper may play a role in this. I have Red River 47 lb. Premium Matte paper and 60lb. River Linen. I covered half the print on each one and left the other half uncovered (different prints- just what I had available).  The print on River Linen did not fade after 8 hours in full sun, while there was visible fading on the Premium Matte paper. I’ll be running a more controlled test next week using the same print image on more paper samples. I’ll keep you posted!

[Kjc1]

I tested different papers by printing blocks of black, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red on each: Red River 60lb. River Linen, RR 47lb. Premium Matte,  RR 60lb. Polar Matte, and Canon Matte Photo Paper. I then covered half of the image and exposed to direct sunlight for 3 hours. Results: (Best) RR Linen = RR Premium Matte > RR Polar Matte = Canon Photo paper. There was very little difference between the paper types that are separated by the = sign. If I had left them out longer I might have seen a difference. Among the colors tested, purple was worst (most faded) , followed by blue, orange, red, black, green and yellow (least faded). I was surprised that the black faded, since I believe it’s a pigment dye.