Comparative Test 9 ink All-in-Ones up to 200 Euros: Marker- and smeartest
What a bother, if some raindrops or a wet finger smear up a printed text. Much better, if the inks do not smudge or bleed.
To test the smudge-proof of a print, our lab uses the testfile (right side), printed on normal copy-paper and in normal print-quality (no change in the driver).
- Marker test: As soon as the testfile is printed, a line of text is highlighted with a marker. Intensity of smudge can be seen in the scans below.
- Droplet test: The lab applies a drop of water (50 µl) on a colored rhombus. After drying the area is scanned. The results can be seen below.
Brother and Epson provide almost perfect results. Canon and Lexmark fail the marker test. HP-ink has a slight smudge.
More on that in these articles (available in German only):
This test shows whether your black ink is dye ink or pigmented ink. The water droplet dissolves printed dye ink, which Brother, Canon, HP, and Lexmark use. Pigmented ink is used by Epson, colors do not bleed.