I have a confession to make. Lately, I’ve been feeling a bit like a medieval alchemist, trying to turn base metals into gold. Or, in more modern terms, trying to turn a 150 Euro piece of office plastic into a gallery-grade monochrome print maker.
We all know the drill: if you want serious black and white prints, you buy a Canon PRO-300 or an Epson P700/P900. You pay for the dedicated grey inks, the fancy chassis, and the privilege of watching your bank account drain every time the cleaning cycle kicks in. But what if there was a different path? A path involving a “disposable” printer, a German lab, and the pure, unadulterated soul of carbon?
The “Cheap Bastard” Setup: Epson ET-1810 meets Farbenwerk
Enter the Farbenwerk Carbon Inks.
For those not in the know, Farbenwerk is a German company specializing in alternative pigment inks for Canon and Epson. Their Carbon Gloss / Carbon Matte sets are designed for one thing: archival, museum-quality monochrome performance.
I decided to run a high-risk, low-cost experiment. I bought an Epson ET-1810—a printer so basic it feels like it might fly away if you sneeze too hard—and immediately voided the warranty by filling its EcoTank reservoirs with Farbenwerk’s pigment-based Carbon inks.
Wait, you say. The ET-1810 is a dye-based office printer. Putting pigments in it is asking for a head-clogging disaster, right? Well, that’s what I feared. I started with the cheapest machine possible specifically because I expected a “spectacular failure.”
I was wrong.
The Magic of Carbon
The theory is simple: take an inexpensive printer and give it the “blood” of a titan. These inks can effectively transform a cheap dye-based printer into a pigment-based powerhouse.
I’ve been testing this setup on a variety of papers, from the humble Epson Matte to the aristocratic Hahnemühle Photo Rag and even delicate Rice Paper. The results? In one word: Spectacular.*
*something to bear in mind: these inks ONLY work on matte papers, not on glossy
Because these are true Carbon inks, the neutrality is absolute. There is no metamerism, no weird magenta cast under halogen lights, and—crucially—zero bronzing. The blacks are deep, velvety, and have that “etched” look that only high-quality carbon can provide. Theoretically, the longevity is “museum-grade,” meaning these prints might outlast the plastic printer they came from by a century or two.
Technicalities and Real-World Use
Is it plug-and-play? Almost. If you are on a Mac, Epson’s drivers love to enable “Bidirectional Printing” by default. If you leave it on, you’ll get banding that will ruin your day. Turn it off. Once you disable it and follow Farbenwerk’s specific instructions, the output is flawless. No clogs, no banding, just pure tone.
The economy of this setup is frankly ridiculous. We are talking about a few cents per A4 print. A full set of inks for the ET-1810 costs around €170, but considering the tiny amount an EcoTank sips, it’s the closest thing to “free” printing you can get without stealing office supplies.
The Verdict
If it performs like this on a bottom-of-the-barrel ET-1810, I can only imagine what it would do on a more robust machine like the ET-8550, which has more ink channels and much better paper handling.
But there’s a certain poetic justice in using a €150 printer to produce something that looks like it belongs in a Leica Gallery. It’s a middle finger to the “planned obsolescence” and the overpriced cartridge industry.
If you shoot monochrome and you aren’t afraid to get your hands a little dirty (metaphorically, the EcoTank filling is actually quite clean), Farbenwerk is the real deal. It’s not just an alternative; for the dedicated B&W photographer, it might actually be the superior choice.
Color me impressed. Or rather, carbon-etched.
