You are asking a lot, and a lot more than what I know. I guess you should contact directly some of the industrial specialists.

Regards.
Vipul Mehta

s_gtc@hotmail.com

• Color balance is really a matter of ink color managed by the printer. If you use inks of (even slightly) different color, do not expect the printer driver to be able to produce the most realistic results.
• Printer heads are very sensitive to physico-chemical characteristics of the ink (homogeneity, density, fluidity, etc.) and with the wrong ink you can expect clogged heads and or head inability to measure precisely the quantity of ink deposited (wonrg colors again).
• Reducing ink prices may come not from reducing margins (always good for consumers like us) but from reducing costs (by cutting corners and using less than adequate materials or inadequate quality control).
• Long-term behaviour is one obvious concern (as you rightly point to), but simply putting a drop of ink on paper is not representative of what happens with the tiniest quantities spread over paper.

In many cases, low cost third-party products provide good (not best) quality and often bring a large variability on results: Once fairly good, once catastrophic. As some say: “Your mileage may vary”.

For sure, Epson, Canon and other brands are playing their cards right here and they force as much fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) on you and me. But there are real reasons behind that.