Printing onto card

[MarkW19]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help me. I'm trying to print onto some different weights of card on my Canon Pixma IP4200 (250gsm, 280 and 300, varying matte/glossy/ivory), and I'm not having much luck. I've gone through all the media/quality settings, trying text only, images, graphics, in different apps, and none of them produce acceptable results. There's too much ink being put onto the page, it takes a long time to try, it's rough, etc.

I have the latest drivers etc., and I've printed perfectly onto the normal Canon photo paper (glossy).

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Smile]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help me. I'm trying to print onto some different weights of card on my Canon Pixma IP4200 (250gsm, 280 and 300, varying matte/glossy/ivory), and I'm not having much luck. I've gone through all the media/quality settings, trying text only, images, graphics, in different apps, and none of them produce acceptable results. There's too much ink being put onto the page, it takes a long time to try, it's rough, etc.

I have the latest drivers etc., and I've printed perfectly onto the normal Canon photo paper (glossy).

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Mark

Go into print driver click "Print Preferences" and in "color intensity" select Manual then reduce color intensity

 

[MarkW19]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help me. I'm trying to print onto some different weights of card on my Canon Pixma IP4200 (250gsm, 280 and 300, varying matte/glossy/ivory), and I'm not having much luck. I've gone through all the media/quality settings, trying text only, images, graphics, in different apps, and none of them produce acceptable results. There's too much ink being put onto the page, it takes a long time to try, it's rough, etc.

I have the latest drivers etc., and I've printed perfectly onto the normal Canon photo paper (glossy).

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Mark

Go into print driver click "Print Preferences" and in "color intensity" select Manual then reduce color intensity

Thanks for the reply.

I've already tried that, unfortunately, reducing it the full -50, and varying levels in between, and I still can't get a "normal", sharp image on the card.

 

[Smile]

Could you post some photos / scans of your prints?

 

[fotofreek]

What kind of paper are you trying to pint on? Brand? Coated matte paper? Uncoarted card stock? What kind of surface? The experience you describe is what I had with Kodak glossy paper years ago. Too much ink, slow drying, and "bronzing" in the dark areas.

 

[Trigger 37]

markw19,... Yes,.. let us know what kind of paper, ink, you are using. Also, the key item is what paper and quality settings are you selecting in the print driver.

I print all kinds of "Greeting Cards" on 10mil card stock and in the Canon driver I select "Photo Printing" and for paper I select "High Resolution". The cards come out great. I typicall use clip art for the inside and typically use a Digital jpg image on the left inside and the rear and they come out fantastic. Better than you can get with a $3.00 greeting card at the store.

I also print on 10.4 mil Pro Glossy Photo paper and they come out excellent. The Card Stock paper I use is made by Georgia Pacific and the Photo paper is Kirland Photo Paper, which is said to be as good as Ilford Pro. All of these I purchase at Costco or Sams.

By the way, don't try and feed the heavy paper from the bottom tray, as it will curl and the guides leave very small scratches on the photo glossy paper.

Everytime I've such a problem, it has always been the paper. Some just won't accept the ink, especially glossy paper that isn't properly coated.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Have you told your printer you are using plain paper--even if you're not? It uses significantly less ink than photo paper. However, it will use the pigment black ink unless you tell it to do borderless printing.

 

[MarkW19]

Thanks for the replies.

Basically, I've gone through every single setting in the printer driver, and the best one by far is indeed plan paper. It's 90% there for plain black text (although slightly "soft" and not 100% sharp, but acceptable), but if I was to put a black solid and reverse some white/grey text out of it, the text would be very blurry and unacceptable. The same happens with images, basically anything other than plain text.

I've tried some different types of card:-

Royal Kent Ivory Board 300gsm (matte)
"Lumiart" 300gsm which is sort of half glossy
"Lumisilk" 300gsm
Royal Kent Ivory Board 280gsm (matte)

All produce similar results, and I've gone through all the paper settings with each of them, plain again being the best.

 

[fotofreek]

First of all, any card or paper stock with a glossy surface that is not specifically designed for inkjet printing will not accept dye-based inkjet ink properly. The glossy surface on inkjet photo paper is especially designed to accept ink - without getting into great detail, there are basically two types of inkjet glossy paper and you need to use the correct type for your printer (but not necessarily the same brand as the printer.) The surface treatment of the papers you are using may not be compatable with inkjet printing. Matte paper specifically manufactured for inkjet printers has a special coating (I believe it is a clay material) that accepts the ink but doesn't permit it to spread into the fibers of the paper. I have had very good luck using one particular brand of matte paper - Staples Supreme double sided Matte paper. The images are sharp and the color rendition is quite good. Photos don't have the same punch as with glossy paper, but they are very good for greeting cards. The weight and feel of this paper are very decent for greeting cards as well. I believe there are inkjet papers that are similar to many art papers if your interest is to use a silk or canvas appearing paper. The Lumisilk and Lumiart stocks are specially coated for offset printing. Unless you can find a reference from the manufacturer that indicates they are suitable for inkjet printing, I'm afraid you will do best to seek out special inkjet papers you would like. One of the specialty paper manufacturers you might google would be Red River papers.

 

[MarkW19]

Thanks for the help everyone, and the extensive replies.

The main problem I've found, is finding some (decent) 280-300gsm "inkjet" card. I know that people are successfully printing onto this weight of card with great results, with my printer (IP4200) specifically, but I've not had any luck turning any up yet, particularly in the UK.