Thick paper damage printhead?

[Bimbob]

My Pixma iP3000 says max paper weight 28# but I want to print on card stock 110#, or at least photo paper that's 44#. My i850 Canon has a paper thickness lever, but this one doesn't seem to have that (and it also has max weight 28#).

What does the "prevent printhead abrasion" setting do?

And what damage, if any, will printing on thick paper cause? TIA

 

[fotofreek]

Canon Photo Paper Pro claims to be 16.3# (or 245 g/m2), but it is similar in weight to the Kirkland glossy photo paper which states that it it 69# (or 255 g/m2). The canon paper is 9.6 mil and the Kirkland paper is 10.4 mil. Apparently there are different ways to measure paper weight as well as different conversion factors to g/m2! I use the Kirkland (from Costco) paper for most of my photo printing with no probems on the i960 and ip5000 printers.

What are you printing that would require 110# card stock? I've used several card stocks in the 60 to 67# range on several of my printers - for business cards, greeting cards, etc. If you are printing in color you might try Staples photo supreme double sided matte paper. It has the best weight of any matte paper I've used and also has a coating on both sides that permits an excellent quality photo print. Printing on uncoated card stock produces poorer photo quality than when printing on coated stock. I watch for Staples to have a sale on this paper. At Thanksgiving time they had a two for one sale and I picked up enough to do holiday and other greeting cards for the year.

If the paper you use is too thick for the printer it either won't feed well or you will get ink smearing on the paper surface. The "prevent printhead abrasion" setting is specifically for permitting you to print on thicker paper that would otherwise smear. I tried that setting on my i960 printer and it put an annoying message up on the screen each time I did a print. This was in an attempt to solve the ink smear at the trailing edge of boerderless prints and also the banding approximately 3/8 inch from the trailing edge. Turns out that the paper had a slight curve that contributed to both problems so I now store all paper flat and leave none in the printer feed area when a print job is completed.

I don't think you would do any harm by trying a sheet of the heavier paper - If it is too heavy it won't feed or the printhead will drag on it and smear the ink.

 

[Bimbob]

What are you printing that would require 110# card stock?

I bought a ream a long time ago for making cards, used to use it on an old printer but was afraid it would mess up this newer one.
I also have a package of Kodak Premium Picture paper that's 59#, the package says it works on all inkjet printers--I've written to ask Kodak about that, when my inkjet says max paper weight 28#!
Thanks for all the info! Great forum!!

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Paper weight is listed by type, such as Index, Bond, Bristol, Cover, etc.

It's the weight of a ream of paper at a specific size. However, the specific size is different for each type. Also, some companies come up with their own size so you can have two Index stocks that are a different thickness. It's quite confusing, which is why people tend to prefer the grams per square meter (gsm) weight which is more universal.

I suspect 28 lb means nothing heavier than 28 lb bond when doing standard text printing.

http://www.canon-europe.com/For_Hom...ers/Bubble_Jet/PIXMA_iP3000/index.asp?specs=1

The specs there say 'supported canon special media up to 273 g/m' which according to

http://www.xante.com/paper/

this chart, would be about 72# bond / 100# cover / 150# index. I wouldn't worry about it, really.

Use the top down feeder, not the cassette loader. HPs have some issues with stiff paper, as most HPs /only/ have a cassette loader and the paper must do a complete 180 to get through the printer. HP premium plus photo paper, which is extremely thick, is also very floppy, which is why I don't like using it for photos (also because of that bizarre 'sandpaper' backing it has). The top-down feed on a Canon or Epson won't have as much of a problem with this. I rather doubt you could actually buy off-the-shelf paper that could hurt the printer. My ancient BJC-4300 Canon printer used to run 80 lb cover stock (thicker than 110 lb index) just fine.

 

[Bimbob]

It's interesting that canon-europe.com specs show paper weight but canonusa.com doesn't.

Thanks for the detailed info and xante website, very useful!