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Home >> Photography >> Digital Inkjet Papers for the Epson 1270 A lazy Saturday afternoon, sunny yet windy and a bit cool. Should I go out and cut the grass and go another round against the nefarious infestation of moss plaguing my lawn or should I sit in front of the computer for hours testing out some new photo-quality printer paper while listening to some cool tunes from the 1960s (Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Mamas and Papas, et al)? Two hours and one dozen prints later my wife returns home and walks into our bedroom/office in which I have used our bed to lay out the fresh prints, she gives me this look that is the equivalent of, “You are such a loser!” Ahem, loser that I am, dear reader, I do this for your benefit so on with the results. The contenders:
I did not actually have Epson Premium Glossy paper in-house so I took an image that I had already printed on Premium Glossy and used that as a reference print to compare all the other prints to. The image used was of Vancouver’s downtown skyline at predawn from earlier this year (used in a local TV ad for a radio station in 2002). It is one that has been a challenge to get right for sharpness and the ability to reveal all the details in the image on paper with photo-like clarity. The original image on Epson Premium Glossy is quite sharp in clarity and details seen and when the print is viewed in indirect daylight, comes closest to what I see on the monitor. Note that I have not calibrated the monitor or printer beyond what can be done with the very basic Adobe Gamma color management in Photoshop 5.5. This process is really subjective depending on how the individual sees colors but I have set up a basic profile that is pretty close to what I see onscreen. Minor differences in saturation and brightness are the only variables that are a bit off, the prints being more saturated and a little less bright. I used the two profiles I had set up for Epson Premium Glossy and Epson Matte Heavyweight for all the papers used. Pearl and Glossy papers were used with the Premium Glossy paper settings and the Canvas and Matte papers were used with the Matte Heavyweight settings. This is obviously not the best way to print third party papers but short of printing many samples with different variables, it was at least consistent. The best way would have been to profile each paper with a third party software program such as those offered by Colorvision but that will be for the future. Results Epson Premium Glossy paper – as already mentioned, the image printed on this paper came closest to what I saw on the monitor, in fact downright exact. No real surprise since this is what I had set for a custom profile based upon this paper. Sharp and clear and just seemingly “right” for what I wanted out of the scene based upon my editing of the image in Photoshop, which was minimal beyond cleaning it up for dust and other artifacts and trying to get just the right amount of Un-sharp Masking. Epson Premium Semigloss paper is one of my favorites for an overall paper to use that straddles the middle ground between too shiny (Premium Glossy) and too flat (either of the Epson Matte papers). Printing the image on this paper resulted in a cooler rendition that took the slight bit of warmth seen in the sky out for a grayer tone. In terms of clarity and sharpness, Premium Semigloss was just a touch lower than Premium Glossy as the Glossy paper has a certain “glow” to it that makes it stand out. Epson Matte Heavyweight – of all the papers I used for this test, Matte Heavyweight came out being very close to the equal of Premium Glossy for onscreen accuracy (only a smidgeon off). The only thing lacking from this print was the luminescence or “glow” mentioned above for the Premium Glossy paper. The accuracy should not be a surprise either as it is a paper made specifically for the Epson 1270 and with the Premium Glossy, is the only tested paper available from the list of papers that Epson designates as being officially compatible with the 1270. Epson Archival Matte is a paper that I have really come to like for its superior thickness to Matte Heavyweight. I like papers that have a real photo feel and weight to them and so many inkjet papers feel slightly more durable than thick tissue paper. Archival Matte is a warmer paper than Matte Heavyweight and would require a separate profile to obtain the most accurate print. As is always the case when comparing matte papers to glossy, the glow is not as apparent in the print. Kodak Premium High Gloss was a paper that interested me after I read a good report of it on Bob Meyer’s excellent web site (detailing all the concerns with Epson printers and their orange color cast problems, as well as details on how other paper brands fare with Epson printers). I bought a 15 pack of the good stuff to try out and my first prints with this paper were actually with other images. I printed those first couple of images using Kodak’s recommended settings, which is:
The result of the print with these settings? A super saturated and very clear looking print. There was something to these settings and I’ll come back to this later on in this write up. The Kodak Premium High Gloss set to my regular Premium Glossy profile was pretty clear with the glow intact but the print is slightly courser than Epson Premium Glossy paper. The tone is quite warm, even more so than Archival Matte and would definitely require some proper profiling to get a more accurate print. For those people who thought that the digital darkroom would allow them to get away from the smells associated with the chemical darkroom, you are going to have nice olfactory memories again because this Kodak paper with Epson inks is one stinky combination. None of the other papers I used had any objectionable smell to them. The Kodak paper also has a tendency to curl when coming out of the printer, which is surprising since the paper is suppose to be relatively thick and heavy. Another worrying concern is the way the Kodak paper seems to pick up smudges along the border edges after being ejected from the printer. Again, none of the other papers picked up any smudges. This paper also seems to be a bit stickier than the others and picks up dust a bit too well for my tastes. Update, October 14, 2001 - I thought Kodak High Gloss was Kodak's best but Ultima High Gloss
is actually their best consumer paper for ink jet printers. I bought
a 15 pack to see how this heavier paper would fare. Similar super
saturation as the High Gloss paper with a magenta bias that would
require some toning down of the color in the printer settings. I have
been using this paper mostly for some Duo Tone prints so cannot offer
any advice as to how much minus magenta bias is required to get a
more neutral color cast. Just as my first pack of High Gloss was my
last, so too will this pack of Ultima be my last. The length of time
required to completely dry the ink on the paper is depressingly long
and if your print has a large amount of dark or shadow areas, it could
be weeks before the ink is fully dried, seriously! After two weeks
of leaving some B&W prints to dry in the home office, I tried
to place them in some archival sleeves and had the annoyance of having
to take them out for more drying because the dark areas of the print
were sticking to the sleeves. I put them in my house's boiler room
to dry out (warmest part of the house) for a few hours and ended up
with some mildly curled prints. Lumijet is not a brand
I’m familiar with but I saw a sample package of different types of
papers being sold at London Drugs so I bit and bought a pack to try
out. What I was mainly interested in was the Canvas textured paper
included but first about the Glossy RC paper. This glossy paper is
very similar to Kodak Premium High Gloss but a touch cooler but still
warmer than any of the Epson papers tested. It has the same thickness
and weight as the Kodak paper and I wonder if they both originated
from the same factory. It is not as good or as thick and heavy as
Epson Premium Glossy. Different Settings The settings were:
Epson Premium Semigloss warmed up significantly with these settings and looked very similar to the Archival Matte results but with even greater clarity than was obtained with the Premium Glossy print. The Archival Matte print with these settings was able to present a very similar “glow” as the Premium Glossy paper. All in all the settings provided the prints with a more photo-like image than either of the custom Premium Glossy or Matte Heavyweight ICM profiles. Something to play with for future images or current images that seem to lack the snap of a true photographic print. Agent Orange The Kodak and Lumijet papers also have this horrible ability to stick to my Printfile archival sheets I use to protect the prints in my albums. I have never had any Epson paper stick to the Printfile sleeves even when sleeving before 24 hours of drying had past. Again, dry third party papers FULLY before framing or sleeving. Another thing to point out is that you will notice some references to keeping a clean sheet of white paper inbetween prints when stacking. I strongly urge you follow this recommendation as I now stack the Kodak and Lumijet paper prints due to their lack of ability to allow Epson inks to permanently adhere to the paper, causing them to stick to the archival sheets. I discovered to my horror that a sepia toned print had some of its ink stick to the backside of the print it was against. This occurred despite the print having been dried for days in the open air. What about the orange cast issue? This is problematic and one that I hope Epson will fix in due course but let us put this into perspective. The orange cast problem is predominant in one paper type of Premium Glossy and the colorcast comes through in certain types of conditions:
What I do find surprising at times is the neurosis that comes about from people who regularly display their prints unprotected. Would you leave an expensive, custom enlarged print in open air without the protection of a glass or acrylic frame? I don’t think so. So why would you expose prints that you have worked long and hard on via your digital darkroom to the open air too? Why not simply protect your prints behind frames or if for your album, in protective archival sleeves? This is what I do with all of my inkjet prints. If not framed then they are put into Printfile Archival sleeves whether they be small letter-size prints or larger Super B size prints. The letter-size prints go into one of two albums; a working album in which every print I have done is stored and a good album for the best prints. The working album helps to show my workflow and ideas and is similar to the way William Albert Allard of National Geographic Magazine shoots hundreds of slides to sketch out his ideas. Of course I don’t print off hundreds of the same image (I would be in the poor house after one image) and of course I do not mean to imply that I am anywhere near as good as this big time pro; I’m just talking about the basic workflow idea of sketching out an idea and seeing how the image evolves after a few tries in the digital darkroom. I print off an image that has minimal editing via Photoshop to see how the print is "raw". If the image is lacking in something or does not seem "right" I go back into Photoshop and work on the image and in the course of doing the revisions, may have several copies of the image in various stages of editing. When something llooks promising I print it off and see how it compares to the original print. It may take several prints for me to finally edit an image to satisfaction and all of these prints go into the working album to show the evolution of the image from raw to finished print. My point is that my prints are protected after they have dried and not exposed to open air for orange cast or fading risks. When I did some testing to see how quickly orange casts would appear I had to deliberately expose the test prints to some very harsh conditions to create the orange cast. Constant exposure to the sun and wind by leaving the print in-between a window and mesh, insect screen was how I got an orange cast on some old defective Premium Glossy paper. These are not conditions that you would expose a valued print to. This is not to downplay the problems about Epson printers, inks, and papers as too many people have suffered from the problems for it not to be a concern. However, proper precautions to avoid the problem have been known for some time and all it takes is for the user to do so. Now as to whether or not Epson papers and inks for the 1270/80 printers will actually last for 20 or more years, well I’ll get back to you on that in 10 to 20 years. In the meantime, this brief test of mine just reinforces my obvious inclination to always use Epson papers with Epson printers. A good analysis about the orange cast problem and other related concerns can be read here. Update June 2001 - I have placed some test prints in my southern exposed window sill, in between the mesh screen and glass and exposed to direct sunlight as well as blowing wind. After several days of exposure, Kodak Premium High Gloss has shown no tendency to orange cast and neither has Epson Premium Semigloss. This same test procedure produced accelerated orange casts on the old defective Epson Premium Glossy paper. Further tests will be conducted with the other papers on hand and will be reported here. Update August 2001 - A member of the Epson Mailing List advises that ozone is not the primary cause of the orange cast plaguing Epson 12xx series of printers, inks and papers. The member stated that Epson used ozone to accelerate the aging process for print testing but this in itself is not necessarily the causal agent producing orange casts. It seems airflow and the contaminants contained in airflow are what causes orange casts but one person's airflow (as in open window) may not be the same as another's even if they are living in the same area. Update October 26, 2005 - a look at some new inkjet printer papers Read about my experiences with the Epson 1270 printer and the Epson R2400 Read about why you may need custom printer profiles Link to Epson USA, Kodak, Lumijet Link to Digital Art Supplies for numerous types of paper for your photo-quality inkjet printer |
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