[Leica] Printing on Glossy Paper

[drodgers at casefarms.com (David Rodgers)]

Chris,

I definitely considered the 2400. But I wanted a letter sized printer. I
just don't make that many large prints. I've owned an Epson 3000 for
quite some time. Still, most of what I printed was 8x10 and smaller. (It
was nice to be able to print the occasional 16x20, but I still can with
that).

I like smaller prints. They're easier to frame. They show better. I also
sell photo cards, and those are folded letter size. Plus letter sized
printers are just easier to handle. 

I also print a lot of what I shoot in 4x6 and select images in 8x10. I
like looking at prints and I shuffle around new images. I tire of some
very quickly. Other prints grow on me. Size can make a difference. Some
images look better small. Some look better larger. IME it takes time to
judge an image. Viewing images on a monitor just isn't the same as
looking at prints. 

There really isn't a 2400 equivalent in letter size printer. The R800
seemed to be the closest thing. All it lacks is light black inks. It's
possible to replace the GLOP and PK carts with light blacks and make BW
prints on matte papers with QTR. You can switch inks back for glossy,
similar to the 2400. I don't know how practical this is, or what the
drawbacks may be. I haven't tried this yet, but I will soon. (I like to
experiment, though I'd feel comfortable experimenting with the more
expensive 2400.)

What really shocked me about the R800 is how good color glossy prints
looked. I've never been able to knock out decent color prints quickly
and economically on an ink jet printer. 

I've always had one printer for bw and one for color. Now I'm thinking
of having one for matte and one for glossy. 

BTW, I'm getting ready to order some Crane Silver Rag. Does you use
Photo Black or Matte Black ink? 

Sorry to hear about your 2200. Did you ever get it back? :-(

daveR

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Williams [mailto:leicachris@worldnet.att.net] 
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 1:31 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Printing on Glossy Paper

Dave,

I purchased an Epson R800 during Katrina last year as I needed a printer
was
not sure when I'd see my 2200 again. Color prints matched my 2200 prints
easily. Not one for glossy, but the Ilford Smooth Pearl paper worked
great
in the R800. I got some "okay" BW's out of it using profiles, but I was
just
printing business cards so it did not have to be perfect.

My BW's are now all on the Epson 2400 using Museo Silver Rag "feels and
looks like FB" paper.

Chris


----- Original Message -----
From: "David Rodgers"
Subject: [Leica] Printing on Glossy Paper


> I just thought I'd share a recent experience. I've never been a fan of
> glossy prints. But my recent purchase of an Epson R800 changed that
> opinion.
>
> I bought a Refurb R800 from Epson intending to print BW with K7 inks.
> But before even ordering the inks from Cone, I used the UltraChromes
> that came with the R800 on some glossy paper samples that I've had
since
> forever.
>
> My first attempts on glossy were a disaster. The problems turned out
to
> be software related. Once I got everything configured properly the
> results were amazingly good.
>
> Setting up and using profiles can be tricky business. I had multiple
> problems which I won't go into here. I almost gave up.
>
> I finally struck gold on my last sheet of glossy paper. Color glossy
> prints from the R800 are superb. They're as good as the best color
> darkroom prints I've made. The blacks are deep and rich. The colors
are
> bright. Best of all they don't look like inkjets. There is no sign of
> bronzing. Most amazing is that this is from an inexpensive printer
(the
> refurb R800 was $200 delivered from Epson).
>
> I tried BW on the R800. Daniel Ridings mentioned he'd had problems
> getting consistent BW from the R800. I had problems getting uniformly
> neutral prints with the color inkset. Using Epson supplied profiles
and
> PS color management (the method I use for color printing) was a
complete
> waste of time for BW. However, I figured out how to make rich neutral
BW
> prints using only the Epson driver. It's not 100 percent successful
but
> I'm getting close. Only one print in 10 that I made yesterday had any
> sign of green cast in the highlights.
>
> I'm so impressed with the results from the R800 that I'm going to keep
> it for printing color and for printing bw on glossy. I bought bulk
R800
> inks from MIS and refillable carts. I bought several boxes of Kirkland
> Pro Glossy letter sized from Costco (great stuff) and several boxes of
> Epson Pro Glossy in 4 X 6 (which right now is 2 for one at Office
Max).
> I spent yesterday printing 4x6 borderless prints of numerous images.
> I've gone through a lot of printers over the years. I think I'm going
to
> really like the R800.
>
> I plan to print a lot and these will keeps the costs down. I haven't
> used the MIS inks yet but I will be soon. Some people say they look
> better than Epson's inks.
>
> I'm going to have to figure out another solution for BW. I'm probably
> going with an Epson 220 with UT3 inks and QuadToneRip.
>
> daveR