Nice matte prints

mmroden

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to make some prints for friends and family this Christmas for presents. I currently have an epson r800 and a spyder pro 2 calibration puck, so no worries there viz goodness of printer/matching with printer colors.

For those of you with this printer, or even those without, what would you suggest for matte paper to try? I want to go with matte because it will not look so photographical, but instead give it a kind of artistic feel. I've read alot about rag papers and other kinds of paper, but I'm wondering what people's experiences have been, where they've gotten the papers, how they print black and white vs color, so on and so forth.


Thanks!

Sam

mmrodan,

I would always start with the same brand as the printer. The manufactures have maximized and tested their ink paper combinations, and should give you a good base line. That said, Red River Paper has a nice selection paper, and you can download icc profiles from their web site. I bought some of their polar mat, and think it's very nice, but this is subjective.

Sam

saurora

Sam wrote:

mmrodan,

I would always start with the same brand as the printer. The manufactures have maximized and tested their ink paper combinations, and should give you a good base line. Sam

Stick with your printer brand. I haven't bought new paper in quite a while, but I use Epsons' Premium Matte and have great results. The Polar Matte that Sam mentions sounds interesting though and I'm thinking of ordering some!

mmroden

OK. I have the 'enhanced matte', and I'd say the prints are pretty meh next to premium lustre prints. So I should check out premium enhanced matte, or Red River? I noticed Museum Digital Art mentioned in another thread; does that compare favoribly?

Thanks!

System

you don't say what changes you are making in the printing workflow-

are you changing the paper profile?-

are you telling the printer that it's matte paper?-

some googled sites:

http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi029/Epson_R800.html

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/printers/epson-r800.shtml

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRINT/ER800/ER800.HTM

JimW

With an Epson 2400, for coated papers, I use Epson Lustre, and agree that (coated) epson papers work pretty well. But I respectfully disagree when it comes to their Premium Enhanced Matte, which I think is a poor quality paper. For matte, I like the look of Hahnemuehle (sp?) Photo Rag 308, although I'm still searching for a better matte and I'm about to try Crane's Museo. I use a Gretag Photo Eye One to make paper profiles, but I'm guessing you could get them from a Hahnemuehle site. Usually buy my paper from B&H.

Re your question: <<< How you print b&w vs color>>>
I print color on the Epson 2400, and b&w in a wet darkroom. Nothing beats a b&w fiber print, and, to my knowledge, there are no digital papers yet that can match up to fiber. Hopefully soon though.

Good luck. Hope this helps.

Jim

sunione

Epson all the way
Love the Epson Premium Matte paper.

mmroden

gefillmore wrote:

you don't say what changes you are making in the printing workflow-

are you changing the paper profile?-

are you telling the printer that it's matte paper?-

some googled sites:

http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi029/Epson_R800.html

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/printers/epson-r800.shtml

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRINT/ER800/ER800.HTM

Hi George,

Yes, I'm telling the printer the paper that I'm using, and I've calibrated the monitor and I'm using photoshop cs2 on a winxp machine to do my prints. I'll typically do several small (1 inch on a side) preview prints on a sheet of paper before I get the exact colors I want from the printer; I really wish printing settings were saved in the psd, but that's another story for another time. It was actually on the strength of the luminous-landscape review that I got the printer in the first place, and I do have to say, the b&w prints I got from it on lustre paper I like. The color prints, though, are just, as I said, meh.

JimW: I've not tried those papers, and lack of a darkroom prevents my adoption of your b&w technique But I'll take a look at the Hanahamahoocha paper (I can never spell it); I understand there's various sampler papers I can try out . Is the 2400 the same as the 800? My understanding was that the 2400 required a black cartridge swap, while the 800 doesn't.

sunione: Have you tried other papers? Why's the premium matte so tasty? I've not seen really delicious shots from the epson matte, which is why I ask.

Thanks, everyone!

System

are using the specific profile for the paper as you set up your print with preview in ps?-

the 2400 has eight slots and you have to switch 'photo black' and 'matte black' but it also has 'light black' or 'light light black' which the 800 does not have (I think) (not sure what that means re output)-

didn't really think it thru but I just use matte for bw or toned bw-

I use the premium luster paper for the color photos-

aren't the print settings saved in tif files?-


hah!-

I do believe I have nothing to offer you in the way of advice; I believe you have a better knowledge of printing in ps than I do-

good luck-


ps- I think it would be cool if you got the Hanahamahoocha paper from chattanooga-

hanahamahoocha of chattanooga-

JimW

(reading off the box)
H-a-h-n-e-m-u-h-l-e

So I guess George got it right, Hanamoochy from Chatanoochy.

<<< Is the 2400 the same as the 800? My understanding was that the 2400 required a black cartridge swap, while the 800 doesn't.>>>

MM - Sorry, but I don't know about the 800. But, yes, I have to change blacks on the 2400. I heard that its successor, the 3800, eliminates the need to swap. Mmmmm ... 3800.

Jim

mmroden

well, then, here's what I'll do.

I'll get some samplers from inkjetart.com, and then post the results. They have a number of samplers, with 2 sheets for each, so I'll do smallish prints on this paper, to determine which is the best. Then I'll let you know which I like.