What higher-quality papers have you photo mavens tried in your inkjet printers? What works well in an Epson 1280?

www.inkjetart.com

what kind of paper do you use?

i use their luster - its about half the price of epson and the same quality.

for photos of people? or general everyday stuff?

i have tried other brands -- like redriverpaper.com -- but when it comes right down to it -- epson paper always works best in my epson printers (3000, 5500 and R1800)

The problem you will encounter is the profiling of the paper you decide to use.

If you use Epson papers you will find some of the profiles already installed, for the paper you may decide to use. It depends on which paper you use and how up to date your driver is.

The 1280 is an older printer so it might not have some of the newer profiles for the newer Epson papers in it. You may be able to find profiles for these at the Epson website, mebbe not though.

A lot of these papers will work sorta ok with profiles for papers that are similar in texture 'n characteristic...high gloss..gloss..luster...matte etc.

Sometimes , the paer company will have downloadable profiles on their website for use with the epson driver. The epson driver in that printer will give decent results depending on how you have your print settings configured.

It's not just a matter of [popping a piece of paper into your printer and letting it rip. You may get lucky and get decent results, you may not...

I have excellent luck with Epson papers, but also with Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl and Inkjetart Micro Ceramic Luster. In my opinion, the luster papers give the nicest portrait prints.
If you want to use matte paper, then I'd go with Epson Premium or Epson Archival.

The 1280 Silver is a current generation printer, not an "older" Epson printer...I should know because I just bought one to replace my 1270. For my purposes, I only use Epson paper, both with the 1280 Silver, R320, and my 3000. Things just turn out better that way, and believe me I've tried other brands, virtually everything available of good quality, over the years. I might print more than 50 portraits a week on the 1280, and Epson paper always give me consistent results. Can't say the same for the competition.

If you try other brands of paper you'll find that some are too bright, others are too yellow, and yet others are too soft. Epson paper tends to have just the right combination of definition, brightness, and hue. It's expensive unless you can find a dealer who'll sell it to you with a quantity discount, but you get what you pay for.

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Like Phy, I have used Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl in the past, in a Stylus Photo 1200 (2 generations before the 1280, and a completely different ink formula as well) and I really liked it.

Epson Luster surface in the heavier 10mm RC based paper has been the most effective for me.

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One more recommendation for the Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl.

for photos of people? or general everyday stuff?

If you mean snapshot sort of stuff, no. I started thinking about this last week when I saw some fancier paper in a local photo store where I'd just had some film processed, stuff like Hahnemühle Photo Rag. They also had some Ilford paper. At one time I did a lot of printmaking, especially lithography, and the kind of paper you use for that is high quality heavyweight rag paper. I'm assuming that any similar-quality rag paper that would be able to pass through an inkjet printer would be lighter-weight.

Maybe it's foolish to bother with this at all, given the longevity of the inks. I've also read that even when paper profiles are available, some of them are not very good, so I recognize that results could be unsatisfactory. Hence my question about what people have tried with an Epson printer.

If money and space were no object, I'd probably have a couple of Epson 2400s, with one devoted to monochrome printing. Of course, I'd also have a loft, with a fully equipped litho studio and a stock of flawless large gray stones. And maybe a buff dude to grain them for me.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2006 10:32AM by ka jowct.

The 1280 is a current generation Epson only because it is still available...been around awhile but actually it is three generations old, in terms of inks. That is why I referred to it as an "old" printer.

Compared to the K3 generation of printers this printer is "old". I love dye base inks for the color and the good black but they aren't stable enough for my use. I have owned the Epson Photo EX, 1160, 1270, 1280, 2200, on my way to a 4800 K3. I've been waiting to enter the large format world because I have never felt that color or, particularily, black and white printing, had been fully realized until the K3's. To many surface problems with the previous inks...metamerism, gloss differential, bronzing, blocking up of lower end blacks on matte papers.

If you present these 1280 prints properly, on stable papers, (no r.c. which means most gloss stocks) under neutral ph free mattes and keep them away from light most of the time...Ozone as well, they will last a decent amount of time.

There are some new papers coming out that replicate traditional printing papers that are supposed to be stunning...subtle, smooth gloss on archival, paper bases. Look for Breathing Color and Crane products, and, perhaps, Epson is coming out with one.

Many times, it's not the profile that is bad. It is how you implement the profile within the particular driver...Epson drivers have been notoriously bad...so have their profiles. Much better drivers and profiles in the K3 generation.

I use a RIP so I have not had to deal with Epson drivers for quite sometime. I get incredible results using Image Print and the profiles from their extensive profile library.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2006 06:01PM by Kraniac.