Papers
As important as your choice of printer is, your choice of paper is even more crucial. All of the archival inks only maintain their claims for being long-lasting and waterproof on certain papers.
There are words to look for when you are browsing at your nearest office shop or favorite web page for your print paper. First off, you want to use acid-free or ph-balanced paper. Paper that is not ph-balanced will tend to yellow and react poorly with inks over time. Select papers that tout: ‘high-resolution,’ ‘quick-drying,’ ‘water-resistant,’ ‘archival’ and/or ‘premium.’ These will be the better quality papers. A heavier-weight paper will feel more valuable and be easier to store and mail. Avoid brands like Avery and Acme. (No, I don’t believe there is actually Acme brand paper, but most office supply stores do have their own line of generic papers.) Do not underestimate the convenience of quick-drying papers. I have had prints smear stacking up in the output tray when trying cheaper papers. It’s not worth the hassle to have to send prints one at a time, find drying space, handle work carefully and not be able to package an order for several hours or even overnight.
You will find two major choices in paper finish: matte or glossy. Glossy prints are sometimes (arguably incorrectly) called photoprints and are shiny in surface. Matte prints have a dull or slightly textured finish. I personally prefer matte finish on prints because there is no glare to worry about and the glossy look can be artificial in appearance and dramatically different than original media. Soft-gloss or satin-finish can be an excellent middle-ground.
There are a variety of other mediums you can also print on, including special textiles, coated canvases, coated watercolor papers, rag papers (using cotton rather than tree pulps), plastics, metallic foils, magnetic papers, stickers, labels, transparencies… this list is endless!
Take care of your paper! Store it in an air-tight fashion away from light and heat. I recommend opaque, plastic, sealed containers if you don’t go through your paper quickly, or at the very least, a large-sized sealed bag. Whatever arcane chemicals they coat the stuff with, it is not impervious to humidity or air. Even ordinary inkjet paper by the ream can become brittle if it gets too dry or is exposed to light too long. Humidity can cause papers to curl and discolor.
Printing Tips
Trick your margins! You’ll find that on most printers, there is a trailing edge (the last edge out of the printer) that it cannot print to, usually about a half an inch. You often want your image to go as close to the edge as possible. The Epson 1280 does boast borderless printing, but you will find that the closer to the edge it prints, the more it smears and the poorer the print quality. So, if printing near the edge is crucial, design your piece in stages, and print it in two passes, one from each direction. This might require a break in the design, or an area that has an overlap in one color. Also, one advantage to the wider-format printers is that you can rotate letter-sized prints to any orientation to put your trailing edge at whatever side is convenient.
Feeding canvas. Canvas is a beautiful print medium; most customers cannot tell the difference between a canvas print and an original painting! However, the canvas is flexible and thick, and the printer will often reject it, pull it in crooked, or lose its grip on the stuff, leading to wasted time and materials. Make sure your paper feed is set at the maximum setting (usually there is a +/- lever somewhere near the input), and tape a piece of cardstock to the back. Sometimes, just an ordinary strip of tape on the backside of the leading edge (the first edge into the printer) is enough to stiffen the canvas and allow the printer to grab it.
Color-matching needs to be done for each kind of media that you use. Because each kind of paper uses a different chemical composition for their coatings, the ink will react differently on each and colors will appear different. There are software programs and pre-made profiles available (at some expense!) to take care of color-matching for you, or you can use your art program and save color-shifted versions of your art files to match each kind of print that you make. If you have a good sense of color, you can do this matching by eye. Most printer software also has some limited built-in color adjustment that you can save as a profile for the different kinds of media.
Taking care of your printer is very, very important. Cover it when it’s not in use, to prevent dust from getting into it, clean it when it needs it, and use it frequently. Make sure you run some kind of print job through it at least every two weeks or the cartridges can develop ugly clogs. Turn it off when it isn’t in use, and always be sure to turn it off at the printer, not with a power strip. Many models go through a shut-down process that caps the cartridges, and bypassing this step or leaving your printer on indefinitely can greatly reduce your cartridge life. In the case of laserjet printers, keep your drums cleaned and perform the regular maintenance that the manufacturer recommends. Dirty inner components can wear on your printer, produce smeared prints and lead to excessive paper jams.
