Epson 3800 advice

Hi all,

Well, after weeks of dithering I've finally taken the plunge and ordered an Epson 3800. It's was a difficult decision to make knowing that the 3880 could be around the corner with a better ink set. But then, given the quality of the 3800 prints I decided that I wouldn't gain a lot in waiting (although I reserve the right to eat my words).

Anyway, I'd like some Epson paper recommendations please. Note that for my best prints I'll be using Hahnemuhle's Photo Rag, however for more everyday stuff I thought I'd stick with Epson.

I find Epson's range of papers very confusing. Not only is it hard to understand the differences between the various papers, but either the names (or the papers) seem to change between countries.

• Does Epson Enhanced Matte (US) = Epson Archival Matte (UK) ?
• Is there a difference in image quality between Epson Archival Matte and the Heavyweight matte?
• The 3800 doesn't have a gloss optimiser. Do the pigment inks still sit "on top" of gloss paper giving a strange matte/glossy surface?
• What's the "new" paper that people keep talking about?
• Why can't I find these papers in A2 sheets?

I'll have more questions, but I'll leave there for now.

Thanks,

Tim

Tim,

Epson Enhanced Matte and Archival Matte are the same thing, but Epson has renamed this to Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte. A fancier name for marketing, no paper change. Ugh. Epson Archival - old name - is supposed to have better long term archival characteristics, and it is a slightly heaver paper with a slightly brighter surface, which I suppose translates into more optical brighteners.

A2 sheets of Enhanced Matte are available, but harder to find. In the U.S., mail order businesses like ItSupplies.com and Atlex.com carry them (17x22 inches).

Other people can probably answer the remainder of your questions. Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape recently mentioned the "new paper" and there's a fair amount of chatter on the forum there relating to the paper.

Mike

We need a guide to papers article!!

Asher

You might refer to Eric Chan's excellent site devoted to the 3800 (it includes some paper recommendations I believe) for helpful advice. Thanks to you (I wished to provide the site's address), I just discovered some interesting information on print driver settings that I wasn't aware of

http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/faq.html

Ralph Eisenberg said:

You might refer to Eric Chan's excellent site devoted to the 3800 (it includes some paper recommendations I believe) for helpful advice. Thanks to you (I wished to provide the site's address), I just discovered some interesting information on print driver settings that I wasn't aware of

http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/faq.html

Click to expand...

Hi Ralph,

I had actually discovered this incredible resource. It contains some very valuable information. I may give gloss printing it a go, but I suspect that I'll leave that to the photo labs since the gloss differential problem is apparently still there, all be it well controlled.

When I was first looking for a wide format printer I wanted one that could print onto CDs. Unfortunately none of them have this ability, which is a shame and a surprise since I imagine that there are lots of photographers who'd benefit from printing several CDs at a time...). However, what I have just discovered (to my great delight) is that the 3800 can in fact be used to print onto CDs with a little help :

http://www.inkjetart.com/Print_CD/

I'll be giving that a go... If I can find anyone capable of cutting a perfect 12cm hold out of a piece of 1.5mm board then I may even get a decent template made up, rather than messing about with sticky tape.

Tim

Another vote for Eric Chan's web page. I just got my 3800 printing awesome photos resulting from the information in Eric's site.

Bev

I can only echo Asher's comment.

I got the 3800 this wednesday and struggling with different paper manufacturer / type.

I choose to try out some of the hahnemühle papers (bamboo290, photo rag pearl, baryta 325).
All these work fine with the profiles provided by hahnemühle.

The local dealer added a stack of 50 sheet of tetenal semi matte 240.
I am not able to get any decent result with this paper.

I do have the spyder pro 2.0 for creating a custom profile, but i will not have the time to do this properly until january

Meanwhile i will try to get hold of different epson papers from a local dealer as i want to see and touch a sample before purchase.

Any help with the tetenal is greatly appreciated.

Nicolas

Tim, here is a chart from Epson website showing old versus new paper names;

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supAdvice.jsp?type=highlights&noteoid=89563

You may find this useful for searching for info on paper, as the old nomenclature will likely produce more search results at this point. Also, it can be confusing picking the papers in the Epson driver depending on if you have latest driver, not, paper with new nomenclature, or not. And then there is applying the profiles, which to the best of my knoledge have not been renamed which adds to the confusion.

Cheers,
-Greg

Addendum;

New paper; Might you be referring to the Harmon FB Gloss Al Injet paper by any chance?

K3 vs ultrachrome with GLOP; I do believe, yes, you should expect at least some of the effect you describe. Some have reported that printing on a lustre or pearl (maybe even semij-gloss) reduces the odd effect at the whites. I use Ultrachrome inkset myself, but from what I've seen from my lab (used for stuff over 13" carriage width), I tend to agree with them that Ilford Gallerie Smooth Pearl may arguably be the best media to reduce that effect with the K- inkset. No idea why it handles this better than Epson Premium Lustre (or whatever they all it now ), but it seems to.

Note that I do not have hands on experience with the 3800, and am going by a lot of reading.

Just my 2 cents,
-Greg