Epson R800 + hahnemuhle paper = disaster!

[Toby]

I've just bought a new box of hahnemuhle photo rag 316gsm paper to do fine prints and quite frankly the results are appalling. The prints a blurry, banded and totally unusable. I've tried downloading ICC profiles and fiddling with settings but to be honest I'm totally out of my depth. Has anyone used this combination and do they have any tips?

thank you

Toby

 

[sf]

OH, yes. This is a definite thing today. Printers MUST be used with their own papers.

Canon printers with Canon papers

Epson printers with Epson papers . . . they DO make papers, right?


I always noticed that my printers did VERY poorly if I used another brand's paper. Invariably. I bought an Epson printer a while ago, and some Canon paper. Yikes. HOrrible streaking and blotching and just grossness.

Match the brands. Get the results.

 

[kaiyen]

Printers absolutely, positively do NOT have to be used with that company's papers. It's just a matter of getting this calibrated correctly. If you had blotching and other issues with Canon paper with your Epson printer, then it's a profile and ink limit issue, not a printer<>paper combination problem.

Having said that, some ink sets look better on certain papers than others. Perhaps this is the case with the R800 and the Hahnemuhle.

allan

 

[sf]

yeah, come to think of it, there are some settings that one can play with like ink flow, head height, etc.

I was never able to get that to work for me, though.

But out of the box, the printers refuse to work with other brands' paper.

 

[nksyoon]

My Epson R200 works fine with Ilford Smooth Pearl, Ilford Smooth Matte Heavyweight and Tetenal Semi-Matt. It didn't like Ilford Classic Pearl.

 

[sf]

maybe my mechanical curse is also applicable to printers.

Wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Toby]

So far I've worked this much out the paper needs to be fed via the front cd/dvd slot with some kind of backing - the lack of a support sheet was what was causing the initial problems. The cd/dvd tray is too tall and causes the inkhead to damage the paper so i'm going to have to find something else. However apart from the rub marks the prints are showing real promise!

 

[erudolph]

HPR on R800

HPR on R800

Hi Toby.... I got some Hahnemuhle Photo Rag shortly after I got an R800 a couple of years ago. It was the heavy weight paper like you are using. At first I printed on the wrong side of the paper. Ultimately I built a profile and got some decent prints but soon switched to the lighter weight, 188 g/m2. I think it's a fine paper. One thing you might want to do is to wipe it off with a clean cloth before you put it through the printer. This serves a dual purpose: 1) reduces the possibility of part of the surface flaking off later, leaving a white mark on your print; and 2) reduces the amount of dust that is getting deposted on your printer's rollers. Sometimes, after using a lot of HPR, you'll find the printer doesn't properly suck the paper in; the rollers slip. Wiping the paper first heps with that. If it does happen, feed a few sheets of plain paper through the printer.... maybe three or four. Then try the HPR again.

Ed

 

[sfb_dot_com]

A cautionary tale indeed! I've got the R800 and have been considering purchasing a batch of the Hahnemule paper, but I don't think I'll bother until I hear that someone has worked out this problem.

I think I'll stick to Archival Matte for now.

Andy