Printing: Using Canon paper on an Epson Printer

[navoff]

I've got a Canon i960 that for years produced excellent photos (so good, no one could tell the difference between them and ones printed professionally). However, now, every time I want to print something, I have to do a deep cleaning just to get an adequate image. There's usually one or two colors that don't appear to be outputting well. I've used genuine Canon inks pretty exclusively. Besides wasting a lot of ink, I'm concerned what effect all this deep cleaning is having on the waste ink pad. I've tried every option available in the printer maintenance window and even tried removing the ink cartridges and soaking the printer heads in isopropyl alcohol. But nothing seems to help.

Considering the age of the printer and the amount of use I've gotten out of it, I thought it might be time to replace it. Plus, I've been wanting to print larger formats than my i960 is capable of.

I was considering the Epson R1900 Photo Printer. It had some good reviews and seemed to have all the features I was looking for in a printer. I know with my i960, I had issues using non Canon paper with it. Photos just didn't seem to come out looking as nice as with the Canon paper. So I now have a lot of Canon paper in my stash of supplies. If I purchase the Epson, am I going to run into similar problems? If so, is there a workaround? Is there another option I should consider?

I'm open to suggestions.

[pixelzombie]

you could always get a profile made for that paper for your particular printer, i have done that in the past with good results

[mistermonday]

Be careful about the paper - sometimes the profile is not the issue. I have several Epson printers (but not the 1900). Almost used many non Epson brands of paper (but never tried Canon). When I tried some HP paper, it has some really weird chemistry and everything I printed has pools of ink all over the surface. It was definitely not at all compatible with Epson inks.
Regards, Murray

[Dmax]

FUji frontier the best source of print not these inkjet printer... May be i am saying that I am a lab owner and we hate inkjet printing

[PoppyCock]

If you are using different paper from a different manufacturer choose the "automatic" option under paper type, it is seriously your best bet. Should also look into getting an HP officejet. All printers can give photo quality same as a lab. They market certain printers to photographers, raise the price, and take your money. But office environments want cheap ink and productivity as well as speed and quality.

[Tony W]

I am not 100% sure of this but I believe that the 1900 printer uses pigment based inks and the i960 used a dye based ink.

The difference is that dye base is water soluble and that the ink droplets get absorbed into the printing paper, whereas pigment base ink is in a neutral carrier with the ink particles in suspension. Therefore pigment ink will tend to sit on top of the paper rather than being absorbed like the dye based.

So wether your stash of Canon paper is compatible is something you will need to check with the manufacturer

AFAIK most gloss paper (microporous) is designed to accept either dye or pigment ink and therefore should be suitable.

If the paper is Swellable polymer type they are not recommended for use with pigment inks. This type of paper encapsulates the ink by swelling as it reacts with the ink. Some inkjets do have problems with 'pooling' as the ink takes much longer to dry.

If I had to guess I would say that your Canon paper is likely to be ok due to it being designed for Canons own range of printers which are known to be high speed therefore likely to be the microporous type.
Most modern printing papers should say somewhere on the packaging about suitability for pigment ink printing