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From: Arthur Entlich on 1 Dec 2009 05:54
Pigment inks are less dependent upon paper surface than dye inks in
terms of the look.

You might want to look at some of the student grade watercolor papers
sold in some art supply stores. They comes in fairly large sheets and
can be cut to size. They come with several surface textures and they
are usually considerably less costly than name brand professional
papers. Some printmaker papers are also fairly reasonably priced and
have a wide variation of surfaces and weights, as well as color tones.

Art


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Adam wrote:
> Arthur Entlich wrote:
>> Adam wrote:
>>> Yes, the Canon i550 uses 3e cartridges for everything.
> [snip]
>>> all 4 colors also contain glycerine and diethylene
>>> glycol, if that means anything.
>>
>> Pretty much all inkjet printer used these solvents and wetting/drying
>> agents, or very similar formulations.
>
> Oh, okay. I thought that might be a clue as to whether they're pigments
> or dyes.
>
>>> I'll spend this weekend trying out every kind of paper I already have
>>> around here, which includes Canon glossy photo paper, and pages from
>>> sketchbooks cut down to size.
>
> I tried every kind of paper I already had around here, and image quality
> didn't vary much. The ones with the best "feel" were paper from
> artists' sketchbooks, cut down to size. I'll have to see whether the
> local art supply store carries something similar in letter size, but
> affordable. Also I'll get a few small packages of various kinds of
> paper from an office supply store. And most important, to know when to
> stop, as after all this is only a mockup.
>
> I'm also learning a lot from the other messages in this newsgroup,
> especially the ones about chips in ink cartridges. Things seem to have
> changed a lot since I bought this Canon i550 around 2003!
>
> Adam
From: Adam on 3 Dec 2009 16:53
Arthur Entlich wrote:
> You might want to look at some of the student grade watercolor papers
> sold in some art supply stores. They comes in fairly large sheets and
> can be cut to size. They come with several surface textures and they are
> usually considerably less costly than name brand professional papers.
> Some printmaker papers are also fairly reasonably priced and have a wide
> variation of surfaces and weights, as well as color tones.

Thanks again, Art! I expect to use 120 to 200 sheets of letter-size
paper on this project, which would require a lot more cutting than I'd
want to do. I stopped by the local art supply store today, and found a
sketchbook labelled 8.5"x11" with 80 lb. paper, so I bought one, and I
think it's good enough for this project. Cost per sheet is about US
$0.12 which is more than I'd planned, but the specialty paper at the
office supply stores is at least that much anyway and goes up from
there. That still puts the total paper cost under $25.

BTW with this paper, I get better results using the rougher side of the
paper. With cheap "multipurpose" paper I think the smoother side is
usually better. Thanks again, everybody, for all your help with this,
because it does look like I've found a solution here.

Adam
From: Bob AZ on 3 Dec 2009 18:07
�I stopped by the local art supply store today, and found a
> sketchbook labelled 8.5"x11" with 80 lb. paper, so I bought one, and I
> think it's good enough for this project. �.
>
> Adam

Adam

Paper for inkjet papers needs to be coated so that the ink just
penetrates the paper. Otherwsie the ink sory of runs or smears. And
the real glossy paper surface will not accept any ink at all. What you
need is a coated paper that is in between. I would imagine the
sketchbook paper will fail because it is usually not coated.

Bob AZ

From: Adam on 3 Dec 2009 19:09
Bob AZ wrote:
>> I stopped by the local art supply store today, and found a
>> sketchbook labelled 8.5"x11" with 80 lb. paper, so I bought one, and I
>> think it's good enough for this project.
>
> Paper for inkjet papers needs to be coated so that the ink just
> penetrates the paper. Otherwise the ink sort of runs or smears. And
> the real glossy paper surface will not accept any ink at all. What you
> need is a coated paper that is in between. I would imagine the
> sketchbook paper will fail because it is usually not coated.

Thanks for your reply, Bob! The sketchbook I bought today ("Aquabee
Sketch Paper") specifically mentioned inkjet printers. The printed
image on its rough (front) side looks as sharp as the best of the other
papers I tried, and, once dry, won't smear unless it gets wet. On its
smooth side the printing is okay but not as black. Could it have
something to do with pigments vs. dyes? (I'm not sure which a Canon 3e
black cartridge is.)

BTW the other papers I tried before were Staples store brand
"multipurpose" and "printing" papers, Canon glossy photo paper, and
paper cut to size from two other, older sketchbooks, and the image was
pretty sharp on all of those. Maybe I'm just lucky? ;-)

Adam
From: Adam on 3 Dec 2009 19:57
Adam wrote:
> Could it have something to
> do with pigments vs. dyes? (I'm not sure which a Canon 3e black
> cartridge is.)

P.S. A quick web search said that the Canon 3e black ink cartridge is
pigment, while the similar 6e cartridge (for photos) is dye. There are
other-brand replacements for the 3e that are dye, though.

Adam
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