Printing Pre-Scored Cards: Printer?

[John Caldwell]

For those who commonly printed pre-scored cards, perhaps like Red River 7x10" or 6x8" media, can you please share what machine you are using and what results you're achieving? In specific, I'm concerned about sheet feeder coping with the pre-scored aspect of the media; the ability to load more than a single card at on time; print quality and the ability to print two-sided without ruining the already-printed side.

We own only larger machines that don't deal well with media this size. I'm wondering about the merits on machine like the Canon Pixma Pro-1, or the new Epson 600 or 800 machines. Perhaps there are other printers I haven't listed.

With thanks,

John Caldwell

[BradSmith]

John,
No info on using the latest printers, but I'm using my Epson 3800 to print on Red River Pecos Gloss 7x10 card stock.  I've found that the auto sheet feeder is unreliable in correctly feeding more than a single sheet at a time.  Kind of a disappointment, so printing in groups of 10, I must feed them one at a time.  But the Final result is excellent.

Brad

[John Caldwell]

Thank you, Brad. When printing both inside and outside surfaces of the card on your 3800, do you find the first-printed side is relatively intact after printing the second side? Do you allow the first side to dry overnight before printing the second side? It's common to print the "text" side of the card first so as to disturb the fine art side to a lesser degree, I believe.

You mention the sheet feeder and the need for single sheets when printing groups of 10 cards. Are you just saying that when printing more than one card, be it 2, 10 or 100 - you load then one-at-a-time into the media tray and that you've given up on loading more than one card into the tray for the intended auto-feed mechanism?

Thanks again.

John-

[Scott Hein]

John,

I have also been using the Red River 7x10" Pecos River Gloss pre-scored cards for many years on an Epson 3800.  My experience is similar to Brad's - the print quality is excellent, but the multiple sheet feed is sometimes unreliable.  In my case, it would work most of the time, but you would have to keep an eye on it for the inevitable miss feed. Humidity probably plays a role in this.  I don't recall ever printing on the inside of the cards, so I can't help you there.

Coincidentally, I just replaced the 3800 with a Canon 24" iPF6400, which can't load sheets under 8" width or height, so I can't use the stock of 7x10" cards I have.  I ordered the 8.5x11" version of those cards, and while they print fine and the quality is also excellent, I wouldn't want to have to fulfill a large card order manually feeding small sheets on this printer.  I know I could print multiple cards on a roll and then trim them and score them manually, but frankly that's too much work when the pre-scored cards are available

So, I find myself in the spot as you.  The P800 is probably overkill since I have the large-format printer.  However, the P600 would seem to be a good choice for printing smaller cut sheets like cards.

-Scott

[John Caldwell]

Thanks, Scott. Although the 800 is certainly overkill for card printing, I guess the ink cart size might offer some benefit over the smaller 600 machine's carts. The Canon Pixma Pro-1 is apparently a nice machine if you can live with the more consumer-sized ink carts. I wonder how the Canon would do with cards.

Thank you,

John Caldwell

[Ken Doo]

I'm running an old Epson 4800 for printing greeting cards only.  The sheet feeder tray works well and I can easily print a stack of pre-scored card stock at one time. Bad part is being limited to only larger greeting cards (8.5 x 5.5 folded).  Those new "small" Epson printers sure look nice but this printer just keeps on going and won't die.

ken

[BradSmith]

........do you find the first-printed side is relatively intact after printing the second side?

 Are you just saying that when printing more than one card, be it 2, 10 or 100 - you load then one-at-a-time into the media tray and that you've given up on loading more than one card into the tray for the intended auto-feed mechanism?

Thanks again.

John-

John, I've never printed on the inside of the cards, so I can't provide any useful info on that topic.   As far as loading multiple sheets at once, I gave up on ANY number of multiple sheets being loaded at once.  I'm afraid just one at a time.

Brad

[hugowolf]

I have printed pre-scored cards on an Epson 3880, and agree that the sheet feeder is a no go. For reliable multiple card feeding, you would need a cassette feed, like the 4900 or older printers of the same ilk.

I have printed both side often, but when I have it was always text side first, but I have printed the other side immediately after a batch of the inside, and never had a problem.

Brian A

[JeanMichel]

I print text on Strathmore blanks using an Epson 2400. Sometimes multiple feeds work, at other times it doesn't; I usually get away with printing 10 or so cards before getting a feed error, I simply handle the pause the printer, move the cards and resume. A bit of a pain but it it does not take that long to print the 100 cards that come in the box, and I simply do other work while this goes on.
Jean-Michel

[John Caldwell]

Brian the 4900 doesn't accept papers smaller than a certain size - I think it's 8.5" that a minimum dimension. The 4900's "media size check" can be turned disabled, but you're left with the paper cassette not accepting 7" wide media without creating a spacer to "simulate" 8.5" wide media. It's a hassle and, in my hands, it didn't work well.

I just spoke to a nice and knowledgable man at Red River. Red River has just received the Epson 800 and will be conducting some testing regarding use of the feed tray to print groups of their pre-scored cards. The gentleman at Red River confirms that several of the Canon machines feed their greeting card stock with great ease and reliability. The limitation with the Canon Pixma Pro-1 relates, apparently, to an inability to invoke use of MK for matte greeting cards. So long as you're good with PK, the Canon prints cards very nice I was told.

I guess I'll wait until Red River completes testing of their greeting cards on the Epson 800.

John Caldwell

[Ken Bennett]

I use the Red River card stock in my Epson 3800. I usually get ok results with the sheet feeder, loading maybe ten sheets at a time. The final results on the matte paper are excellent. I do need to try the gloss one of these days.

[John Nollendorfs]

Having been in a position where I wanted to be able to print hundreds of 7x10 note cards reliably, I started investigating color laser printers about 12 years  ago. Back in the day, I could never get the inkjet printers to feed reliably. Also, I was not impressed with the price of the blank 7x10 stock from Red River, and couldn't get a price break by offering to buy larger quantities.

Right now I'm getting quite good results with my KonicaMinolta MagicColor 4650EN. I have a local printer precut 7x10 stock and score it for me. Ends up costing about 15 cents a piece. Figuring in toner, I figure my costs at about 35 cents each.

[garyhill]

In the last few weeks I have just started using the Museo Artist Cards on an Epson 3880. I have only printed about 150 cards in total so far. Print quality of images is fantastic. I have not tried printing on both sides yet so I cant comment on that. I have been using the sheet feeder with bundles of 10-15 cards at a time. The only issue I have seen is on 5-6 occasions, two cards have been pulled through together. This did not damage the cards at all and I was able to stick the blank card straight back in the sheet feeder again. I am making sure that I fan the cards before putting them in the feeder from now on.

Cheers,

Gary

[archphoto]

We have been printing Red River matte note cards on our Epson 4020 Work Force office printer with great results. These printers utilize 110ml ink carts - which Epson fills only to about 20ml for around $30.00. We use the refill kit sold by Inksupply.com. and fill the carts to around 100ml (18.00 per 120ml bottles). Printer new runs around $140 or refurbished for about $80.00.  Cards load from the rear feed which is made for card stock - we usually load about 30 cards at a time and it takes about 20 minutes to print 50 cards. Not a high profit service but a lot of our Giclee customers ask for it.

Neil

[Rusty]

+1 on printing Museo stock on a 3880. I've been doing this for quite a while and like a previous post it will grab multiple sheets on occasion but no harm done. I rarely print 2 sides but when I do its always text side first

[Ken Bennett]

I rarely print 2 sides but when I do its always text side first

Well, now, that makes sense. I often print both sides, and never thought about it -- always printing the image first then the text side. But of course printing the text side first means the paper doesn't have to go back through the printer and possibly damage the image side. D'oh!!!

Thanks for the tip.