R2400: Which semi-GLOSSY paper for MATTE black?

[DHDSP]

Hi everyone!

Now I have this great R2400 printer - and using it mainly for B&W.
A big annoyance is the changing of Matte / Photo Black.

For most of my printing I need the matte black - but somehow "normal customers" seem to prefer glossy images    

As a compromise I would love to print matte black on semi-glossy paper.

Wich paper would be best suited for this ?
(I can do paper-profiling)
 
CU&TIA
Peter

[Geoff Wittig]

You don't want to do this. Matte black inks will sit on top of glossy or semi-gloss paper surface and rub off on your finger the first time you touch the print. At least with the Epson 2400 the amount of ink wasted in changing over from photo black to matte black ink is trivial. I just put the removed cartridge back into the bag it came out of, with a piece of tape over the ink outlet. Works fine, prints perfectly even after sitting there for weeks.

[dbell]

I agree with Geoff: don't do this...

You might try a paper like the unfortunately-named Innova FibaPrint F-Type White Semi-Matte. It's meant to be used with the Photo Black ink but has a  less glossy surface than papers that are meant to look like fibre-based high-gloss papers. It might be a reasonable compromise between high-gloss papers and true matte-finish papers. Of course, if your customers really want a glossy finish, you'll probably end up needing to give them what they want to pay for .

I've also had no problem switching between the matte and photo black cartridges; the waste is tolerable if you don't do it too often. Depending on the volumes of prints you sell, it might be worth it to simply buy a second 2400 so that you have both ink sets available all the time with no cartridge-swapping.

At present, I do that, and I basically use three paper/ink/RIP combinations: photo black in printer #1, using Advanced B&W Mode with Pictorico Hi-Gloss White Film and Crane Museo Silver Rag or matte black in printer #2 with the QuadTone RIP and Epson Velvet Fine Art.


--
Daniel Bell

[DHDSP]

Thanks for the info.

I will just try to forget a compromise

CU
Peter

[pfigen]

I've had great results printing on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl on my 9800 using Matte black ink. I had almost given up on that paper using Photo black because it would only hit something like an L value of 13 or so for its blackest black. With Matte black, the black point L value is 8.4 reading with the Spectrolino, which is enough to give the print some real punch. There is some gloss differential in the blackest blacks, but Print Shield fixes that, and for some reason, printing with just the three black inks gives a slightly warm toned image rather than dead on neutral, but overall, it's a great combination.