ipf6100 - Printing on VERY textured paper

[mattwade]

I'm trying to self publish a cool coffee table book of some photos I took on a recent trip to Africa. I work at a graphic design studio and the other day I came across a very cool leather textured paper that I'd like to use for the cover of the book. I'm wondering if I could safely run this paper, which is much more textured than fine art papers, through my ipf6100. The leather paper is intended for offset printing...not for ink jet printers to my knowledge. But the manufacturer does say it is "suitable for desktop techniques"...whatever that means. The paper is 300 g/m2.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

[seangirard]

Hey Matt - I think I know the stuff you are talking about. We have printed a couple pieces on that type of material here (offset press).

I don't think the texture will be a problem so much as the surface/coating and whether it will take the ink from your Canon. If you can cut a little swatch from your sample book or whatever you have just mount it to a larger sheet and give it a shot. I think you will be able to tell right away if it is going to work!

[Scott Martin]

Unless it's coated for inkjet printing you're going to get a pretty lousy Dmax, color gamut and tonal response. I wouldn't except too much out of it and would encourage you to look at textured inkjet papers instead.

[mattwade]

Thanks for the replies. Since the paper is brown, all I'm really looking to do is print some black vector elements on the paper...nothing photographic. I'm hoping that the ink will stay on the surface and be dark enough to make some striking background patterns on the paper. I ordered some free A4 samples from the paper company (Gmund) and I'll try it out...as long as no body thinks it might damage the printer in some way. I certainly want to avoid that!

Thanks,
Matt

[seangirard]

If you're not looking to print contones then maybe your best bet will be to find someone with a letterpress, get a die from boxcar, and have it stamped. It will look much cooler in the end

[mattwade]

Just wanted to add an update: I received some free paper samples from the company that makes the really nice leather texture paper and I ran them through my ipf6100. I tried the "Special 5" media setting which puts down photo black ink and the "Special 10" setting which uses matte black ink. Both tests printed just fine. The printer had no problem printing on the highly textured surface. The matte black test was definitely the darkest of the two, but the ink DOES come off if you touch it. The photo black ink, however, stays on the paper just fine. It's not quite as dark, but it actually looks great because it has a more subtle effect. Anyway, I'm excited with the results.

[Scott Martin]

Another media selection could give better results. Check out this article on determining the optimal media selecton for your media:
 
http://www.on-sight.com/2008/04/04/how-to-...-for-any-paper/