Getting Dark Blacks with Type - Epson 3800

[misterpatrick]

Hello all,

I have an Epson 3800. While I get great photos out of it, I am having trouble getting black blacks on plain paper for documents. Any tips on settings (I'm on a Mac) and ink choice? Thanks!

[Richowens]

  May I suggest a laser printer for your documents rather than waste all that good ink on letters.

  Due to the nature of plain paper you won't get black blacks, the paper soaks up and spreads the ink too much.

  Rich

[howardm]

+1

you can get a laser printer for the cost of 1-2 3800 carts

[Gemmtech]

Forget about using an inkjet for documents, get a laser and be done with it, plus it's about 10 times cheaper to operate a laser.

[chilehead]

I tried using my 3800 for text for a while.  (The matte black on plain paper seemed to work best for me.)  I reasoned that it would actually be a good way to keep the heads from drying out in between photo printing.

The big problem is with the ink change-over.  Often times I would send a document to the printer, only to have it switch blacks.  Those can be pretty expensive documents!

I ended up purchasing a Brother 2170W laser.  On-board wireless and Ethernet printing, all for under a hundred bucks (on sale).  In about 30 pages, it will have paid for itself by not swapping ink back and forth!

Mark

[Deep]

I would have to agree with everyone else.  However, if you are stuck with your 3800 and really want a nice text, print on cheap, thin photo paper and you will get super sharp print and black text.

Bit of a waste though, which is why I borrowed a friend's cheap Brother laser printer.  He's not getting it back in a hurry!

Don.

[jasonrandolph]

These days you can get a goo inkjet printer from Canon, H-P, or Epson for plain paper and even decent pics (4x6) for less than the cost of a single 3800 cartridge.  I use a Canon 2600 that set me back a measly $30 for documents so I wouldn't have to run anything but fine art prints through my 3800.  Showing my wife the cost of replacement ink for the 3800 was enough to convince her that a separate printer made sense.

[Deep]

These days you can get a goo inkjet printer from Canon, H-P, or Epson for plain paper and even decent pics (4x6) for less than the cost of a single 3800 cartridge.  I use a Canon 2600 that set me back a measly $30 for documents so I wouldn't have to run anything but fine art prints through my 3800.  Showing my wife the cost of replacement ink for the 3800 was enough to convince her that a separate printer made sense.

Actually, that can bite you!  I used to use a Canon A4 printer (i990)and went through cartridges like there was no tomorrow.  The per print ink costs for an A3+ print on the 3800 have worked out similar to the ink cost of an A4 print of the Canon.  Both printers waste plenty of ink between prints, mind.  I now regret not buying the Canon ipf5000 at the time I bought my 3800 because ink costs on that printer are much lower and would have covered the price difference by now - and I would have had a better printer overall (the 3800 is a bit of a pain to use).

Don.

[duraace]

The 3800 is a professional photo printer, not a text printer. Lasers are better.

[Desmond]

3800 ink set is not designed for printing on plain paper. Doing a nozzle check you with plain paper you can tell how the darkest black looks like.

It is understandable one doesn't like to make his computer a Christmas tree by hooking up unnecessary hardware. If you print just a few text document and don't want to have another printer, get some light weight inkjet paper, I mean the cheapest that they don't dare to name it photo paper. They should work well with photo black, not sure if they work with matt black. Once involve a ink switch, it is totally waste of money.

One problem being these paper is single sided, the non-coated side are usually not bright white.