Crane Museo's smart packing

[babakBoghraty]

Somebody at Crane was really smart and thought: hey why don't we crazy glue our portfolio rag to the cardboard roll at its end.  I cannot imagine why, other than to make it easier to pack.

So, I get to the end of my first roll of Portfolio rag in the middle of a 3m long print.  With everyone else's paper, the printer stops and gives you an out-of-paper prompt.  But not with this paper because it simply stays stuck to the cardboard roll.  Epson did not know about Crane's bright people, so they did not program their printer to stop printing when the paper is glued to the cardboard, so the print head keeps going over the same area, as ink starts to dripping down onto the print, the printer rollers and inside the printer.  By the time the printing is over, everything is wet with ink, including my floor.  There was a weird noise, too, and I wonder if it was the print head dragging on the over-tensioned paper.

I wonder, by Crane's logic, how are people to deal with this?  Are we supposed to get a cutter and manually cut off the paper from the cardboard as our last print is coming out of the printer?  Why don't you put some warning somewhere?

By the way, the paper is too hard, and D-Max and gamut are unremarkable.

[Alan Goldhammer]

By the way, the paper is too hard, and D-Max and gamut are unremarkable.

Which Crane paper did you print on?  My own tests show that Dmax is equivalent to other standard papers that I use.  Silver Rag and Ilford Gold Fiber were virtually identical.  Porfolio Rag and Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth similarly so though the Museo paper was a little better on Dmax.  I have found actual print colors to be comparable as well.  Regarding the paper being "too hard," I'm not sure what that means.  I do suspect that since it is 100% cotton rag, that does make a difference from other manufacturers.  Sorry for the roll paper snafu; I only print on cut sheets with a 3880.

Also, I think you will find the Museo folks quite responsive and you should probably send them your comment about the roll as they (and not us) can likely do something about it.

Alan

[colinm]

As Alan said, you should contact Museo. It's definitely not ordinary for the end of the roll to be glued in any permanent fashion to the core; it should feed through the printer.

[babakBoghraty]

Alan

The paper is Portfolio Rag, as mentioned.  

I thought it would be nice to warn other first-time users of this paper, since there is no way to know until you run into the problem.  I wish someone warned me.

I agree that D-Max and gamut are no better or worse than other papers, but the feel of the paper is much worse than, say Photo Rag.  By too hard I mean hard to bend, cardboardy feel that is difficult to handle because it curls so much.  Combine this with the lack of surface texture, and you get even farther from a fine art feel.  Sharpness is very good, though -- better than Photo Rag.  But this is all very subjective.

[Ken]

Somebody at Crane was really smart and thought: hey why don't we crazy glue our portfolio rag to the cardboard roll at its end.

Sounds like my first experience with canvas, several months ago. Since then, I've discovered that all of the nine different canvases that I have used are attached to their cores with incredibly sticky double-sided tape. I was surprised that the Epson 7900 wasn't "smart" enough to detect that the canvas had stopped advancing. Now I just presume that canvas is taped to the core and keep my eye on it when the "remaining media" display gets down to four feet. I haven't seen that yet with paper, but after your description, I'll be alert to it. Thanks.

[Alan Goldhammer]

Alan

The paper is Portfolio Rag, as mentioned.  

I thought it would be nice to warn other first-time users of this paper, since there is no way to know until you run into the problem.  I wish someone warned me.

I agree that D-Max and gamut are no better or worse than other papers, but the feel of the paper is much worse than, say Photo Rag.  By too hard I mean hard to bend, cardboardy feel that is difficult to handle because it curls so much.  Combine this with the lack of surface texture, and you get even farther from a fine art feel.  Sharpness is very good, though -- better than Photo Rag.  But this is all very subjective.

Big duh on my part as the paper type didn't register.  I don't have any experience with roll paper but it wouldn't surprise me that there is more curl to the Museo paper than Hahnemuhle.  For cut sheet paper I find that it doesn't curl in the box at all and it certainly is far less dusty than Hahnemuhle papers which is important with a sheet feeder like the 3880 where the rollers can collect dust.  You are right it doesn't have much texture but I tend to prefer that.  For images that benefit with a more textured paper I use the Museo Textured Art.  I use to use William Turner but it has so much dust on it you might as well where a respirator when using it.