Museo Artist cards

[TomUpton]

I have been working on these cards for awhile now and would like to find a printer that can print them in even a moderate stack. I have finally gotten good results with an Epson 2200 and an Epson R3000. It was grueling. The 2200 needs to be spoon fed one at a time. the R3000 is even more of a Diva and wants to do the front load routine, very time consuming. The Museo profiles had been really poor somehow tricking the R3000 into using PK. On matt paper this is underwhelming. Almost solarized. The new R3000 profile is good but the one-at-time thing is almost as painful as being asked to wear those white cotton gloves. The 2200 has a good look with, believe it, or not the Hahnemuhel PRduo profile. If only Hahanemuhel made nice cut-and-scored cards with envelopes. So the quest is to fine a printer that does not mind the heavy lifting of printing a stack of 8 to 10 at a time or more. I am not picky. Is there a printer that handles stacks of thick media?
Tom

[Alan Goldhammer]

You can use the sheet feeder on the Epson 3880 for multiple prints.  I've done this with the Museo cards.  The main issue here is the accumulation of dust in the the printer which can be a problem if you done brush off matte paper before feeding it.  I have in the past stacked as many as five cards for a print run which is my usually package set but most of the time just print them singly.  I've found that cards really don't sell well in these days of e-mail and I really only give them away as presents these days.

[na goodman]

When I had a handcrafted greeting card company I use to take the stock to a local Rapid Print (quick print) and he would test the stock for me to tell me if he could do it. I used to print in batches of 10,000 so I didn't want buy stock unless I knew he could print on it. I would take samples to a printer and see what they can do. I was only having the text done because we completed them at he studio. In regard to Alan's comment yes, greeting cards  have declined with email and such but I did just help an artist put together a line of cards and it has added hundred's of $'s to her sales. So, some people are still buying them or if they are marketed right, the consumer is framing them.

[abiggs]

I think the Epson 3880 is your best option. Have a custom profile made with a media type that doesn't require the rear sheet feeder and you are good to go.

[John Nollendorfs]

I got frustrated with trying to feed inkjet paper into printers years ago. The microporous surface tends to "glaze" the rubber feed rollers after a while, making sheet feeding tough. Then too, I found the combination of ink, paper, and labor too high relative to a wholesale income of maybe $1.25 to $1.50 each.

Having a commercial printer entailed investing lots of money into printed stock that may or may not move. The solution for me was the comparatively inexpensive laser printer line from Konica-Minolta with 9600 dpi resolution. I have owned three generations of these printers, the latest being the 4650EN. When working to their potential, they deliver prints that rival commercial printing quality. The main trick is to try out various paper stocks, until you find the one that prints well, and suits your tastes.

I order the paper pre-cut to 7x10" size and prescored by a commercial printer. My cost is about 10 cents a sheet. I figure the toner for the printer ends up costing about 15 cents a sheet. The printer kicks out card stock sheets at about 15 per minute--much faster than an inkjet, with rarely a misfeed in a stack of 30-40 sheets.

The quality does not quite meet what is possible with ink jet, but then the costs and time invested is considerably less. Also, it does not require printing hundreds of copies that may or may not sell. It's very quick and easy to experiment with finding images for customers.

Cards are not a huge money maker, but they do provide advertising for your photography business. Finding a way to produce them quickly and  painlessly is the key!

[nemophoto]

Not that this helps you that much, but I've had no problems (in the past) with my Epson 4000 feeding the Museo cards, nor have I had an issue with my Canon Pixmas Pro-1. I also had a 2100 which, again, did not seem to have problems with multiple cards/sheets. Which size are you using? I've used primarily the "large" 7.5x11 cards. One suggestion is to try the RedRiver cards. Their large cards are based on an 8.5x11 sheet, so easier to work with and slightly thinner stock. The only negative (and this is subjective) is that I like the slight texture of the Museo cards, but the RedRiver use the Polar Matte paper, which is very smooth.

[Mary K]

I regularly print Museo Artists Cards on my Epson R3000 using the Museo provided profile.  I have had no problem feeding the cards through the rear sheet loader, although I must load them one at a time or the printer will load two sheet at once on occasion.  Sometimes the paper will feed and pass through without printing, but this doesn't happen often. 

[afx]

the R3000 is even more of a Diva and wants to do the front load routine,

Which card size? I use the small ones and they stack feed just fine on my R3000.

The Museo profiles had been really poor somehow tricking the R3000 into using PK.

The profile has nothing to do with ink selection...
But, the default profiles they ship are iccv4, but if you ask nicely you also get ICCv2 profiles (I needed them for QImage Studio, which will take ICCv4 profiles without complaint but mess up horribly with them).

cheers
afx

[thewhitecabinet]

I've been using an R2400.  At first I was feeding the Museo paper in the top feed one at a time and then contacted Epson to see if there's a newer model where I could stack the paper.  They said the R3000 could.  As that's an upgrade to the R2400, I tried it again and it seemed to work, but then sometimes it just sent thru a sheet instead of printing.  I found that cleaning the roller helped.  I just use a paper damp paper towel while pressing the feed button.  It works for about 10 sheets.  On another site, they suggested using Rubber Roller Rejuvenator. Has anyone used this?  I'm bummed about your problems with the R3000 as I was going to buy one as I thought then I could just load 20 sheets in the feeder and let it rip.  Has anyone been able to stack the paper with it?

[I.T. Supplies]

Due to the R3000 being a great new addition to Epson's 13" line, it does that the small problem of feeding fine art sheets in a handful.  Mostly photo papers work better if 10-15 are in the feeder.

There is really no printer that can take thick papers like the Entradalopes in a handful at a time.  Even large printers, you have to feed one at a time.  This is just a problem or idea that the manufacturer wasn't really thinking about.  Most printers are used for photo paper/fine art prints or even canvas printing.