Epson Artisan - Deciphering Epson Paper Choices

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sherijohnson
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p.1 #1 · Epson Artisan - Deciphering Epson Paper Choices

Hi everyone! I am doing a bit of research comparing compatible papers, quality, prices, etc. for papers compatible with the Epson Artisan printers.

We primarily bought our printer to print directly on DVDs for delivery of photos and video to our clients.

The only paper I have tried so far with super fantastic results is the Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy, I love it when I need to print something that doesn't come out right with our office supply printer where we print our DVD cover inserts.

Now onto the real reason I am looking for papers. I am getting ready to do green screen event photography. For years I have been printing 4 x 6 for all of my events with my photo booth (I use other printers for this purpose that only print the small prints)... but I can see opportunities with the green screen to print larger and of course charge more for these larger prints. Hence the possible need for larger sizes.

I am looking at 8.5 x 11 inches - ideally I want to find a happy medium between a low price, an acceptable print for clients to keep, possibly frame, ideally these need to dry quickly and I would like to know the ink and paper is water resistant if possible.

I have been looking online, but today hopefully I will get a chance to go to the store and see what I can find. I would like to buy in packages of 100 if possible since that is the magic number for my events, I normally price things to include 100 prints.

Next concern is how many prints I might get out of the high capacity inks. I am still on the starter set of ink that came with our artisan 730. As you might see, my customer pricing has to take all of this into consideration and I haven't had the printer long enough to know how far the ink is going to go and of course my worst case scenario would be that I run out of ink during a party or event, I would not be happy.

Oh and I am not looking for recommendations or paper not made by epson, I already tried that once and the results were TERRIBLE, luckily the store allowed me to exchange the paper.

Any helpful info or insight would be so much appreciated. Thank you!

Jan 05, 2013 at 04:39 PM

a123
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p.1 #2 · Epson Artisan - Deciphering Epson Paper Choices

I would stick with the ultra premium paper, it works very well with the artisan printers. As far as ink, I use a continuous ink system in my 837 and it works very well, can't tell a difference between the epson ink and the cis ink.

CIS System

Jan 18, 2013 at 05:41 PM

sherijohnson
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p.1 #3 · Epson Artisan - Deciphering Epson Paper Choices

have you tried any of the other papers? two of them I was looking at are the "presentation paper matte" and the "photo paper glossy", I have not bought or tried them but I noticed they were available in 100 packs

I am definitely just sticking with the ink cartridges for ease of use and portability, I was curious how many large prints I might get out of them from anyone that has enough experience with one of these printers to know.

Jan 18, 2013 at 09:09 PM

RDKirk
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p.1 #4 · Epson Artisan - Deciphering Epson Paper Choices

I, too, use the printer primarily for discs. For that printer and my uses, I stick to the Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy or Strathmore's canvas sheets for anything going to clients and the Presentation Matte for some of my own things.

For the type of clients and purpose you're discussing, I think you'd better meet customer expectations with the glossy.

I find the Artisan series to be very conservative with ink compared to the earlier lower-end Epsons I've owned. I used CIS systems with them, but I haven't found a need to convert my Artisan to that. If you get into event photography in a big way, a CIS might be worthwhile.

Jan 19, 2013 at 07:25 PM

sherijohnson
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p.1 #5 · Epson Artisan - Deciphering Epson Paper Choices

thanks for the feedback and input, definitely time for some testing....

Jan 19, 2013 at 09:06 PM

sherijohnson
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p.1 #6 · Epson Artisan - Deciphering Epson Paper Choices

for the benefit that it might be helpful to anyone else, I picked up some of the premium photo paper glossy. I printed one out yesterday and it came out beautifully, it took about 2 minutes to print on the best photo setting. I happened to buy while it was on sale bogo.... so I felt like I got a great deal

Feb 05, 2013 at 06:55 PM

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