Printing on Sihl glossy paper

[PrintingSoon]

I'm using my Epson L805 with OEM ink to print on Sihl glossy 280g paper and my results aren't what I was expecting.

I first selected Epson premium glossy and set the quality to high, this print had drops of cyan ink sitting on top of the photo and it was slightly wet. When it did finally dry it looks worse.

I once again selected Epson premium glossy and set the quality to medium, at first I thought it looked good but when I turned my light on I noticed marks on the paper. They almost look like dirty fingers have touched the paper, I've only touched the edges and my hands are clean.

I then selected photo paper glossy and set the quality to medium, the marks aren't as bed as in the second print but they are still there. I also noticed thin vertical lines when looking closely, almost like this: - - - - - - - - - - - these are visible on all three prints.

I took a photo to show the marks,:



Can anyone please recommend some settings to try?

Thanks

Edit: I've been reading and I've learnt the lines are roller marks, I will test printing on a different glossy paper later tonight and report back. I've only printed 18 pages with this printer and it's the first time I've seen the roller marks. I still don't know what the other marks are.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I think you are describing several different effects - cyan ink drops - print slightly wet - thin vertical lines -------.
- The thin vertical lines are most likely traces of the small pizza wheels at the exit of the print mechanism, all inkjet printers have those little wheels, their visibility depends on the type of paper, the amount of ink on the paper and your critical eyes. The visibility depends on the type of paper and the drying time, they are less visible after a while.

I'm using the L805 with the the paper selection 'Premium Glossy' and quality 'standard', there is only one other option 'high' which just increases the printing time, but you are not getting any increase of color saturation but just ink puddles on the paper with some darker colors. There is otherwise not much of a benefit.

Cyan drops - I must admit - I don't see any on the image you posted above - are they everywhere - only in unprinted areas - is there a particular pattern ?

And I'm not clear about the 'dirty fingers' in this image - is it possible to scan a part of a sheet showing these effects ?

Edit:

 

[PrintingSoon]

Thanks for your response. The cyan ink issue was solved when I changed from high quality to medium quality, this also solved the photo being wet.

I may have edited my post before you replied, it does appear these are wheel marks. The Kodak glossy paper (280g) and Fujifilm glossy paper (180g) don't have these marks. I've never seen them before using this paper. Tonight I will print on Kodak and check if this is now happening on all paper. I've only printed 18 times in total on this printer.

The cyan marks aren't on the attached file, the attached file is intended to show the other marks that are still present. I've described these as dirty finger marks but this probably isn't the best description. I will try to get a scan showing the marks tomorrow, for now I have attached the same file as above but with red circles around the marks.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Are these speckles already on the paper before you print - or after printing ?

 

[PrintingSoon]

I hadn't checked before printing the first three photos but as a test I took a sheet from the middle of the pack and it looks much better. Although it looks like there are small hairline scratches over the photo, these become more noticeable when moving the paper at different angles. This pack and another was already open when I received it, I will open a sealed pack and print a photo, I will also look for any marks before I print.

I just printed on my Kodak paper and there are no wheel marks. Is it possible to prevent wheel marks on the Sihl paper?

 

[palombian]

I have no such problems with Canon pigment printers on this paper, even on high quality (in fact I am very satisfied with this paper), but observed them on a low cost Action paper.
I can imagine wheel marks are formed by the ink being absorbed/drying too slow.
Most probably it is related to wrong ink quantity (maybe an Epson with less nozzles has to fire larger droplets ?).

 

[PrintingSoon]

I don't mind using the medium quality setting, the photo quality looks good, it's the marks that ruin it. On my last print the marks were almost gone but there are hairline scratches. I've just opened a new pack (different batch number) and I can see some marks on the first sheet. I then looked at a sheet of Kodak paper trying to find one mark and I couldn't. It's too early to print at the moment (5am) but once I can, I will print a few sheets from the newly opened box.

The wheel marks are also a big problem, I don't think I can use Sihl paper to sell my product. All it would take is for a person to see the lines, leave a bad review and my new venture ends before it ever got started. Hopefully there is a way to prevent wheel marks because I bought 1100 sheets lol.

I'm going to test printing with the "Epson Photo Quality Ink Jet" setting, maybe that will use less ink. I'm also going to try a print with "Thick paper and Envelopes". Epson state printing with this setting may take longer, if it is a drying issue maybe the slower printing will help.

@Ink stained Fingers Do you have wheel marks on photos you have printed using your L805 on Sihl paper?

 

[PrintingSoon]

I printed three photos from the new box of paper I opened, the batch number has a difference of 1000819. For the first print I used the following settings:

Photo paper glossy
quality: standard
thick paper and envelope setting: on
high speed: off
borderless: yes

The above has the same speckle marks and one big mark that looks different to the others. I noticed this big mark
before printing and I tried to take a photo of it but I couldn't capture it. I think the big mark is just a bad sheet as I hadn't seen a mark like it before. The wheel marks aren't as noticeable but can still be seen.

Edit: Below is a photo of the big mark, In the other photos I've printed that area is black (as it should be). I think it's just a bad sheet.




I printed the second photo using:

Epson photo paper inkjet
quality: standard
thick paper and envelope setting: on
high speed: off
borderless: yes

It looks like the wheel marks are even less noticeable but the speckle marks are still present.

For the third print I used:

Epson premium glossy
quality: standard
thick paper and envelope setting: off
high speed: off
borderless: no - this was my first bordered print using Sihl paper

The wheel marks look to have become more noticeable than the two above but not as bad as the prints yesterday.
There are still speckle marks on the paper.

If anyone can think of anything else to try I will gladly try it. At the moment it's looking like I need to sell about 1090 sheets of Sihl paper. Finding new paper is going to be hard, I just looked at Kodak and it's now gone back up to full price. Just my luck.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I checked my inventory of the Sihl/Aldi paper and don't see stains or inperfections at all of the type you are having.
How and when did you get it ?
There is nothing else you can do to reduce the visibility of the pizza wheels than using the best suitable driver settings which you alerady have tested out.

 

[PrintingSoon]

Thanks for checking. I did consider it may be a bad batch but the first box has this batch number: 44416867 and the newly opened box has: 43416048. The numbers aren't even close. I purchased from sihl-direct.de and received everything yesterday.

Looking at all the prints (I've used the same photo) I've noticed the marks are on the darker parts of the photo, mainly the dark blue/black areas. I'm going to print a light coloured photo and I'll report back.

Oh that's a shame, although the prints from earlier today do look much better compared to previous prints, as far as wheel marks are concerned.