Post by Andy Pastuszak on Mar 20, 2021 15:59:04 GMT
I've been experimenting with paper, as of late. I have both a Brother HL-3170 laser printer and an Epson ET-2750 inkjet printer. I thought the Brother had died, so I bought the Epson EcoTank, but then I managed to bring the Brother back to life.
Given my choice, I would rather print out stamp pages on the Inkjet. The pages don't curl, and there is ink on the page, instead of toner, which is really just melted plastic.
But inkjets and my choice of paper, 32 lb. cotton paper from Southworth do not get along. I used to have an Epson inkjet printer with pigment ink, and that worked great on any paper, but it used expensive cartridges. When the Ecotanks came along, I saw cheap ink in a large reseviour as enticing.
When I used the cotton paper in the inkjet, it would bleed and things would become fuzzy. With the ink being dye based, this made perfect sense. So, I decided to try as bunch of different papers to see what I liked. I'm not going to post any pictures. I thought I would just type up my impressions.
HP Professional Business Paper Matter Finish
This paper is 45 lb bright white paper and does a really good job of printing on both laser and inkjet. But it's expensive at $32.49 for 150 sheets. A little more than I want to pay for paper. Performance was equally good on inkjet and laser. But nowhere on the package does it say that the paper is acid free. I checked HPs website, and they definitely say "acid free" for their acid-free papers, so I have to assume it's not acid-free paper. Price per sheet: 21.46¢.
Southworth 32 lb. 100% Cotton Paper
My current go-to paper. It's not the smoothest in the world. On laser, everything looks crisp and clear. On inkjet, the ink bleeds, so things look fuzzy. But that's expected with an uncoated cotton paper. Cotton paper is also naturally acid-free, since cotton is pH neutral. This paper costs $17.49 for 100 sheets. Price per sheet 17.49¢.
Staples Premium Color Laser 32 lb Glossy
This paper also performed equally well on inkjet and laser. The paper is more semi-gloss that glossy. It looks nice and is incredibly smooth. It feels and looks kind of like photo paper, but feels much thinner than I would expect 32 lb paper to feel. The package says the paper is acid-free. The paper costs $18.49 for 250 sheet. 7.4¢ per page.
Staples Premium Color Laser 32 lb. Matte
I bought a pack of this and it was damaged, so it will be going back to Staples. This paper printed will on Laser, but I thought it looked just a tiny bit "uncrisp" on Inkjet. And I mean a really tiny bit. I only noticed it because I took a magnifying glass to the page. The paper is listed as acid-free, and it feels a little bit thicker that t he glossy version of the paper. Cost is $21.49 for 500 sheets, or 4.3¢ a sheet
Staples 67 lb. cover stock
This is a much heavier paper than any of the previous papers. The package says it's acid-free. The output on the laser printer was great, though you need to make sure you use the heavyweight paper setting for your printer driver. That will apply a lot more heat and make sure that the toner sticks to the page. But this also causes the paper to curl a lot. And it's impossible to do double sided printing automatically on this paper. It will jam in the printer. On inkjet printing it was OK, but not as great as I would have liked it to be. The ink didn't bleed as bad as the cotton paper, but it did bleed a little bit. $21.26 for 125 sheets or 17¢ a sheet
Neenah Bright White Premium Cardstock, 65 lb.
I picked this paper up this morning at Office Depot. It's 65 lb. cardstock and package says it's acid-free AND lingen free. It printed equally well on laser and inkjet. I didn't see any bleed on the inkjet output. The paper is thick, so you will need to use the heavyweight paper setting on your driver to get the toner to stick to the page, and it will curl the paper quite a bit. It's also too thick for automatic double sided printing. It will jam up the printer. The paper costs $19.29 for a pack of 250 sheets, or 7.7¢ a sheet.
My Personal Preference
I'm heavily leaning towards the Neenah cardstock. It's nice and thick, doesn't have any ink bleed, and is acid and lingen free.
Notes About Archival Paper And The Use of Cotton Paper in Inkjets
Cotton paper is the gold standard when it comes to archival paper. Legal documents are printed on cotton paper, and most standard agencies recommend cotton paper for archival use. In order to successfully use cotton paper in inkjet printers and get crisp and clear output, you need two things:
1. A cotton paper that is coated
2. An inkjet printer that uses pigment based inks.
Coated cotton paper is VERY expensive. It's the kind of stuff professional artists use to make prints for clients. I tried to find some, and it was going for as much as $10 a page in some places.
As for archival paper, there are various standards. The most rigorous one requires that paper be 100% cotton, have no whitening agents added to it, and be buffered with, I believe 20% sodium hydroxide. The paper must be high pH.
Other standards allow for wood pulp paper, but it must be acid-free, lingen free, and buffered.
Archival papers are not cheap. I think the average stamp collector should be fine with acid-free paper. if you can get lingen free paper all the better. But trying to chase down buffered paper at a reasonable price is probably not worth the effort.
