Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jul 22, 2022 12:45:00 GMT
I'm finding that the inkjet output, when set to black and white, looks just as good as the laser output. For color, as long as I use a Colorlok paper, the color output looks great. A have a few paper reams I bought that say they work on inkjet paper, but I get a slight feathering on output.
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jpotx113
Member
Posts: 460
What I collect: USA, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Machins, misc. WW
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Post by jpotx113 on Jul 22, 2022 20:03:20 GMT
I have used 24 lb and 28 lb paper. 24 is better than copy paper, but 28 lb is better. I think you'll notice a difference. I've also noticed that all the Accent Opaque brand paper is out of stock on Amazon. I wanted to buy a ream of the 32 lb paper, but it's only available from a 3rd party seller in a pack of 4 for an insane price.
FYI: new stock must be coming. I've been checking every day for 28# paper. The second time I checked today there wasn't the normal "out of stock" message. I ordered two reams with an expected delivery date of September 1st. A six week wait is better than getting nothing at all!
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jul 22, 2022 20:43:58 GMT
Ok,I'm starting to hit a point of commitment. Since all this paper is ivory/cream, you kinda of have to pick one and stick with it, since shades are different. Here is a pic with the antique opaque "warm white" (cream) on the left and the Staples 32 lb ivory on right with a piece of white paper all the way on the left
I'm not sure which one I like better.
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brightonpete
Departed
Rest in Peace
On a hike at Goodrich-Loomis
Posts: 5,110
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Post by brightonpete on Jul 22, 2022 21:06:43 GMT
I like the rightmost one, it is a bit darker.
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jul 22, 2022 21:41:41 GMT
I like the rightmost one, it is a bit darker. I think I do too.
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renden
Member
Posts: 8,710
What I collect: World W collector with ++ interests in BNA (Canada etc) and USA
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Post by renden on Jul 22, 2022 22:30:52 GMT
This thread is going.........................why keep posting as we all have our favorites etc etc etc etc
in friendliness - R
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Philatarium
Member
Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 1,032
What I collect: Primarily focused on Japan, but lots of other material catches my eye as well ...
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Post by Philatarium on Jul 22, 2022 22:47:48 GMT
In Andy's defense, I appreciate him sharing his thought process and decision options. Perhaps I'm strange, but I find it interesting. I hope he'll continue posting about it.
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jpotx113
Member
Posts: 460
What I collect: USA, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Machins, misc. WW
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Post by jpotx113 on Jul 22, 2022 23:38:03 GMT
I agree with Philatarium. I was wondering how much of a difference there was and now I know. And I must say, this thread was what got me away from using white paper.
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renden
Member
Posts: 8,710
What I collect: World W collector with ++ interests in BNA (Canada etc) and USA
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Post by renden on Jul 22, 2022 23:38:48 GMT
In Andy's defense, I appreciate him sharing his thought process and decision options. Perhaps I'm strange, but I find it interesting. I hope he'll continue posting about it. Same for me Philatarium ..............he should write a book on the subject With respect and a bit of humour (the only way to live)- keep trucking Andy andy Pastuszak - you know I read every post you put on TSF René
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jul 23, 2022 2:01:12 GMT
I spent a few years supporting the graphic arts department at Comcast Cable. I guess some things rubbed off on this IT guy. Something else worth experimenting with might be white paper that isn't bright white. If you could find something like 5% grey paper, that would be cool. The problem you run into though is that finding thicker colored paper is hard AND expensive. Reams of paper are also heavy, so shipping gets to be cost prohibitive. I'd love to know what type of paper White Ace uses. Their pages are white, but they're not very bright. Scott claims there National pages are 80 lb. text. 80 lb text is 32 lb bond. I'm a little more obsessed about this than most people. I have always been a fan of typography and fonts. Back when I was in college, Drexel University made me buy a Macintosh. I quickly learned about Pagemaker and Quark Xpress and was pretty hooked on playing with those tools. I will continue to ramble on, as long as someone is interested. The beauty of any online community is, you can choose to ignore a thread and just not read it. I think it's cool that someone with talent (of which I do not claim to have) can created and distribute a stamp album that looks as good, if not better than a commercially printed album. I'm not offended renden. Everyone has their own interests. Doing more experimentation today with the Staples Ivory Paper, I was not very thrilled with the output on my inkjet, which is not surprising considering that it's labeled as laser printer only paper.
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Post by dgdecker on Jul 23, 2022 4:52:05 GMT
My thoughts :
i have always been a basic white paper guy until I joined this forum. I have learned of so many options out there for me. I was totally against the thought of using colours until I saw great results other members have posted.
i Certainly found out what colours I would NOT use. For consistency and comfort I have used the same paper for most of my collection that I have mounted. I have plans to do next album of mount on something different. I know what country it will be but not the paper.
The paperweight is a fun area to consider as well.
I enjoyed reading how other collectors arrive at a choice. To see another person’s thought process intrigues ne and gets my mind rolling,
I have seen some colour choices that really made me think. A few I certainly would not use. We all will have likes, dislikes and preferences.
As long as the collector who made the choice is happy with final result.
Thanks to all who have contributed to this string. I will use as a guide in my decision on my next album.
David
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brightonpete
Departed
Rest in Peace
On a hike at Goodrich-Loomis
Posts: 5,110
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Post by brightonpete on Jul 23, 2022 13:41:41 GMT
Everyone is different, I certainly am. I not as nerdish as Andy, but I did look around for something and found a paper supplier with some great cardstock. The darker shade of green was it. I suppose being in the military and wearing green had a bearing on my choice. Unfortunately, when I last surfed to their site, they are closed. The had an email to ask questions, but no reply. Up here in Canada, it is more difficult to get a decent paper supplier, and now I guess Staples is my supplier now. Their green cardstock is much lighter, both in shade and weight. But it is available.
I like coloured paper, as it makes the stamps pop. I did use black mounts, but then I was using black quadrilled cardstock 50 or so years ago. Now I print my own custom pages on coloured paper. Where I have collections of certain types of stamps (Christmas, Flower souvenir sheets, postage dues, airmails etc) I use different coloured papers. Why yellow for Christmas, who knows. Maybe it's all the yellow snow I see on my walks everywhere in winter!
But everything seems to work for me.
I find Andy's threads on paper and fonts interesting, and hope he continues! Hey, I've had a various Mac's since 1984. Just for personal though, but I know all about fonts and a bit on typography!
Peter
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jul 23, 2022 17:50:43 GMT
Here's something odd that happened to me last night.
I am TRYING to get this 32 lb paper to work for me. In order to do that, I need to use my laser printer. I am printing double-sided and have the margins set up so that the top, bottom and outside margin are all 1/4 inch and the inside margin is 1/2 inch.
I go to print the pages double-sided and the front of the page has the right (outside margin) slightly bigger than the left (inside) margin. On the back, the margins look fine.
On the inkjet printer, the pages look fine.
So then I redesign the pages so they have 1/4" margins on all sides, make a PDF and print out the pages. And I'm getting the same issue.
Tried Adobe Reader, Foxit PDF Reader, Apple Preview, Firefox and the Edge Browser. They all print exactly the same.
I updated the printer driver. I changed the printer driver to use generic Postscript, and even generic PCL. Still having the same problem.
So, then I thought maybe it was Scribus. So, I used a different tool to make a PDF and had the same problem. Then I thought it was MacOS. So I fired up my Linux laptop. Same problem. My Windows 10 computer did the same thing.
My laser printer is a Brother HL-3170CDW. It's long been discontinued. The firmware on it is up to date.
Today I am going to try to print single-sided and then flip the paper and print single sided on the other side, and see what happens.
I wish I had another Postscript laser printer around to test on. But after all this testing, it looks like it's definitely some kind of printer issue. I can probably get a black and white laser printer for cheap. But I just don't have the space to set up a THIRD printer in my house.
I did spend some time last night after dealing with this fiasco to look into 32 lb cream/ivory paper that's US Letter size, and I did not have a lot of luck.
It's frustrating when what you see on the screen does not match what comes out of the printer.
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jul 23, 2022 19:11:03 GMT
Ok, I solved it, and you're not going to believe the problem. It's the Staples 32 lb laser printer paper! I've never seen anything like this. I print on regular white paper and the margins are exactly what they're supposed to be. I then print on the Antique Opaque 28 lb paper, and everything prints just fine. Then I print on the 32 lb paper and everything is way off. I've never seen anything like this before. I wonder if there is some kind of optical sensor in the printer than the ivory color is messing with. I'm going to do some more experimenting. I have some 40 lb white paper I can use to test to make sure it's not the paper weight that's causing problems.
EDIT: I'm wrong. It's the double-sided print setting. If I print single-sided and print the odd pages only, then they print just fine on any computer. Then I just put the paper back in and print the odd side, and everything looks good. If I just load the printer with paper and choose "double-sided," all sorts of stuff gets screwed up.
Well, mystery solved. Paper other than the Staples 32 lb seems to exagerate the problem more than other papers, but it's still there with the other paper.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,346
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jul 24, 2022 11:45:54 GMT
I did a test of while back with some mounts applied to an album page to check long term effects so I placed a page in our attic space during the summer. After several months of high humidity and hot (well over 32 C / 90+), The paper curled severely and lacked flexibiliy just like in a laser printer. Given the feel, I believe the cause was the lack of moisture in the paper.
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Post by paul1 on Jul 24, 2022 12:25:41 GMT
but we wouldn't normally put a stamp collection in such an environment, would we?? :-) If you put an adhesive on one side of most 'paper-like' materials then as the adhesive dries it pulls the edges of the paper sheet causing a curl toward the direction of the pasted side - the adhesive pulls. Generally, the amount of 'pull' is proportional to the amount of moisture/water there is in the adhesive - whether we use spit or a wet sponge (the old fashioned sort used in offices) - initially, the moisture causes expansion, then contraction as the adhesive dries and the moisture evaporates - adhesive often dry 'hard'. Bookbinders experience this problem when putting adhesive on one side of card or paper - they get round the problem by doing something similar the other side to counter the pull - plus they tend to use either pva or other adhesives with almost zero water type moisture. The obvious solution - though not to everyone's taste - for the storage of stamps, is the stock book.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,346
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jul 24, 2022 12:57:38 GMT
I was testing the environmental effects on stamp mounts applied using a glue stick. Temperature extremes are a good way to accelerate aging especially for adhesives. I only had 4 or 5 mounts attached so do not believe the curling was not related to the mounts.
The mounts stayed adhered to the page and they popped off when removed. The left little tell tale indications I wanted to see if the glue would migrate into the paper.
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jul 28, 2022 19:01:00 GMT
The thing about glue sticks is they have a really high pH, and their moisture content is zero. Very safe for all sorts of archival purposes.
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