New lab : selection of papers for Epson 3880 and 11880

[MartinG]

Hi all!

We have just opened up a new digital printing lab for artists and I am in charge of selecting a few different papers to try out these 2 new printers.

We have a budget of 700-800$ to start with and do tests, then we will buy the ones that we like the most. I have always used Canon paper on smaller Canon printers, and have tried Moab's and Hahnemuhle test pack papers, but for now we would like to stay with Epson papers. This is going to be a lab for visual artists, so I guess luster will be the most used paper. We'd like some backlight and tyvek materials to try out too.

I was thinking about getting a 60" Premium Luster roll to try out the (almost) full width of the printer, and maybe a 44" roll of another kind of paper, and different papers in 17"x22" sheets.

Based on your experiences, what would be a good paper selection to start with for that amount of money ?

Thanks!

Martin

[Atlex.com]

Epson Luster is one of our top selling luster papers.  We also have our personal brand of luster papers called Simply Elegant that is very comparable to Epson.
We do have Tyvek and backlight media within the major brands.  Feel free to check us out as we do have samples available for many of the products.

sales@atlex.com
800-327-2822

[Inanda Images]

PK Standard proofing paper is Epson Lustre, main printing paper is Gold Fibre Silk on my 7900
MK Enhanced Matt for proofing, Breathing Color Elegance Velvet and Lyve canvas on the 9880
The 3800 seems to spend more time turned off than anything else.

When clients examine the prints exhibited in the gallery space here they tend to like what we offer and tend not to ask for other media.

Mark Prins
Inanda Images
Whitehorse YT

[hugowolf]

My most selected papers by artists, in order
Canson Rag Photographique (more than all the others together)
Hahnemühle German Etching
Canson Baryta Photographique
Harman Gloss Baryta
Arches Aquarelle

What reason have you for wanting to go with Epson papers?

Brian A

[MartinG]

Hello everyone,

thanks for your suggestions.

We would prefer going with Epson papers (+ MOAB and Harman) simply because they have made all their paper profiles for our 11880 and 3880 printers. It simplifies things for us since we don't have the calibration tool to make our own custom paper profiles. We will see what the clients ask for and re-evaluate after a short while I guess.

We have bought a 60" Epson premium Luster and a 44" backlight trans rolls since these will be needed at some point and seem to be good sellers in most artist's photo labs. I can't wait to try the papers from our Epson, Harman and MOAB sample packs but I didn't have time yet. This is quite exiting to start from scratch with new equipment since I wasn't used to large format printing. Each big print coming out from the printer brings a big smile. Thanks again for the suggestions, I'll check these out over the holidays.

Martin