I really wanted to like the Lasal matte and Entrada papers, but I can't seem to get a good print out of them.

Getting pixilation, best term I have, on the Lasal Matte, which Entrada seems to handle fine.

The pixilation seemed okay with a Pro-100 on the Lasal matte, it showed up more on the Pro-1000, maybe a feed issue, but the Pro-100 had more trouble with color accuracy because it was dye based. I don't see feed issues on the other papers I have been printing.

The most glaring issue I have is both Lasal Matte and Entrada are extremely weak in the red spectrum when I compare to screen and test prints made on Canson Infinity matte papers. They also maybe seem shifted to blues a tiny bit.

Canon Pro-1000 with correct ICC profiles in use with a 16 bit tiff test file (same as seen used by Moab's Evan Parker) at relative colorimetric setting.

Mike,
Thanks for all the info.

1- You are correct- the dye ink of the Pro-100 reduces gamut and sharpness on matte papers, so I would expect the results you are seeing.

2- Is the 'pixilation' you see on the PRO-1000 prints more of a banding (paper feed) or small blotches (more random, possibly in the paper coating)

3- Regarding the reds, have you soft-proofed the test image to see what colors are out of gamut? Traditionally reds and purples are the most difficult colors to reproduce in inkjet printing, even with the addition of red and blue inks (in the PRO-1000). You also want to test print using perceptual rendering as it may create more separation between those tones, giving a better appearance to the reds even though you haven't changed the gamut.

Thanks for replying,

The Lasal Matte 235 does give me banding, that I can't notice on the Entrada. To me the banding looks like an issue in the paper feeding through the printer, unless there is another reason for it.

It reminds me of the cheap little Canon Inkjet I had for printing generic documents, it left white lines on absolutely everything it printed. Stepping up to highest quality print seemed to help it, but I am already printing photos at highest quality.

The banding seems worse on 5x7 prints than it does on 8x11. The 5x7 is more curled though, and I could see that contributing. I've been trying to flatten out the stock, but it really remembers the curl it has.

To try to describe the pixilation better, it seems like an issue in how smoothly its being able to make the gradient as it transitions between whites and blacks. Its almost like it isn't blending properly. Maybe the ink not absorbing smoothly? Kind of reminds me of iso / color noise. It really affects the lighter colors. Seems odd to say, but I think the Pro-100, color gamut aside, provided better prints on the Lasal matte than my Pro-1000 is. Maybe I will fire it back up and run a 5x7 through it with the same test image and see what results that gives.

The colors do appear to match quite closely to the soft proofing on monitor. I do have a monitor calibrator coming as its been some time since this monitor was last calibrated, but I don't think its off by much. Reds are still not as intense in the print though.

The drawback I have for testing, is I only have 5x7 sheets left of the Lasal Matte, and only one 8x11 test sheet left of Entrada Rag Bright. I looked at setting up a custom media type for the Lasal Matte, but Pro-1000 can't run its feed or color calibration on 5x7 sheets. My sample pack didn't have any Somerset, so I can't comment on how that compares.

I've got a lot of 5x7 sheets left, at least 20+ that I would like to figure out how to fix the banding and color gradation. It might be that this matte paper just isn't quite for me, but I would like to isolate if there is a printing issue or a user error. I feel like I'm going cross-eyed examining these test prints.

I really like the Slickrock and have a bunch of it on order, as well as some 5x7 Juniper Baryta to try out. I haven't seen any print issues with the glossy papers.

Printed the test image to the pro 100 on Lasal matte, colours are more off, but the blending of colour is much better.

Taking the chance of doing a custom paper print feed adjustment on 2nd side of already printed paper of Lasal Matte, it really improved the banding that I thought was due to paper feed, and that seems to confirm it.

Still doesn't really seem like the ink is absorbing as well as should be expected. Played with Ink amount setting, and higher settings result in slightly more saturation than lowering the ink, which seemed to improve contrast a little. Doesn't seem to improve the pixilation or blotchy effect towards the ends of the color bands, especially the lighter tones.

For the heck of it, I tried turning vacuum feed off, and to my surprise, I got more contrast in the blacks with no other change. I get that the vacuum could pull the ink into the paper, but I was surprised in the difference.

Hi Mike,

I don't know if your printer supports setting a time delay between each pass of the printer head, but I find this really helpful when using matte papers. I'm printing on an Epson 9900 and it lets the ink settle into the paper before the next printer head pass.

Hi Phyllis

I thought about that, I don’t see a setting in the Pro-1000 for that.

So no other help from Moab?

Mike,
It is difficult to do advanced troubleshooting here in the forums, you can email me and we can keep working on this- evan at legionpaper dot com.