Recently I purchased a new printer, an Epson Artisan 710. Previously I had been using an HP Deskjet 6540, and my reason for moving to an Epson was that the HP was incapable of printing a true 6" by 6" tile.

Most of my terrain printing is done on Staples brand bright white 110lb (199gsm) cardstock. The quality with the HP was pretty good on this cardstock - lines were crisp and sharp, and small details were faithfully maintained.

However, on the Epson, I've been unhappy with the prints on the cardstock. Colors are muddy, even when using photographic quality settings. I noticed over Christmas that Staples had a sale on their Epson brand Premium Presentation Paper Matte for 50% off, so I bought two 50-page boxes of it.

Yesterday I did my first test prints using a TLX Hinterlands grass and water tile, and I almost fell out of my chair. I used the exact same settings for both prints, but the Epson paper pretty much blew the Staples cardstock out of the water.

Epson on the left, Staples on the right. The Epson paper print is more vibrantly colored, and captures all the fine details that get washed out in the Staples paper print.



It's not all unicorns and roses with the Epson paper - the Staples cardstock costs about 6 cents per sheet, and the Epson paper on sale is about 17 cents per sheet (34 cents regularly). The Epson paper is lighter weight as well, at 167gsm. It feels about equivalent to 80lb card stock, but I don't have any 80lb stuff on hand to compare with. They have an Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte as well, at 192gsm, but it also comes with an ultra premium price.

I guess all the manufacturer stuff about paper coatings designed to work with their inks isn't total bunk? It's the only thing I can think of that would have such a HUGE difference in quality. This paper is too expensive for me to do all my TLX printing on, but I think I'll definitely be using it for Hinterlands and Garden of the Stone Speakers, both of which have very fine ground tile details.

Close up of the Epson paper print; notice the fine brush strokes on the grass tufts, and the crispness of the water details.


Staples closeup, for comparison:

Inks, especially Epsons, are much more paper sensitive than lasers, Still that is a surprising difference in quality.

Sorry to highjack this thread

As i'm running out of paper fast, I need to order some more. As of now, I've used Mondi ColorCopy 110lbs/200g/m² paper, which is fairly cheap to get for me. I have a Canon MP600 inkjet printer and the color it prints on this particular type of paper are a little bit bland and washed-out. I hope that anybody with a Canon inkjet printer could point me to a paper similar in strength which is also cheap. Canon itself only produces semi- or high-gloss photo paper in the required strength, and it'd be far too expensive anyway.

Here's a quick photo of a Dwarf Halls bridge, made with the Epson photo paper, occupied by my THREE heaviest pewter minis. No bowing!



And because it's a fun shot: