I thought it would be a cool idea to post what printer settings everyone uses and what results they have to form a knowledge base for new users. Then they can come in to the thread and set everything without having to guess.

Post in this style (you can copy and paste this directly into your reply):


[b]Printer Model:[/b]

[b]Cardstock Brand/Type:[/b]

[b]Settings:[/b]

[b]Tips:[/b]

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<b>Printer Model:</b> HP Photosmart 7960

<b>Cardstock Brand/Type:</b> Georgia Pacific 110lb.

<b>Settings:</b> "Best" quality (600dpi), HP bright white paper

<b>Tips:</b> Don't use the photo gray cartridge (#59). Also make sure not to choose any of the "matte" paper settings, as this causes the printer to print very coarsely.

Sure, I'll play:

Printer Model: Epson Stylus Color ESC/P2

Cardstock Brand/Type: Georgia Pacific 110lb

Settings: 360 dpi, High Speed OFF, Photographic Setting ON

Tips: Well, since I don't think anyone is using such an old machine, the only thing I will say it will print many, many pages before running out of ink. Also, I have experimented with the envelope lever settings. For brighter colors on banners, etc, the lever should be up for envelope use. If you wish to keep the wood a tad more realistic (more brown), then it should be down for standard paper. I do wish the black was darker, but I think it has to do with the paper more than anything.

Also, when using cardstock, I noticed that there is a smoother side. You should print on that.

Printer Model: HP DeskJet 6122

Cardstock Brand/Type: 110# GP Cardstock

Settings: I just leave it alone....

Tips: Have plenty of extra cartridges around...


EDIT: Upon looking at my paper stack, I realized I was using GP, not Wassau....

Sure, why not?

Printer Model: Canon PIXMA ip3000

Cardstock Brand/Type: Wasau Exact Index 110lb

Settings: I usually use the Standard print setting, with auto color adjustment. Had good results setting the color adjustment to slightly lighter, too.
Tips: Refill kits! These cartridges are really easy to refill, since they're just a tank with a sponge. The print head is separate. Since it's a 4 cart system (CMYK), it's easy to check your levels (carts are also clear plastic, so you can see the actual levels in them). You can also get cheap carts (as well as refill kits) from www.ink-refills-ink.com

Terrific idea Raloc! I put a sticky on it

Printer Model: Lexmark X5150 (referbished)

Cardstock Brand/Type: Georgia Pacific 110lb Cardstock

Settings: Quality/Speed: Better, Paper Setup: Automatic (plain)

Tips: Don't bother with the "Best" setting in quality. You'll wind up oversaturating/warping your cardstock and eating up ink with little to no visible quality gains.

I found that by letting "Paper Setup" choose "Automatic" that the print clarity greatly improves. Colors are more vivid and prints are sharp. DONT select "Cardstock" as a paper type.

Unless you are mounting your pages on foamcore or another backing ALWAYS use at least 110lb cardstock. Your models will live longer and stand up to some abuse.

Printer Model: Epson Stylus CX3100 (all in one)

Cardstock Brand/Type: Tablex System Board White (?) 200gsm

Settings: Quality: Photo (normal for image printing), Paper: I have been using the "Matte paper heavyweight" setting but am thinking of not bothering as per Denny's suggestion, as I can notice a bit of washout and the textures appear darker...

Tips: I don't use ink refills as I have been able to purchase aftermarket cartridges from computer swap meets for about half the price of the refilled/refurbished cartridges. That said, the cartridges seem to run out fairly rapidly but this is because I am not the only one who does excessive prininting in my house.

Thanks!

Printer Model: HP Photosmart 2610

Cardstock Brand/Type: 110# Wassau Cardstock, 110# GP Cardstock

Settings: Various (see below)

Tips: None special, really


The Photosmart prints so incredibly detailed that I usually put it on the Less Ink setting (2 of 5), and have recently started printing even on Less, Less Ink (1 of 5) - and the prints still come out very nice. A tad lighter, but thats okay.

In fact, when on Less, Less Ink and Normal, the print comes out pretty smooth - when its on Best or even Maximum DPI, the print rivals the laser printing I've had done. The laser printing is still a little sharper, the but to tell the difference you have to look really closely - closely enough that the difference isn't that big a deal, although I still like laser printing because it doesn't get ink on your hands.

Printer Model: Lexmark X85 Printer/Copier/Scanner

Cardstock Brand/Type: Currently Georgia Pacific 110lb cardstock, have used at least 2 other brands with no visual difference (just a price difference).

Settings: Normal Print Quality/Occasionally adjust light & dark settings/Standard paper size setting (originally wasn't aware that there was a cardstock setting on my printer).

Tips: The only benefit to having this printer over others is the ability to scan and copy, a very large benefit for an overworked GM/DM.

Cons: This may be because my printer goes through about a month at a time without printing, but I can only get one refill out of my cartridges, sometimes none, and Lexmark cartridges for obsolete machines are a nice chunk of change (found one deal that allows me to get one new color and B&W cartridge together for just under $100 Canadian, refill kits run about $30 for B&W (3 refills) and $30 for color (one of each color). On average I go through about 150 -300 sheets of printed product with one new cartridge, and about 50-150 on the refill.

Printer Model:Konika/Minolta Magicolor 2300 DL

Cardstock Brand/Type:Georga Pacific 110lb.

Settings:Turn on autocenter, and cardstock paper type.

Tips:The 2300DL is only rated for 90lb cardstock. It will jam on output if you don't give the paper a helping hand on the way out. Switching the printer mode to cardstock actually stopped all the jamming on input.

Autocenter: The margins on the printer and acrobat reader are not entirely the same. The easiest way I found to fix the problem is to autocenter the image and turn off the fit to page functionality.

--Chris

I agree with Denny, great idea.

Printer Model: HP Photosmart 7350

Cardstock Brand/Type:Georgia Pacific 110 lb Card Stock

Settings:Auto

Tips: Find a cheap source of ink cartridges.

Printer Model: Canon S820

Cardstock Brand/Type: Wasau ExactIndex 110

Settings:

Paper: Standard
Auto Rotate and Center: On
Quality: Standard
Color: Manual
Submenu
ECM: Off
Graphic
Light

Tips:

Feel free to play around with settings, but beware of higher quality (Sucks ink with no perceivable quality improvement unless you stick your face up against the sheet), Auto and Photo color produces green tints, Dark washes out colors.

I just realized I hadn't added mine. Well, I'll add another to the pile:

Printer Model: HP Deskjet 990cse, professional series

Cardstock Brand/Type: Wausau, Exact Index, Heavy Cardstock, Smooth Finish, Acid Free, 110 lb.

Settings: The HP has a fantastic auto-sensor that has always been spot-on.

Tips:Don't fill the paper tray entirely, or it may feed two sheets at once, even cardstock. But even then, it still won't jam.

Also, keep your old color carts that have run out of yellow (the most used color by far). Use them to print ice caves!

Just a warning about the Epson CX4600 or any CX printers: Don't Buy. I got one for my father and the thing sucks ink like Dracula in a blood bank. We are on our third set of cartridges (that's over 100 bucks) in less than six months and he hasn't even gotten a ream's worth of use out of it, while my old Epson Stylus will go 800 pages. I think he printed about 250 to 300 pages. I put in new cartridges a month ago and the unit hasn't been used since he went to Europe. I decided to print one page and the magenta and yellow are clogged. I do three cleaning cycles. Still clogged, but the computer shows full tanks to half tanks. WTF???

I went back to CNET and other review sites and you will be amazed how the positive reviews changed to negative ones due to this. I am calling Epson demanding a replacement model. Luckily their headquarters is only 20 minutes away.

Black and White Printing

Printer Model: Xerox Workcentre Pro 416

Cardstock Brand/Type: Viking 160 g/m2 A4

Settings: Printer (None), PDF (Page Scaling: None, Auto Rotate and Center)

Tips: None


Colour Printing

Printer Model: HP OfficeJet G55 Series

Cardstock Brand/Type: Viking 160 g/m2 A4

Settings: Printer (Print Quality: Best), PDF (Page Scaling: None, Auto Rotate and Center)

Tips: None


I also have another colour printer i use at home - will post the info for that later (enough skiving from work now - back to the grind stone)

b]Printer Model:[/b] Canon i850

Cardstock Brand/Type: Wausau Exact Index Heavy Carstock Smooth Finish 110 lb.

Settings: Media Type: Plain Paper, Pring Quality: High

Tips: You might be able to get away with standard for items that do not need a lot of detail, like the tracks in Streets of Mayhem, but for items that do, use HIGH. (And get a book, a beer, what ever your fancy is because on High, it takes a while to print)

Printer Model: Okidata C5300

Cardstock Brand/Type: Oki card stock, 110 lb

Settings: Cardstock, color-correction off

Tips: Even if you're printing one sheet, load several as the printer tends to jam on small stacks. Always feed cardstock from the multi-purpose tray, and be sure to open the back output to make as straight a feed-path as possible.

Pros: Remarkably cheap cost-per-page, and the ability to print 2-3 reams of full-color printouts before changing toner. Sharp text. Glossy finish.

Cons: Glossy finish on areas you'd prefer to be matte (i.e., ruins and stone.) Ink can flake when folding, so more edging is sometimes needed.

Printer Model: HP PSC 750
Cardstock Brand/Type: Georgia Pacific 90lb.

Settings: Best quality

Tips: If your paper feed gets low (less than 20 sheets) the printer has a tendancy to grab two sheets at a time. I'm not quite sure how many pages I get of full color but I do know I usually replace my catridges up to twice a year.

Do not print from any HP on draft as the alignment is always off, no matter how many times you go through and align the cartridges.

Note on Epson printers: If your epson is old and you are having clog problems the only way to fix this is to get a new printer. This is a known issue amongst the older epsons (not sure about the new ones). This will also happen if you don't use your epson printer for a good while. I'm in the navy and after coming back from a 6 month cruise I tried uing my printer and it was clogged, I replaced the cartridges and it still acted clogged. I took the machine apart and cleaned it as best I could and it still acted clogged. This is apparently because epson has their print heads in the printer instead of on each cartridge like HP does. This is of course an older epson stylus 650. When it did print it had some awesome quality.

Question: Where do you get the 110lb cardstock? I usually shop at wal-mart and the only weight I"ve found there is 90lb.

Bruce

I ordered my cardstock directly from Okidata. You can slo try your local Staples/OfficeMax. Our local store carries Georgia Pacific 110 lb cardstock in a variety of colors.

I get mine at Office Max. I am a bit strange in that I really like the light grey cardstock too. White is just too bright.

I feel that the white gives the best final image, as it lets the colors be their most vibrant. But, muted colors could give you a different feel from the same set, by simply switching paper.

Office Max here, too. Wasau brand.

Thanks, I appreciate this. I prefer Wal-mart because it is so much cheaper but if I want the best for what I can get I'll have to break down and go to office max/depot and see what they have.

Bruce

Printer Model: HP 970CXi

Card Stock Brand: Any 110 lb I can get my hands on

Settings: I just use Normal setting


One big oops I found out was I was not centering the image when printing in Adobe . No wonder my Tower wouldn't line up right. I would lose about an 1/8 of an inch on some printouts. Now that I center the image everything looks as it should.

Thanks again for this great stuff.

Printer Model:
HP Photosmart 7260

Cardstock Brand/Type:
Hammermill 110lb Card Stock

Settings:
Default

Tips:
Double check it says 'Actual Size' not 'Fit to Paper'

SR.

Hi there,

In Thailand we have several retail franchises who are specialized selling modification kits for inkjet printers. You bring your inkjet there, and for a fee they will hack it by putting external ink bottle tank connected to the printer's noze inside through tiny plastic tubes.
You can have a look at this here ->
http://www.inkman.co.th/home.php

The advantage of this system is that these external bottle last a long, long time and the print cost per sheet is divided by more than 10 times. The quality is as good as with cartridge as far as I can tell and I have been using it intensively for about a year without any problems.

I was curious if you guys had come across similar system in your country, and what's your experience with it.

Wasn't there something similar mentioned in another post? I think it was called "infinite ink"? But I never really looked into it, although its a great idea.



my printer
Printer Model: Brother MFC-3360c (6 in 1), HP 1410 psc, Cannon Pixma ip 1700

Cardstock Brand/Type: 110lb of whatever brand is on sale

Settings: Normal or fast normal

Tips: I started with the hp printer, the print quality was great and the colors printed basically the same as on the screen. But it had only the 2 cartiges so the cost of printing was huge.

The cannon also has 2 cartiges, and it prints the colors off. The grey stone comes out tan. Although until it ran out of ink, I did use it to give me some addition varity in the textures.

I bought the brother because it had 4 cartiges, each color only costing $13, and I got the 6 in 1 printer itself new for $60. It also has some issues with the color. The redish wood color in the CWU hoarding comes out plain brown. Actually most of the stuff I print comes out somewhat muted. And I found out by accident that the ink isn't color fast. However it is the cheapest printing option I have. And while the colors look muted the sets still look good.

In the pic the grey courtyard stones are the hp, the brick room with the crates is the cannon, and the exterior stairs and tan courtyard stone is the brother.

URL: http://wwgallery.pcinfoman.com/displayi ... ?pos=-4401

In one of the other pics you can see the wood varition. The catwalks are the brother, the ladders the hp.

I haven't seen this type of tank system in the U.S. Wish I did ... I like the looks of it. The system I use has six bottles and you can see the tubing coming out of each. Looks tacky but it works.

Being a NOOB to all of this. I still havent even really gotten STARTED with paper modelling.
(I find it a bit irionic that the 'beginner's guide' doesn't include... 'a decent, working printer'... in it's 'required tools section. THO, it DOES include 110lb cardstock.)
*HEH HEH*
("Whacha gonna do with all thta cardstock paper, if you aint got no printer, kiddo?")
This post has been VERY useful to me. Because I am STILL hunting down a decent printer to use.
THIS has given me some idea what to look for.
THANX ALL!

Btw, any 'advice', for when I head out and try to buy a printer? What should I be looking for that will help out with my paper modelling? Which do you guys feel is the best printer, for the job?!!

One piece of advice when buying a printer... buy a power cord at the same time. Seriously. They used to include the power cord with printers, but realized they could save money by leaving it out, so you don't get one these days. It sucks to drive all the way home, pull it out of the box, and realize you have to go back to the store... which of course would be closed by the time you got there.

Arabin

I have tried to optimize the WW prints for this printer:

Printer: Epson CX6400
Computer: Mac G4 with OSX10.2.8 (printer properties may differ between Mac+PC)
Cardstock: double sided matte coated 170g or 200g/sqm (Avery/Zweckform)

Best settings found: (use standard set of cartridges! Not photo cartr.)
Paper: Normal Paper / Foto / fast (same as Fine quality setting)
Colour calibration: Gamma 1.5 / Brightness +25 / Saturation +25 / Magenta -10

I compared 23 prints with varied settings using a wall sample with dark, light and grass textures from the Hilltop Encounter

To get best results with the Hilltop Encounter set I had to further reduce black by 10% prior to printing. I guess the colour palatte used for that set was a bit overly dark.

The -10% Magenta seems to be necessary in general but black had not to be reduced for other sets (MiniChunk, Caveworks).

A few tips for Epson printers --- they are excellent (the best imho) when it comes to colour brilliance and colour truth. (and I,ve tried many brands like HP, Lexmark and Canon)

However: if you turn it on/off too often it will use a lot of extra ink. Leave it on as long as you think you'll be working on a project, even over night. Don't turn it on/off several times a day!
You can get rather cheap licensed ink cartridges, so you don't have to rely on high priced originals. However, I would not recommend refills, since you can never be sure if those were done properly. The disadvantage of the Epson system is the permanent printing head afterall. If this gets clogged up by faulty ink/dust the printer is for the trash.

In Germany I usually buy Pelikan or Geha cartridges. I guess there will be similar products around the world.

Just thought I'd share my 2cts ... Hope it will help someone along the way to the best model ever