Printer Settings for Folio Text Pages

Hi Brooks,
I am really enjoying working through your Folios and PDF Publishing video workshops. I am well on my way to completing my first folio.
I was wondering how you go about finding print settings for making the folio text pages using standard paper. I am not familiar with how to make high quality printed pages when using paper that does not have a readily available ICC profile or suggested settings. In my case I am using Neenah Oxford 80# Cover stock and an Epson R2400 printer. Can you offer some advice?
Thanks & Best Regards,
John Motzi


Are you thinking about printing images on the Neenah paper? If so, I agree you'll probably need and ICC profile — which you would have to develop yourself. On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend it. These kinds of art papers are not intended for image printing and without the kinds of coating that allow for the fine dots used in image printing, I think the results would be pretty bad even if you could use a profile that would give you accurate colors. I'm not even sure you could do that.

We use text paper like this for text only — typically black text only — for which a profile really isn't necessary. Black is black. You can probably use any old settings for black text and get away with it.

Of more importance might be the gap head distance (if the text paper is really thick or really thin). If you use a PDF workflow like we do, it is a good idea to check the box in the PDF printer dialog that forces all text to black.

Hope this helps.

Brooks

Comments

[Neil Enns]

I personally use the same paper for the text pages as I do for the image pages. Yes, it's probably a bit of overkill for plain text, but for me it's important that all the pages in the folio have the same feel in the hand.

Since folios are such a hands-on experience for the viewer, I didn't want them to have the feel of two different pages in the package.

With all the papers the same I can use the same profile for the text as I do for the images (although as Brooks points out, it doesn't really matter since black is black.)

[Brooks Jensen]

I've done it both ways. Sometimes it does feel better to have the text pages on the same paper stock as the prints. It's more expensive to do it this way, but when it's right to do so, I don't hesitate.

For folded signatures, I find the art paper is a better choice. That being said, we looked at three dozen or so papers, brands, textures, and colors to find the best aesthetic compliment to the two papers we print with for the images. Most of the paper companies will sell you sample packs, so it's easy to order a bunch of different ones and then compare them to your printing paper.

[John Motzi]

After some experimenting I discovered that for my Epson R2400 printer, the most important variable in determining quality for printing text and line art on Neenah Oxford 80# Cover stock is the Drying Time setting (Main...Advanced...Paper Config...Drying Time). I find that using a setting of 25 gives me very crisp output for text and line art. The quality improvement over the standard drying time = 0 is especially notable on the cover sheet which has large type and a small logo. The downside is that it takes 10 min to print each side of an 8.5 x 22 text sheet. For the other settings I used the ABW driver, VFA Paper setting and printed from Acrobat.