What does a printer do different when you tell it to print on different papers?

[xrunner]

My Canon ink jet finally got too bad for me to use any longer. I tried another complete head cleaning outside of the printer but it didn't help. It was just worn out. So today I got an Epson multifunction WF-2670 for $60 and it seems to be pretty good. I use it for the usual things and for printing out very tiny N scale railroad signs, and this printer is doing that job for me like the other one couldn't any longer.

But I was playing with the new printing menus and tried an experiment. I kept plain paper in the tray but changed the print menu to different types of paper, such as photo glossy, photo matte, and a few others. BUT - I did not actually change the type of paper in the tray. But as far as the printer "knew" it thought I had loaded these types of paper.

The thing was, I did not see any difference in the printout. Don't get me wrong, they all looked great. But it would seem to me that something must be changing in the way the printer prints according to the different selections ... or am I confused? 

What technically changes in the printing operation when you select different types of paper from the menu? Does it use the ink differently? I did some research already but could not find an answer to this question. I thought this group might know.

[Rerouter]

I would imagine its along the lines of allowed drying time, amount of ink used, and maybe something to reduce ink bleed,

A better thing to measure would be, did the printing time change?

[imidis]

Most likely adjusts the ink coverage, perhaps the dpi. #20 bond is pretty light so if you saturate it with ink it tends to wrinkle, photo glossy can take a bit more ink. On production printers picking the different types adjust the fuser temp and feed rollers for lazer as well as adjusting color emulation. Production ink printers the feed settings and also ink amount used aas well as the color emulation. Really depends on the type of printer. Usually don't see much ink in production printers because laser is more cost effective.

Presses are a different animal all together.

[Brumby]

Quantity of ink deposited.
Drying time.
Multiple pass.

I have observed photo printing on high gloss paper taking longer with the print head making more than one pass with the paper not advancing.  My thinking is that the print head is depositing smaller droplets and letting them dry enough so that extra droplets can be added.  Without a medium that is nowhere near as absorbent as ordinary copy paper, this process will allow the required coverage, without creating a puddle of ink that spreads.

Try putting in a piece of high quality gloss photo paper in and print with ordinary copy paper settings.  (Don't make it a big image - postage stamp size will be enough.)

[tooki]

I’m on my phone now, so no links, but look at the HP Journal archives. (Google will find them.) The articles on the development of the ThinkJet, DeskJet and PaintJet Printers lend substantial insight into this issue.

[sstepane]

If it is an Epson printer - quantity of ink. Try printing high gloss on office paper and you will see.

[tooki]

If it is an Epson printer - quantity of ink. Try printing high gloss on office paper and you will see.

It’s not that simple. It’s not only total ink quantity, but how it’s applied. Some papers absorb ink instantly and can handle large ink volumes all at once; others need it applied in multiple passes so that it cannot pool before absorbing.

Again, look at the HP Journal archives I mentioned. They describe this stuff in great detail.

[xrunner]

I did try it again. It took about 10 times as long to print when "Photo Matte Paper" was selected as opposed to "Standard Paper". What it's actually doing different inside I could not see.

[Brumby]

What paper did you use?

[xrunner]

What paper did you use?

The same paper each time - standard ink jet paper. I want to see the effect of the different settings without changing paper. It's just an experiment.

[Brumby]

Try it with high gloss photo paper.

[tooki]

I did try it again. It took about 10 times as long to print when "Photo Matte Paper" was selected as opposed to "Standard Paper". What it's actually doing different inside I could not see.

Basically, instead of laying down every drop that it could on a single pass (as done in normal print modes), it’s only laying down a small percentage of the drops on each pass (for example, 1/8th), and then passing over the paper that many more times (e.g. 8), advancing the paper a fraction of the printhead width (e.g. 1/8 again) per pass so the passes overlap to reduce banding, and also probably printing only in one direction instead of both, again to reduce banding.

The small steps reduce banding, but the fractional passes also prevent ink from pooling up before it has time to absorb. Pooling causes tremendous loss of print quality.