Paper just won't go through printer

Sometimes, if you buy too thin inkjet paper or low quality printer paper, especially those paper which is not manufactured by company like Epson, Canon or HP, you'll sometimes find that the paper just won't go throught the printer.

I met this problem many times when using this kind of paper with Epson printer. And I usually hold the paper and push it to help it go through the printer manually. Printing on low quality inkjet paper, sometimes needs patient. And sometimes, using this holding and pushing method will drive you crazy cause for printing a few pages only will take up to 30 minutes or more. It's different from printing on plain paper because inkjet paper has a special coated side. And perhaps that's the disadvantage of low priced paper.

To solve this problem, besides holding and pushing, we can also put thick paper or card board to support the paper back. I mean put it in front of the upper supporting tray. And so that the paper will be push to front a bit. This also cause the paper to stand up a little more. This is a new tip I just found. If this won't work, you can also try bending the part of paper that will first go into the printer. Hope these tips help a little and work as the solution.

Don't use too thin paper

Paper used for printing we can buy at supermarket or any bookstore should be selected carefully for use with our printers. Do not look for very cheap and low-quality paper, especial 60 gsm. It's too thin to use with your printer. At least use 70 gsm.

For photo paper, the standard is usually 210 gsm. A little bit thinner is still ok, but buy one to try first. Because photo paper has a coated surface. Cheap photo paper is usually bended, so it sometimes causes a problem for the paper to go through the printer. Don't use paper with thickness more than 260, because most printers can't support very thick paper. You may use it at your own risk.

Tips on buying photo paper

If you want to print high resolution book cover, consider whether you want to print on one side only or double side. If you intend to print on one side, you just need to buy common single side photo paper. But if you want to print on both side, you need to buy "double side matte paper". This kind of paper is usually used for book cover, or for box-making purpose.

Usually Matte Paper is not glossy. So, if you want to have double sided glossy printing, you'll have to buy double side photo paper.

But if you just intend to print double-sided, but one side with glossy and another side with text only, you can just buy single side photo paper BUT make sure that the unglossy side is not smooth, because you can't print on smooth side (I mean uncoated smooth side).

Usually branded single side photo paper can't be use to print on the back side EVEN with text only!

This is because most ordinary inkjet printer ink will be smeared on the smooth back side (I've ever tried on Fuji Photo Paper with refill ink).

So, just buy a pack of photo paper and test. Nothing is better than to experience it yourself.

Printing on cheap photo paper

Sometimes, you can find some cheap photo paper at bookstore. However, to print with good quality on the paper, you need to know the way.
Here are some tips:

#1 Tip
Look at the glossy surface of the paper. Is it glossy enough? Is it bright white? If the answers are "YES", you may consider buying it. Paper with whiter surface will sometimes prints better, but please consider the smoothness of the surface.

#2 Tip
There are 3 kinds of refill ink normally used on printer (water based, dye based and pigment ink). If you are using original ink, then you don't have to worry. Just use it. I prefer dye based, cause it's cheaper with better quality rather than pigment)