Sophie Johnston: Printing on Glossy Paper Smudges Myth

The myth behind the topic: Printing on Glossy Paper Smudges

For decades, people with in-house printing machines, often the most popular inkjet technology printers, encounter themselves with a very old and common situation, the printed ink smudges on glossy paper.

There are many reasons why this smudge printed ink could be happening and we will talk about some of them shortly.

Reason #1: Cheap Inkjet Printers

epson-hp-good-printers

There are many good and reputable printers (like the brands on the image above) but sometimes a bit pricy, people the go for other cheaper unknown brands. Watch out for that!

If you buy a very cheap inkjet printer, you could first read the specification on what paper capabilities the printer has. Some of them are only capable of printing on regular plain paper materials which are really light and easy to manage but don’t try to overload them with a heavy stock glossy paper or you will see problems right away.

These printers have really small electric motors to spin the paper thru the ink cartridges for ink input. If the paper is heavier than the printer specification, the printer might throw a few layers more of ink than necessary, causing a delayed dry up or even a never dried printed sheet causing it to smudge as soon as it touches air.

Reason #2: Cheap Glossy Paper

inkjet drop over paper while printing

China is very famous for providing us with very cheap materials for all sort of industries including printing as well. Ink, toner, and paper are a most for a print store to function and China knows that.

Sometimes we find a better deal on a glossy paper coming from China than a regular (US) locally produced paper or maybe a famous paper brand. This price discount comes out with a price in some cases and its called “quality”. A glossy paper could drink any inkjet printer ink really nice and smooth if fabricated, packed and shipped correctly. If you saved a few bocks on any of these steps for a cheaper final product, you will end up with lower quality and probably defective paper stock that will not help with your home inkjet printer causing immediate ink smudge.

Reason #3 Paper Stock Meant For Different Printer Type

smudge-paper_uncoated_matte_gloss-difference

There is a huge difference between printers manufacturers, among most popular printer providers we find HP (Hewlett Packard) and Epson. These are just 2 different inkjet printers with the biggest difference in the world.

The biggest difference on these 2 companies home base inkjet printers is that Epson prints waterproofs and HP doesn’t. This is a huge thing when printing anything from a photo, flyer, document or even a thank note.

So probably, a certain paper was created for certain inkjet printer and we don’t know about it. So a solution for this is to read from your printer provider to see which paper company they recommend for their printers.

Reason #4 Give it Time to Dry Before Smudging

Last but not least, sometimes it just needs time. Maybe its too cold or humid outside and it needs a little extra time to settle down the ink into the paper to avoid prompt smudging.

Thanks for reading!