Why does nobody talk about how much paper weight matters in plotter prints?

I was messing around with a new project last week and grabbed some cheap 20 lb bond paper for a test print on my HP DesignJet. The lines came out fuzzy and the ink bled everywhere. I figured it was the plotter acting up so I spent 45 minutes cleaning the heads and recalibrating. Then I remembered a guy at a drafting supply shop told me once that the paper weight makes a huge difference for fine line work. I switched to a 24 lb vellum finish paper and the difference was night and day. The lines were sharp and clean like I had upgraded the whole machine. Has anyone else run into this where paper weight goofed up your prints?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy_anderson18d ago

Oh yeah, "the paper weight makes a huge difference for fine line work" is completely true. I grabbed some 20 lb for a quick architectural sketch and it looked like wet tissue paper, lines just bled into each other. Switched to 28 lb and everything snapped into focus, plotter worked way better than I thought it could.

karen_sanchez4918d ago

@amy_anderson you are so right about the 20 lb being garbage for detail work, I made that same mistake once and it was a total mess. 28 lb is basically the only way to go for anything with a plotter.

mason_lopez18d ago

Did your friend ever try using a laser printer on 20 lb? Mine swore it would be fine for some flyers and the toner just flaked off, looked terrible. He ended up having to reprint everything on 28 lb anyway, so yeah, lesson learned for both of us.