Was Curious... Tried Writing On Epson Premium Glossy

March 16, 2014

Was experimenting with some of my Epson Premium Glossy photo paper from a few years ago. Taking it very slow and light.

The first line I tried the sheaffer snorkel with the 14K gold nib using noodler's black eel, I can move as long as ink starts flowing but then may take several seconds just to get something to move again (it's gloss after all), and I don't want to move without the ink otherwise it'll scratch.

Second line was with my very wet Baoer 507 with platinum carbon black, and that had the same degree of resistance to get any flow moving.

Then I tried my X450 with the Goulet 1.5 Stub Nib. If I try to move immediately it'll scratch/stop-in-its-track, but if I touch the nib to paper and wait about half a second then move once I start seeing a blot of ink come thru, it flows very well, just have to wait each time I lift and re-touch the paper.

I started to write 'noodl' with a Jinhao 611 with noodler's black eel, but that was near impossible so I switched to my Jinhao X750 with a Goulet extra fine nib, and that was just soaring, no waiting for ink, no scratching, just touch-n-go for the rest of the labels and lines and dried very quickly.

So ya... that was interesting. Also what I find particularly interesting is the 'red' glow around where the waterman black soaks into the glossy paper. (That and how much using a stub nib on glossy makes it look like Arial Rounded lol).

I also put a couple drops of water on each of the areas just to see how it would bleed (two of them are of course 'waterproof').

So bit of randomness there, not something I plan on doing on a regular basis unless I feel like screwing up one of my nibs.

http://static.karlblessing.com/reviews/paper/epson_gloss_1280.jpg

Original 600DPI scan

PS: Both the Noodler's Black Eel and Platinum Carbon Black can be "felt" on top of the gloss, where as the waterman intense black has no surface texture at all, as if completely absorbed under the gloss layer. I expected as much of the carbon black since it's pigmented black, and Epson's Durabrite ink does exactly the same thing on premium gloss (as opposed to their dye-based inks), but wasn't sure which way the black eel was going to end up.

March 18, 2014

Interesting. I hadn't broken out any glossy paper. I have tried on two different weights of two different kinds of laser printer paper, both very smooth and heavily sized. And Rhodia and Clairfontaine tablets, a Moleskine journal I had lying about, and a Whitelines notebook. Whitelines has less sizing, more tooth, and dries more quickly, but isn't as ultra-smooth to write on.

Sounds like the glossy coating interrupts the capillary action needed for the fountain pen ink to flow, and that some inks and nibs manage to overcome this one way or another. Or, you know, I could be guessing wildly.

March 18, 2014

Interesting. I hadn't broken out any glossy paper. I have tried on two different weights of two different kinds of laser printer paper, both very smooth and heavily sized. And Rhodia and Clairfontaine tablets, a Moleskine journal I had lying about, and a Whitelines notebook. Whitelines has less sizing, more tooth, and dries more quickly, but isn't as ultra-smooth to write on.

Sounds like the glossy coating interrupts the capillary action needed for the fountain pen ink to flow, and that some inks and nibs manage to overcome this one way or another. Or, you know, I could be guessing wildly.

I used to have it down to a science when I was an epson and canon printer rep, but that was before I had any fountain pens.

PS: Epson Matte (the one where you can print both sides, but one side is bright white) is horrible to write on, stops the nibs in it's track I Wouldn't even attempt it. It's probably the same thing as trying to write on cardboard, except it feels like it would just simply be thick inkjet paper, but that is not such the case. Neither paper are really designed for writing, but I thought it would be interesting if either was capable.

But the same paper makes excellent business cards though...