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Taking Up the Canvas on the HP Designjet Z3100

I imagine the HP Designjet Z3100 isn’t the only printer with an automatic cutter that doesn’t want to cut canvas. Afterall, canvas is tough material, with all that weave, warp, bias and such. If you try it (inadvertently of course, as I have done), the cutter jams up pretty quickly because the canvas just drags and bunches up.

So, you have to trim the canvas manually. To do this, you press the paper advance button several times to move the roll forward until the rear edge of the print clears the front of the printer. Then you can trim it off (I use scissors). However, you then need to get the canvas back into printing position. Interestingly, there is no button to pull the canvas back into position (I wish there was)! So what do you do?

For a long time, I thought the only procedure was to perform a paper “Unload”, pull the roll out the back and then reload the roll.

However, there is an easier way. Just lift the big blue handle (ignore the warning if you get one), reach around the back and rotate the spindle hub by hand until the front edge of the canvas is back into printing position. Then lower the big blue handle. The printer will do a quick paper check and will be ready to print again. Simple.

Happy printing.

This entry was posted on January 8, 2009 at 17:40 and is filed under Digital Art-ifacts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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3 Responses to “Taking Up the Canvas on the HP Designjet Z3100”

  1. Marc Roman Bravo says:
    January 9, 2009 at 11:12

    We just got one of these printers Monday. Can you recommend a canvas brand? Also photo paper sheets? I got a pack of Kodak ultra (5 star) gloss 11×17 & the printer doesn’t like it. My little canon home printer likes it, but the z3100 puts some kind of lines across it that can only be seen in light at a certain angle. I would never sell anything with lines like that. The sample paper roll from HP worked great, but we’re going to need sheets.

  2. Brad says:
    January 9, 2009 at 12:20

    Hi, Marc.

    I have obtained excellent results with several different canvas brands on my Z3100, including Breathing Color and Epson PremierArt. I settled on Breathing Color Chromata White exclusively for all my art jobs because it is affordable, it profiles well on the Z3100, it is certified archival and it doesn\’t use any optical brighteners. For utility jobs (placemats, banners, etc.), I use Breathing Color Economy Canvas.

    It sounds like perhaps the surface coating of your Kodak paper is not compatible with the Z3100 ink. Paper makers may claim \”inkjet compatible\”, but this doesn\’t guarantee the paper works with every inkjet printer. A paper might work well with dye-based ink might and fail miserabily with pigment-based ink. I find this is more pronounced with glossy paper, less so with matte paper.

    We have 3 HP printers that all use the HP Vivera pigment-based ink, including the ZZ3100. I tried some Kodak glossy photo paper and the ink just wiped right off!

    While you can be confident that HP-branded paper will work properly with HP printers, you must be prepared to waste some money if you want to use non-HP papers. The first step is to be sure the paper is designed for pigment-based inks.

    For example, I took a gamble on Epson Exhibition Fiber satin finished sheet paper because it is designed for pigment-based inks and I heard good things about it. Luckily, it produces outstanding, photographic prints on the Z3100. I also get outstanding results with Epson Premium Luster on rolls.

    Cheers!

    Brad

  3. Marc Roman Bravo says:
    January 9, 2009 at 12:29

    Thank you very much, Brad! My bosses are counting on me to master this printer for photographs as well as signage & banners–asap. The whole attic office is now wallpapered with test prints ;)
    I appreciate your sharing of your experience

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