Seeking high-performance paper

[PosterChild]

[sorry if this topic is redundant, I'm not a daily visitor]

For the past few years I've been printing with acrylic inks on either 80# cover weight Cougar Opaque. I like it better than French for print qualities and economy, but the paper tends to warp/buckle a little over time in the climate here in DC. Humidity kicks this paper's ass, as does tension of the ink on the surface. I tried 100# too but wasn't much better, and is a pain to trim down (I don't have a guillotine).

What do you like printing on? Would prefer to order by the full carton from a larger distributor such as Xpedx.

thanks,
Anthony

[crosshair]

You pre-rack to acclimate, right?
One of the reasons I use cougar 100# is that I find it far less susceptible to distortion during a run, than other papers.

I also use Wausau 80# Bright White Cover. It's a bit toothier and warmer-toned than Cougar.

You could always print on a coated stock (Tango Advantage C1S...) but that's a lot less appealing for posters IMO.

[robschwager]

With this horrible FL humidity, i pre-rack for at LEAST 2 days...

[PosterChild]

Phew, I learn something new every time I come here. I hadn't heard of pre-racking before now, I take it that means laying bare paper out for a day or two prior to printing? I have only about 30 slots in my homemade rack, will be printing a run of 200 or so prints, I guess I could gang 7 or so sheets per rack—think that would work?

Crosshair, I might try the Wausau 80#, I like a natural tone rather than white—I'll take a look, thx.

[crosshair]

There's your problem right there...that, and you need a real drying rack.
Pre-racking = very important.

You can gang up and partially overlap paper to acclimate, in a pinch. maybe shift it over after a day.
If it's really humid...2 days plus, like Schwager says.

[Hrabovsky]

I swear by Cougar 100# Cover. Nice and smooth, thick, but not too thick, and can handle 2-sided jobs if you gotta. Rack it for a minimum of 24 hours. You can always flood with a transparent base or other solid 'paper' color before laying down the first color of your print.

I'm getting ready to do a run of 2-color 7" EP jacketss 2-up on 18x24 that calls for tight registration, trapping, and a bunch of other shit I don't normally mess with, so I'm flooding my white stock with white ink after racking it. Then subsequent runs will be ink on ink and any major deformities will be somewhat uniform and locked in before color one goes on.

Took a year of trying to figure out why sometimes my first color was somehow slightly and irregularly mis-registered when the second color went down, but the second and third colors would register. Then someone laid the flood trick on me. Been fine ever since.

[Hrabovsky]

Clothesline + Wooden clothespins.

[Francisco]

Are you looking for racing Stripes?