Large black areas on print using UHD MK ink and Red River Polar Matte C1S 17x25 paper causing visible platen artifacts on print

InkjetMall Customer Support ConeColor Inks & Printing
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I’m making large prints on a 3880 which have large areas of dense blacks. I can print on Red River Ultra Pro Gloss paper with PK ink everything’s fine. I want to print on Red River Polar Matte C1S with UHD MK ink but when I do I see horizontal bands that appear to correspond to the spaces in the platen under/near the printhead.

hiddenPublic - glickfamily shows both gloss and matte
as they’re coming out of the printer–it’s quite obvious something’s wrong with the matte prints (the 2nd & 3rd images–they’re captioned if you mouseover each image).

I’ve read another thread (which I can’t find now) in which @walkerblackwell said this was a printer issue which could be resolved by either putting the print in a 160 degree dry mount press for a few minutes or by doing something with glassine sheets which wasn’t clear to me.

Walker, if you could clarify the recommendation for the glassine sheets that may help me, but because this only happens with this combination of matte paper and UHD MK ink (I can’t try another MK ink at this point) am I wrong to think this could be a function of the profile or a driver setting putting too much of the UHD MK ink on the paper? FWIW your UHD matte ink looks so good on this paper that I really do want to find a way to make this work. FWIW I can feel the wavy “ridges” by rubbing my fingers over the back of the print.

I’ll also ask Drew at Red River but FYI I’m using RR’s profiles and the print driver is set to Enhanced Matte Paper with “high-speed” unchecked. I’ve tried changing the default paper thickness from .2 mm to .3 (it’s .actual thickness is 254 mm / 10 mils) but that didn’t change the behavior. The ink is UHD MK and the print’s on Red River Polar Matte C1S 17x25 paper.

Thanks,
Steve in Dallas

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interleave and roll the print after printing and let it dry rolled. This will flatten the platen ripples during the dry-down.

Alternative is just an old-school darkroom hotpress.

best,
Walker

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Thanks Walker. Coincidentally I had loosely rolled one of these 17x25 prints to take it to my office and when I opened it 2 days later (after it had sat for a week) the ripples were gone as if they had never existed.

I had also asked Drew Hendrix at Red River Paper (where I also get awesome support); he suggested reducing the ink saturation by -10% (up to -15%). Even at -10% the platen ripples are non-existent or barely visible, with no changes in the beautiful B & W prints I get with your matte ink and his matte paper. So thank you, when I apply both suggestions this problem is absolutely resolved.

Best regards,
Steve