Finding the Best Paper for Printing my Maps and Pondering Lamination

[Coriolis]

I've had poor results printing my maps to date. My first attempts used a regular printer and regular printer paper with unaltered images of digital maps that I'd made. They came out very dark and muddy. When I ordered them as photo prints from Wal-Mart, the results were a bit better, though they still looked a bit dark and muddled because they were printed at about 100 dpi. I've had academic research posters printed professionally at places like FedEx and UPS, but their printing rates were too steep for me. I'd like to sell some prints of my maps (or entice an RPG company to add them to their product line), but I need to find an economical way to produce them. Most of my maps these days are made from the get-go to be printed at 300+ dpi on 8 1/2 by 11", so I don't think I need a special printer.

I had just about given up on it when someone who commissioned me to make a map showed me his result from printing this image. Even though he printed it out at around 200 dpi, it looked fantastic. When I asked him, he told me that he had it printed on a Xerox 11x17 machine at a local school. I can take some credit for the result, as I've made a conscious effort to make my map images lighter, with better contrast. That said, there's one component that I've been ignoring: the paper.

I'm interested in trying out some photo paper in a standard inkjet or laser color printer. There seem to be a lot of choices here: glossy vs matte vs luster finish, Canon vs Epson vs Kodak, and a range of "quality" adjectives. The quality adjectives don't seem to make much difference in the reviews I read on Amazon; the consensus seems to be that words like "Premium," "Ultra," "Pro," and "Platinum," seem to exist to justify costing more per sheet; only in one case did I see any significant difference in the review.

Finally, to laminate or not to laminate, and what kind of lamination tool is best for retaining the image and finish of a print? I'm inclined not to laminate my prints and leave that to the end-user, but some people really seem to like lamination, especially if they're shelling out more than 5-10 bucks for a print. Lamination seems like something that would require a trip to a print shop (which I generally don't want to do); are their cheaper alternatives?

[Midgardsormr]

First, if you're planning to sell prints, make the cost of production part of the price of the print. Don't let yourself say "professional printing/lamination costs too much." That's part of the cost of doing business, particularly if you're printing on-demand.

Also, printing at home may seem more economical, but remember that ink costs more than dinosaur blood, and decent paper is also pricey. A print shop gets these things at wholesale prices and therefore might be able to provide prints for a price similar to what you can do at home if you do a proper cost analysis. Laser might tilt the cost in your favor if you already have a color laser printer available.

I personally prefer a matte finish for maps because I anticipate handling and interacting with them a lot. Glossy is far too sticky for my tastes, and if you laminate, then you're actually adding a second layer of gloss anyway, which can interact in an undesirable fashion. Brand doesn't matter so much, although you might get a tiny benefit from matching the brand of your printer. I've never been able to detect a difference, but a printer manufacturer will sometimes use off-brand paper as an excuse not to help you when you call support. The adjectives are just marketing bull; you're right that they don't mean anything. The thing to pay attention to is physical qualities—weight and surface, primarily, although there are some hidden qualities like the tendency of the paper fiber to soak up ink or wick it in unpredictable ways. That's usually only a problem if you're using very cheap paper. If it's photo-quality, you shouldn't have to worry.

My advice is to pick up a package of affordable photo-quality paper and make some test prints. Again, figure the cost of testing into the price of your product.

There are letter-sized home laminators available. They cost somewhere around $120 at an office supply store. You can also buy lamination sheets, but they take a steady hand to apply, and it's expensive to make a mistake since it will probably destroy the print if you try to remove it.

[soggymuse]

I can't speak to the printing part because I've had a lot of issues finding a printer myself (not for maps, mostly for making my own Filofax printables, but I did also try to print an A4 copy of my world map for my story bible and it did not go well with my old printer. The new Epson XP-520 did a better job of the black & white sketch version (no textures, just hand-drawn stuff) but I haven't tried it on the full-colour texture map yet). I'm also not experienced with commercial maps from either the buyer or seller's end, so I can't help with your decisions in that regard.

For lamination, though, I just bought a Monolith laminator for about £15 on Amazon (this one here). That should be enough to get you started, but you'll probably want to get an industry-ready laminator if you mean to make any serious money with your prints.

I also got a 100 pack of Zoomyo 160 micron laminating pouches for about £10. The resulting laminated pages seem kind of flimsy so you wouldn't be able to write on them without a surface to write on, but it's plenty for my Filofax or if you're printing stuff to hang on a wall, or you're printing something for desk use. 100 pouches will last me a good long while, too, but it's the cost of the pouches you'll really need to worry about in the long term and I don't know if you'll find the return worth it. (It works out around 9.5p per pouch for the pack I got. It costs more if you want thicker sheets, and you'll need a much better laminating machine for that, too. The one is only supposed to deal with 125 micron sheets but did well with these, though, so you might be able to get away with it.)

I haven't used my laminator for full sheets yet because I mostly got it to make my own magnetic bookmarks from sticky notes a la this tutorial in YouTube and reusable shopping list (again for my Filofax). I did have to push the sheets through a few times to get all the bubbles out, but I imagine part of the problem there is all the gaps between the sticky notes. I don't think a full sheet of regular A4 (I think that's what you mean by the 8.5 x 11") printer paper would need nearly as many passes, but thicker photo paper might.

Either way, I would recommend getting a corner chomper if you are going to laminate. Laminated corners can be a serious health hazard to your (or your buyers') hands if you don't soften them up some how.