Konica Minolta 2300DL printing on photo-quality paper

[schmidt29]

Does anyone have suggestions on printing photos on this 2300DL ?
Sometimes known as Konica-Minolta 2300DL, other times as a QMS 2300DL.
Colors look great on ordinary laser paper but I've tried various brands
of photo-quality paper, both glossy and semi-glossy, and I get crappy
results each time.
Not much help from tech support at Konica-Minolta, which has been
great up to now.
Thanks.

 

[One Million Pictures]

The problems are several with this printer.
Firstly it cannot handle greater than 160 GSM paper. Most good (laser) photo
quality is 225 GSM
Second is the fuser. It simply doesn't get hot enough. You can partly
overcome this by selecting "Thick Stock" regardless of using plain paper or
not. When you do this you get enough heat to melt the lubrication in the
toner an produce a sort of semi gloss finish.
You might also care to find some gloss 'Xerox' brand 120 or 160 GSM paper.
Otherwise try 'Neusiedler' brand colour copy paper. Whatever you do... DO
NOT put inkjet paper through it!

 

[Arthur Entlich]

If you are using inkjet paper in your laser printer, it is NOT appropriate.

Xerox and other company make semi-gloss and glossy laser papers.

However, the Minolta printers have a quite low gloss toner, giving very
matte results. (I happen to really like it that way!) Using semi-gloss
or gloss paper doesn't look great because the exposed areas will be
glossy while the toner covered areas will be relatively matte.

By far, the best answer is to laminate matte surfaced papers or card
stock, using semi-gloss or glossy surface laminates. You will usually
need to laminate both sides, because the laminate adhesive is thermal
and tends to cause a lot of curling otherwise. If you buy laminate in
quantity and use 3 mil or less, it can be almost the same price as the
"photo" paper, and it is well protected.

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

This is very useful information.

I use a 199GSM card/cover stock (matte) for my color laser printing
(currently done by a contractor on a professional machine).

Is the problem with heavier paper the inability of the fuser to heat it
fully (and thus the toner doesn't adhere fully)? Or is it transport
problems with slippage, or both? I wonder if to speed up output they
didn't sacrifice paper thickness and if it could be adjusted via an
internal or firmware/software adjustment.

On this printer does switching to the "Thick stock" option slow the
paper transport at the fuser so it has more time to heat, or does it
seem to boast the heating level of the fuser?

Other than creating a glossier result, does using the "Thick stock"
option alter the output in other ways, such as smears, loss of
sharpness, change of color fidelity, color density, etc?

I wonder if any 3rd party toner might work with a different fusing
temperature (lower)?

Art

 

[One Million Pictures]

This is very useful information.

I use a 199GSM card/cover stock (matte) for my color laser printing
(currently done by a contractor on a professional machine).

Is the problem with heavier paper the inability of the fuser to heat it
fully (and thus the toner doesn't adhere fully)? Or is it transport
problems with slippage, or both? I wonder if to speed up output they
didn't sacrifice paper thickness and if it could be adjusted via an
internal or firmware/software adjustment.

On this printer does switching to the "Thick stock" option slow the
paper transport at the fuser so it has more time to heat, or does it
seem to boast the heating level of the fuser?

Other than creating a glossier result, does using the "Thick stock"
option alter the output in other ways, such as smears, loss of
sharpness, change of color fidelity, color density, etc?

I wonder if any 3rd party toner might work with a different fusing
temperature (lower)?

Art

Forget third party toner in a Minolta... Absolutely!
Choosing 'thick stock' reduces the printing speed from 4 pages per minute to
about 1.5 pages per minute. If ever you try to print several copies on thick
stock without setting the thing... It will result in toner being spread all
over both sides of the paper. You'll have to do a thick stock run with a few
sheets of plain paper to clean it.

I haven't had slippage up to 250 GSM. What happens with thick card is it
gets drag marks on it from forcing it through the tight paper path. A much
better (A4) printer for card is a Lexmark. They are a few hundred dearer but
paper handling is up to 225 GSM and the photos 'look better' than from a
Minolta 2300. I have both 2300 and 7300 Minolta printers... They were the
edge of the pack when they were put on the market a few years ago. Now, they
are sadly in need of a re-design to get them up to specs.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Thank you for the description and advice. I have been entertaining a
color laser for the convenience, and as much as I like the Minolta
output , and its nice matte surface on color laser bond paper, I need to
be able to put heavy stock through.

I recall looking at the 7300 some years back, quite a beast size wise,
but the 12 x 18" ability was so nice looking.

It's a pity that Minolta hasn't addressed the thick paper issue
thoroughly, because I still like the output. The Lexmarks I looked at a
few years back were not up to the Minoltas, but perhaps things have
improved. I've been very disappointed in Lexmark inkjet, so it always
makes me nervous.

What's interesting is the Minolta color copiers handle heavy stock
rather well. Too bad that hasn't trickled down into the laser printers.

Thanks again, I think you might have saved me some headaches.

Art

 

[m6nar]

This may sound a bit mickey mouse but I now print a fair bit of stuff
on really thick paper on my 2300DL by manually helping to pull the
paper out of the printer. The stupid thing is it prints fine on say
300gsm paper but it only fails to drop the paper into the output
tray.
By gently pulling the paper when it appears out the top has allowed me
to make much more use of the printer.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

How well do the toners adhere to the paper when you use heavy weighted
papers? How even is the result of the toner image when you pull them
out from the fuser?

Art

 

[Art]

Is it laser paper? If not you are looking for trouble.