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