"Choosing The Right Paper For Your Inkjet Printer"

By: Scott Bourne

NOTE: This article assumes you use an Epson printer but will have value for anyone who uses most modern inkjet printers.

A recent student hired me to set up her digital darkroom. I helped her select the right equipment and software, drove to her house, unpacked everything, installed it and went through rudimentary Photoshop and printing lessons.

We scanned her first slide and printed to her brand new Epson 2200 using Epson's Premium Luster paper. It looked gorgeous. She was thrilled. I left her house smiling. I had helped another person cross over the digital divide.

But a few days later I received an urgent late-night e-mail. If it were not for the fact that e-mail is purely electronic, I'm sure it would have been tear-stained. "The printer isn't working! My prints have streaks down the middle." To make a long story short, after some telephone and e-mail troubleshooting it became clear that I would have to return to see the problem for myself. Did the printer malfunction? Were all the settings right in Photoshop? Why would the machine work but leave streaks on the photos? Well, rest assured good citizens it was nothing so dramatic. My client was simply printing on the wrong photo paper.

STARTING RIGHT

Simply put, selecting the right inkjet media will make all the difference in the world in your inkjet prints. The paper you use on an inkjet printer determines the quality of your images. I'm amazed at people who will spend $2,000 to get the sharpest lens, but then want to try to print on cheap paper to save money. You can't expect to use regular bond paper in your inkjet printer and get a great print. You can't use cheap off-brand papers and expect to get a great print. Heck, you can't even use expensive third-party papers that were not designed for your printer and expect to get a great print. You have to start off with the RIGHT paper for your specific printer. Why?

For starters, cheap papers cause inks to bleed into the paper fibers resulting in poor contrast and low resolution. Bond and other inexpensive papers are also subject to cockle (wrinkling)as well as poor density. Lastly, cheap papers are rarely white enough. With the exception of some fine art papers, you want the whiter papers since they improve color rendition and contrast.

HOW IT WORKS

So you now realize that the cheap off-brand papers won't do. Here's why you have to pay extra for the good stuff. Papers such as those manufactured by Epson for their inkjet line of printers, are specially designed for the task of reproducing photographs. The papers are coated with substances known as inkjet receptors (usually polymer based,) and these substances help control ink when it is initially sprayed onto the paper. This stops inks from bleeding onto each other and spreading out. Without this coating, the ink penetrates too deeply into the paper causing the problems described above.

These coatings also allow the paper to dry faster, help avoid cockle, and help make the image more stable. This allows for longer print life and reduced fading.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

While there are many brands of paper that will lead to great prints, it is helpful to understand what you need in a paper to get a great print. There are three important factors to consider beyond the brand name.

*Brightness & Finish: A paper's brightness is normally determined by its smoothness. A coarse paper will scatter light in different directions, while smooth paper reflects more of the light back in the same direction. This makes the paper appear brighter, which in turn makes any image on the paper appear brighter. Any paper that is listed as being bright is generally a smoother-than-normalpaper. The finish may be described as high gloss, gloss, softgloss, or semi-gloss. Each of these terms reflects the amount of shine. Satin is a less shiny-coated finish. That said, some coarse papers are brighter than others. I find Epson's Enhanced Matte (used to be called Archival Matte) to be very white.

*Absorption: When the printer sprays ink onto the paper, it should stay in a tight, symmetrical dot. If the ink is absorbed too much into the paper, the dot will spread out in an irregular fashion to cover a slightly larger area than the printer expects it to. The result is a fuzzy page. The coating on photo papers gives you the look and feel of photographic prints.

FAVORITE PAPERS

Epson makes most of my favorite papers. When I use an Epson 2200, I print primarily on watercolor or matte paper so I use Epson's Matte Black ink as my standard black. Epson's Enhanced Matte is a great all around paper. When used with the 2200 and the standard Epson inks it offers 80 years of longevity and is very bright and stable. I particularly like it for portraits or fine art prints. I also love Epson's Radiant White. This is a textured watercolor paper that is great for posters, art prints and homemade cards and calendars. When I want to print glossy surfaces, I switch to the Epson Photo Black ink and use Epson Premium Luster. This is a pearl finish with a semi-gloss look that you just can't beat.

Regardless of the printer you use, you will always be safest when you choose papers manufactured by the same company that made your printer. In addition to the special coatings that match paper and ink, you will usually get the side benefit of a paper that matches the ICC profiles shipping with your printer. This assures good color match.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE

Remember, all printers are not the same. You may get different results than I do. I have friends who swear by Illford inkjetpapers. I can't make them work. But there are some non-Epson printer papers that work great in my Epson printers. In order to know for sure which ones do and which ones don't, you need to conduct some testing. Just as photographers routinely test new films, they need to test new papers. In some cases, the tests have been done for you.

I have had tremendous success using papers from a Florida company called LexJet Direct. They have a list of papers that they either manufacture or carry. These papers have been tested with Epson printers and mirror the characteristics (including ICC profiles) of Epson papers. Melinex Photo is my favorite LexJet paper. It is a super wetglossy paper that almost looks like Cibachrome and yet is very durable. I have tried Epson's ultra glossy papers and found them to be subject to creases, folds, blemishes and tears because they are not stout enough. I also regularly use LexJet's 10 MilPhoto Satin. It is a good replacement for Epson's more expensive Premium Luster. Although the LexJet paper costs less, it performs as well or better than the Epson product. LexJet has a great staff, and they know Epson printers. Just call them with your questions, and they will steer you toward the paper that works best for you.

CONCLUSION

The invention of digital darkrooms and digital photography would mean little if we couldn't get the high-quality, low-cost prints that are available from today's inkjet printers. While not perfect, they offer a tremendous solution to the average photographer's printing needs. Experiment with different papers and find out what works best for you.

Article Copyright 2005, Scott Bourne - Photofocus Magazine

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scott Bourne is a professional photographer, author, teacher and pioneer in the digital imaging field. His career started in the early 1970s as a stringer covering motor sports for Associated Press in Indianapolis. Since then, he has shot commercial, portrait, wedding, magazine and fine art assignments. His present passion is wildlife photography.

Scott is the author of "88 Secrets to Selling & Publishing Your Photography" and "88 Secrets to Photoshop for Photographers." Both are available from Olympic Mountain School Press, http://www.mountainschoolpress.com. His work has also appeared in books, magazines, galleries, calendars, on greeting cards, web sites and on posters.

Scott regularly lectures on a variety of photo and media-related subjects. He has appeared on national television and radio programs and has written columns for several national magazines. He is the publisher of Photofocus.com, an online magazine for serious photographers and also runs the Olympic Mountain School of Photography in Gig Harbor, Washington near Seattle.

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