Favorite Inkjet Paper?

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Jamie123

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I've only used Ilford Classic Pearl for my prints so far (still on my first box which I bought 2 years ago) and am very happy with it but was wondering what you guys use to print your scanned/digital photos. So, what's your favorite inkjet photo paper?
 
Frequency

Frequency

Ilford Smooth Pearl>Epson Enhanced Matte>Museo>Moab Entrada in order of frequent use. Kirkland glossy for, well, glossy. This is for use with a Epson C86, MIS EZN inks B&W.

yours
Frank Johnston
 
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I normally use Epson or Ilford papers, but recently in UK a German owned supermarket called Lidl has been selling a heavyweight gloss photopaper. Unicorn brand; 50sheets; A4; 210g/m2; 5760dpi; water resistant for £5.99 which is a quarter the price of the others. I first tried it about 9 months ago, the prints still look excellent although they have been displayed in direct sunlight. so I have bought a dozen boxes and am well pleased with the results.
For more specialised stuff Tetenal have some very interesting papers.
 
My main printer is an HP Photosmart 8750, and my favorite papers are – surprise – HP's own (specifically, their Premium and Premium Plus glossy and semi-gloss/soft-gloss paper). I think optimum choice depends on the printer you're using, and whether you're using OEM or third-party inks (and whether these inks are dye or pigment). The one thing i've learned after mucking around with printers for over nine years is that there is no single paper that works universally with all printers, inspite of whatever hype is written on the box. I had a discussion with someone at HP about this recently, and was told they're working on it (I cut them a little slack since they're just getting into the pigment-ink printer arena). the big thing for me now is that I've found a printer/paper combination that (1) prints beautifully in both b/w and color; (2) prints convincingly on gloss or semi-gloss paper without the usual artifacts that lead people to print only with matte papers, which for me are at best a close second to a moderate-gloss paper; and (3) is archival, at least by the current standards; and (4) didn't cost a fortune.


- Barrett
 
I've just got the Lidl cheap paper too. €5.99 for fifty sheets which, as said above, is way cheaper than the HP or Kodak that local shops stock.

I haven't used it yet, so it cheers me that John Robertson has some too and recommends it.
 
Hahnemuhle fineart pearl ....... a fantastic new paper with the R2400 for B&W and color. The first paper i am really happy with.
But that also has to do with finaly dumping the Epson 2100 for the R2400 ... the 2100 is not usable for anything else but matte prints, unless you can stand the bronzing ... i should have dumped that printer much earlier and saved the price-difference on ink, paper and frustration .......... now i unfortunately feel a strong need to reprint a lot of my older matte prints with the new combination.
 
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I've used the various Ilford papers, get them at the remaining real photo shop around here (Rockbrook Photo, 3 locations now, one near you) but I've had real good luck with the house brand Office Depot papers too.

Of course, now that I have the new printer I may try some of the newer esoteric papers. :)
 
Epson Enhanced Matte on an Epson 1280 for black only printing with Eboni carbon ink. Illford Pearl for color. There are a couple of new papers I'd like to try:

Crane Museo Rag
Innova's F Type Gloss
Hahnemuhle's Fine Art Pearl
 
nightfly said:
Epson Enhanced Matte on an Epson 1280 for black only printing with Eboni carbon ink. Illford Pearl for color. There are a couple of new papers I'd like to try:

Crane Museo Rag
Innova's F Type Gloss
Hahnemuhle's Fine Art Pearl
Click to expand...
FRom those i settled for Hahnemuhle in the end.
Crane ..... not easy available in Europe
Innova ... i disliked the structure of the paper .... Hahnemuhle is similar but smoother!
 
For matte I think Hahnemuhle photorag is great.
I am also now using Innova Fiba semimatte which I like a lot.
I also use Ilford smooth pearl.
 
What I like about Ilford is that they have printer profiles for their papers on their website. Now that I calibrated my monitor the results are usually pretty close to what I see on the screen.
 
Jon Claremont said:
I've just got the Lidl cheap paper too. €5.99 for fifty sheets which, as said above, is way cheaper than the HP or Kodak that local shops stock.

I haven't used it yet, so it cheers me that John Robertson has some too and recommends it.
Click to expand...
Hope it works for you too Jon. I'don't know if others get the same aproaches as I do, "Oh I'd like a print of that" after some function or party. So I started using the Lidl paper for these requests, as I knew half the time that the prints end up in a drawer or worse discarded after some months. I used to grudge using my "good" papers for these prints, so when I saw it I bought the Lidl stuff. I had tried cheap store brands before, but this stuff was far far better, so I used it for competition and display prints, and got compliments on the nice paper I had used!! A friend uses it in his Canon printer with equally good results.
I notice on the box that it is made in Switzerland, Ciba Giegy perhaps?? Who knows!
 
Ciba Geigy is part of Novartis since several years. They are not involved in paper production.
With some probability it is produced by Sihl paper. They also develop/produce for Hahnemühle, more precise: Hahnemühle makes the paper, then it is transported to Switzerland where it gets the special coating for inkjets.
 
I just tried the Costco Kirkland photo paper- cheap as heck-
but oh it's great!
I use a canon s800 antique printer, and even the best Kodak photo paper can't work with a printer like epson or canon so well, because the kodak paper is very slow to soak the ink, thus the ink mixes into mud, dries and cracks like a dry lake bed.
The Epson paper sold before at Costco does will with the canon printer, but I'm not to fond of the way the epson paper turns urine colored after about a year. Also the orange peel texture of the epson photo paper was not the greatest.

The Kirkland paper so far combines the best of both the cheap papers with none of the worst- it drinks ink just as well as the epson paper, but it has a fine gloss like the kodak.. Now if it can resist turning yellow..
10 mil plus I think..
 
I use Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss paper on my R800 printer using Fotospeed crystal dye ink and am well pleased with it.
7dayshop.com sell the paper at a very good price.
 
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