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By Theano Nikitas

It has been another banner year for inkjet printing media. Baryta-type papers are still big news, offering the traditional look and feel of glossy silver paper -- not the mirror finish of ferrotyped fiber-based or resin-coated prints, but the softer sheen produced by air drying. Our inkjet paper of the year, from printer maker Epson, is one of these. It's more evidence that many digital photographers still use traditional silver papers as a reference point for digital media.

Yet independent paper makers are pushing the inkjet envelope, offering a brave new world of substrates for photographers to experiment with. Our top choices for 2008 are made from bamboo, mulberry fiber, and metal. There's even a decal-like image-transfer material. You can hardly call them papers anymore.

Inkjet Paper of the Year: Epson Exhibition Fiber
The result of several years' development, Exhibition Fiber produces equally stunning prints in color or black and white. The lustrous surface of this heavyweight (325 gsm and 13mil thick), fiber-based paper is one of the closest we've seen to that of air-dried glossy silver paper. It has just the slightest hint of texture -- so subtle, in fact, that we had to use a magnifying glass to be sure -- but that adds a nice dimension to the paper.

Exhibition Fiber is designed to work with Epson's UltraChrome K3 inks, the inkset used by printers such as the Epson Stylus Photo R2400 and new R2880, both 13-inch models, and larger Stylus Pro models such as the 17-inch SP4880. (Pixel Genius has developed ICC profiles for the paper, available for free at the Epson Website.) We tested it on the R2400, with which it produced a high level of sharpness and some of the richest blacks and cleanest highlights we've ever seen in monochrome inkjet prints -- a measure of both the brightness of its base and the high D-Max that can be obtained on it. Exhibition Fiber does incorporate optical brightening agents, but Epson has opted for ECF (Elemental Chlorine Free) bleaching, which reduces environmentally damaging by-products.

Epson's new paper is a little pricey and is available only in sheets from 8.5x 11 to 24x30 -- no problem for darkroom grads who never knew the convenience of roll paper. The prints it yields, though, are decidedly "exhibition" quality. www.epson.com

Booksmart Fine Art Metals
Art-minded photographers have run some pretty unusual materials through their inkjet printers -- fabrics, wood veneer, and sheet metal. (Even tortillas, a true story.) It's an iffy business, but Booksmart Studio has removed the uncertainties of printing on metal, at least, with its Fine Art Metals inkjet media. Specially coated for proper, even adhesion of pigment- and dye-based inks, these aluminum sheets are available in Brushed Silver, Matte Silver, Satin Silver, Satin White, and Satin Gold finishes.

We think the most appealing of the five finishes is the Satin Silver. Its reflective surface gives images an almost three-dimensional look that Booksmart compares to classic Ilfochrome (formerly Cibachrome) Type R color printing paper. Though the Satin Silver works very well with color, its effect is ideal for black-and-white images. Brushed Silver, as its name suggests, has a more textured surface that gives the image a grainy appearance, while Matte Silver is better suited to rendering fine detail. If you want the closest thing to a traditional ink-on-white-paper look (only on metal), go for the Satin White. The Satin Gold tended to mute the hues in our flower photos, and can look a little muddy with color in general, so it's probably best used for monochrome printing.

The Fine Art Metals are available in sheets from 8.5 x 11 up to 20 x 80, depending on finish; some can be had with an adhesive backing. Thickness also varies from one finish to another, ranging from 0.012 to 0.020 inches. That heft requires a printer with straight feed path and possibly an adjustable platen. The silver and white metals are offered in a thinner (0.005 inches) foil, which should work in printers using a J-Curve feed. Be prepared to clear-coat or laminate the prints for best longevity.

ICC profiles for the Fine Art Metals are available for free on the Booksmart Studio Website. As of June 2008, profiles were available only for pigment printers from Canon and Epson, though HP profiles are in the works.

Printing on metal doesn't come cheap: A sheet costs several times more than a sheet of regular paper, around nine dollars for an 8.5x11. Try out a sample pack of 8.5x11 media to see which surface you like best before you invest in larger sizes and quantities. www.booksmartstudio.com

Hahnemuhle Bamboo 290
Fast-growing, sustainable bamboo has become one of the world's hottest green products, used for everything from construction to clothing. Now it's in inkjet paper. Hahnemuhle Bamboo 290 is made of 90 percent bamboo fiber and 10 percent cotton. Like the bamboo socks we received last Christmas, it's surprisingly soft to the touch; at 290gsm (grams per square meter) and half a millimeter thick, it has a nice heft without being too stiff.

With a fairly smooth, very slightly textured surface, Bamboo 290 contains no optical brightening agents, which accounts partly for its being more cream-colored than white. This in turn produces both warmer color and, with monochrome images, a pale yellowish undertone most visible in lighter tones and highlights. While this may not suit everyone's aesthetic, nor every image, we loved the warmth of our test prints. (Free ICC profiles can be downloaded from the Hahnemuhle site.)

Bamboo is available in sheets from 8.5x11- to 17x22 inches, and in 39-foot rolls that are 17-, 24-, 36- or 44 inches wide. Hahnemuhle is supporting a number of environmental projects (visit www.green-rooster.com) with a portion of sales from specially-marked papers. www.hahnemuhle.com.

Harman Gloss FB AI Warmtone
It might just be the inkjet world's answer to Portriga Rapid, Agfa's legendary warm-tone, cream-based silver printing paper. Harman's new Gloss FB AI Warmtone achieves its warm base in part by forgoing the optical brighteners found in the existing Gloss FB AI paper. This glossy-surfaced paper has a nice heft to it at 320gsm (grams per square meter) and 14mil (14/1000th of an inch) thickness.

Like the Harman family's other papers, which also come in matte-surfaced regular and Warmtone versions, Gloss FB AI Warmtone has a fiber-based substrate with a Baryta coating. It's compatible with both dye- and pigment-based printers and comes in sheets from 8.5x11- to 17x25 inches, as well as in 17-, 24-, and 44-inch rolls. (Five-sheet sample packs are available for testing.) www.harman-inkjet.com

Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk
Lovely is the best word to describe the smooth, lustrous surface of Ilford's new paper. Like other Baryta papers, Galerie Gold Fibre Silk is fiber-based and coated with a layer of barium sulphate, both of which give it the look and feel of traditional darkroom papers. At 310gsm, a sheet of it feels as substantial as heavyweight silver halide paper, but with a little more stiffness.

Although Galerie Gold Fibre Silk has a hint of warmth, its tint falls closer to the bright white of Epson Exhibition Fiber paper than the yellow of Hahnemuhle's Bamboo. It gave us good results with both color and monochrome prints, especially when we took Ilford's suggestion to experiment with Photoshop toning.

Ilford Galerie Gold Fiber Silk is available in sheets from 8.5x11- to 17x22 inches, as well as in 40-foot rolls up to 50 inches wide. Free ICC profiles can be downloaded from the Ilford site. www.ilford.com

Lazertran Waterslide Decal
This unusual printing material is actually a transfer decal rather than a paper, but it has great potential for photographers who want to experiment with the look and feel of their prints. Lazertran Waterslide Decal works something like the Polaroid Emulsion Lift process. After you print on it, you soak the sheet in water to lift the decal from the backing paper. The back of the decal itself is coated with an adhesive that lets you apply it to just about any surface including metal, wood, and glass. Because the decal base is clear, controlled layering of multiple images is possible. If you need convincing that this substrate lends itself to creative effects that can't be achieved with standard inkjet papers, visit the Lazertran Website and click on "Artist's Inspiration." While you're there, check out the company's new inkjet-compatible metallic foils. Lazertran Waterslide Decal Paper is available in 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 17-inch sheets as well as 24-inch-wide rolls that are 60 feet long. www.lazertran.com

Moab by Legion Moenkapi Washi
Anyone who's tried her hand at making paper -- and attempted, with mixed results, to use that paper in an inkjet printer -- may fall in love with Moab's Moenkapi Washi papers. Though Moenkapi is a Native American name for a type of layered clay rock common around Moab, Utah, Washi is a type of Japanese paper made from Kozo (mulberry) fibers.

Moab offers three Washi papers in its Moenkapi line: Kozo 110, Unryu 55, and Bizan 300. All are cream-colored, made in Japan, and coated for use in both dye- and pigment-based printers. They vary in weight, however: In comparison to other fine-art inkjet papers, Kozo 110 is relatively lightweight, but it still has enough heft and stiffness to feed easily into your printer.

Unryu 55 is, as its gsm-based number 55 implies, an extremely lightweight, delicate paper. Almost translucent, it is inlaid with coarse fibers to add a decorative effect. Although its thinness can make it tricky to run through your printer, this may be our favorite of all the Moenkapi papers because of its uniqueness in the inkjet world.

The Moenkapi line's third Washi paper, Bizan 300, is special because it's the only one of the three that's handmade rather than machine-made. This heavyweight paper has a beautiful feel, and its deckled edges add to the handmade look. Because of its thickness, Bizan is best used in printers with an adjustable platen.

All three papers work well with both color and black and white, but each gives the image a different quality. Kozo is the most forgiving, while Bizan (which produces softer images) and Unryu (because it's so delicate) require a little more thought when matching images to paper.

Kozo is available in A4 (8.3 x 11.7") and 13 x 19-inch sheets. Unryu comes in those two sizes and in 44-inch-wide, 45-foot-long rolls. Bizan sheets are available in A4 and A3 (11.7 x 16.5 inches). Because it's handmade, Bizan is quite expensive -- about $13.40 for an A4-sized sheet. (It's well worth it, we think.) You can get a sample pack of Kozo and Unryu with two sheets of each for $5.95 on the Moab website. www.moabpaper.com

Red River GreenPix
Printing on recycled paper is one way to go green, but for inkjet output it's problematic. Recycled papers have more surface imperfections than papers made straight from pulverized trees -- and they just aren't very white. Red River's GreenPix paper is made from 100 percent post-consumer content yet has a high brightness rating of 97. That and a proprietary coating produce rich color and tone on a recycled stock. About $35 (100 sheets). www.redriverpaper.com

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