How To Get The Most Out of Your Photo Printing Paper

If you have a Canon, Epson, or HP inkjet printer and you use Canon, Epson, or HP ink­jet papers with it, you'll get more or less pre­dict­­able results. Each printer's driver is expecting its own company's papers, and its inks are made to interact with them. That's great -- unless you want to mix it up and print on any of a huge variety of interesting third-party inkjet papers.

In the chemical darkroom, unless you're will­ing to invest time and effort hand-coating paper with light-sensitive emulsion, your choices of both surface and image tone are increasingly limited. But one of the advantages of inkjet printing is that you can print on almost any surface thin enough to fit through your printer. Products from independent inkjet paper makers include everything from reflective metallic and cloth canvas surfaces to heavyweight matte.

When you find a paper that piques your interest, how do you make it work with your printer? You probably won't find third-party offerings pre-installed in your printer's menu of paper profiles, which auto­matically tell the printer how to distribute its ink for best results.

A third-party paper may come with a recommendation that you set the driver to a specific, often similar paper in the printer company's own line, which will appear in the driver's pull-down menu. And some third-party paper makers offer downloadable profiles for their products on their Websites; these can be automatically installed into your printer driver so that the paper appears as a choice in the menu. When you have no profile or recommendation to start with, make your first test print with plain paper selected in the driver. That low-flow setting may provide more than enough ink for a good print.

Even if your system is color-managed, you'll probably have to do more tests than with paper from your printer company. The cost of these papers varies widely. The least expensive are often affordable alternatives to basic papers made by your printer's manufacturer. Fine-art papers are pricier, since you're paying in part for archivally sound ingredients; metallic or coated-fabric surfaces will be more expensive too. But all of these materials can be purchased on the Web, so search to find the best price.

Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl: Designed to feel like an RC (resin-coated) paper straight out of the old-fashioned fixer, this inkjet photo paper features the Ilford Pearl surface that has charmed so many darkroom denizens. Its microceramic coating means it dries instantly, with no streaking.

Adorama ProJet Elite Mirror Finished, Silver Polyester Based Inkjet Film: One of Adorama's extensive, affordable line of ink­jet papers (visit adorama.com), this surface is nothing like Kodak's popular Endura Metallic paper: It is really mirrored. It's also super-thin, so you may have to mount it on stiffer paper to get it to print properly. Highlights and light tones in the image end up very shiny. We promise you've never seen your pictures this way before.

Konica Minolta Professional Glossy: You'd never guess that this heavyweight, glossy paper came out of an inkjet printer, because its RC base is one of the thickest available. It's also acid free, which makes your prints last longer. You can get it in a double-sided version, perfect for books and portfolios.

Kodak Professional Inkjet Photo Paper, Lustre Finish: Thick and sturdy, this surface of Kodak Professional paper has a photo paper base and a wide color gamut that remind us of the company's wet-process papers. Downloadable profiles make it easier to color-manage, especially with Epson printers.

Moab Entrada Fine Art 300 Natural: This coated archival paper incorporates no optical brighteners -- whitening agents that can decompose over time and affect image quality. All cotton, it is matte-surface, warm-toned, double-sided, and comes in two weights, a heavy, thick 300 gsm and a lighter 190 gsm.

Crane Museo II Archival Double Sided Paper: Made entirely from cotton rag processed with artesian water, this paper incorporates no optical brighteners. But the company says it produces the whitest whites and densest blacks of any non­brightened paper when used with Epson's UltraChrome inks. It is actually double-sided, with one side smooth and the other velvet-textured.

Konica Minolta Self-Adhe­sive Glossy: This adhesive-backed paper can be stuck on any­- thing without the trouble of spray-mounting. It's great for portfolio covers or presentations, providing the same quality as the company's Professional Glossy paper (des­cribed on page 96).