Inkjet Papers

http://www.inkjetart.com/index.html

 

Bond Paper

Cheap papers are suitable for normal printing for pictures to share with friends and family, and also have their use for proofing pictures you intend to print for sale or display on more expensive materials.

Opacity

How see-through is the paper? The higher the opacity, the less that printed text and images will bleed through to the other side. This is especially important for double-sided printing. Inkjet photo papers have a relatively high opacity (94-97 usually) compared to ordinary inkjet or laser papers so bleed-through is less of a problem with these papers.

 

Brightness


The brightness of a paper is normally determined by how rough the surface of the paper is. A course or rough paper will scatter light in several directions, whereas a smooth paper will reflect 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. You can see this yourself by comparing a photo in a newspaper with a photo in a magazine. The smooth paper of the magazine page reflects light back to your eye much better than the rough texture of the newspaper. Any paper that is listed as being bright is generally a smoother-than-normal paper.

 

Weight

Paper weight may be expressed in pounds (lb.) or as grams per square meter (g/m2). Different types of paper have their own weight scale. The bond papers which include most inkjet photo papers are found in the 24 to 71 lb. (90 to 270 g/m2) range.
 or

500 sheets of bond paper with a size of 17" by 22" have a weight of 20 pounds.

The manufacturer would cut a sheet that big into four letter-size sheets, so a 500-sheet ream of 20-pound bond paper weighs 5 pounds.

UNTITLED, 2003
Block of fir, ream of paper 2 x 8.5 x 11 inches

TWO TOWERS, 2003
Chromogenic print of artist-made construction from McDonald's French fries and Heinz ketchup, photographed by Richard Nichol  50 x 40 inches  Edition of 10

Caliper

Photo papers are heavier and thicker than typical multi-purpose papers. This thickness, known as caliper, is necessary to accommodate the greater ink coverage typically found in photos. Typical inkjet paper caliper may be anywhere from a thin 4.3 mil to a thick 10.4 mil paper. Photo paper is usually 7 to 10 mils.

Another key factor in image quality is absorption. When the ink is sprayed onto the paper, it should stay in a tight, symmetrical dot. The ink should not be absorbed too much into the paper. If that happens, the dot will begin to feather. This means that it will spread out in an irregular fashion to cover a slightly larger area than the printer expects it to. The result is an page that looks somewhat fuzzy, particularly at the edges of objects and text.

 Untitled-2.jpg (56778 bytes)
Imagine that the dot on the left is on coated paper and the dot on the right is on low-grade copier paper. Notice how irregular and larger the right dot is compared to the left one.

As stated, feathering is caused by the paper absorbing the ink. To combat this, high-quality inkjet paper is coated with a waxy film that keeps the ink on the surface of the paper. Coated paper normally yields a dramatically better print than other paper. The low absorption of coated paper is key to the high resolution capabilities of many of today's inkjet printers. For example, a typical Epson inkjet printer can print at a resolution of up to 720x720 dpi on standard paper. With coated paper, the resolution increases to 1440x720 dpi. The reason is that the printer can actually shift the paper slightly and add a second row of dots for every normal row, knowing that the image will not feather and cause the dots to blur together.

Gloss Finish

The coating on photo papers give your printed photos the look and feel of photographic prints. Because the coating keeps the paper from readily absorbing the ink some glossy papers dry slowly. However, quick-dry gloss finishes are common today. The finish may be described as high gloss, gloss, soft gloss, or semi-gloss, each reflecting the amount of shine. Satin is a less shiny coated finish.

Gloss papers are generally made for non-archival use. They range from highly reflective plastic films to materials with a relatively low gloss, that are almost closer to a pearl or luster finish.

Pigment printers seldom produce good results on gloss surfaces, often giving very slow drying and patchy results.

 

Matte Finish

Images printed on photo matte papers appear soft and non-reflective, not shiny. Matte finish papers are not the same as regular inkjet finish papers. Matte finish photo papers are thicker and are specially formulated for photos. Many matte finish papers are printable on both sides.

Matte papers are suitable for both pigment and dye based inks. For those printing in black and white in particular, matte surfaces give less brilliant prints than glossy, with lower maximum densities. However, visually the lack of surface reflections can make the blacks look good, and once framed under glass, the differences between prints on glossy and matte are quite hard to distinguish.

Matte papers differ greatly in their surface texture and color, from optically brightened intense cool whites through warm whites to those that might be called cream or even pale yellow. Some papers are extremely flat, while others have quite intrusive textures that can overwhelm detail in images and are only suitable for large prints depending on broad effects.

 

Fine Art Papers - Archival qualities

Three factors - paper, ink and paper coating - interact to determine print lifetimes, as well as the environmental factors including storage and display conditions. Good papers are likely to lead to longer lifetimes, and as with most other media, this generally means acid-free materials.

The best papers are generally made from 100% cotton rag rather than wood pulp, and these tend to be expensive - at least a dollar for an A4 sheet and often rather more.

The fine art papers share two main qualities - they are expensive and have a matte surface.

Although nominally all white, some might more accurately be called pale yellow. All are acid-free, most are 100% cotton.

Coated or Non-Coated?

You will need a coated paper to get good prints with either dye or pigment inks.

Optical Brighteners

Some fine-art papers contain optical brightening additives (OBAs.) Their use is controversial as they are known to yellow with age, but they give the paper a higher brightness.

If you have a UV light source, you can use it to detect the presence of OBAs, as they glow under UV.

Because of their coatings, most of these papers will print well using the 'photo inkjet paper' settings on your printer, or possibly the 'glossy film'. For most inkjet papers you need to alter a paper feed setting, often a lever at the right of Epson printers to the + setting. The thickest 310gsm or higher weights may be difficult to feed even then; use a backing sheet and aid the feeding by hand before sending the data to the printer.

 

Dust Removal

With all fine art papers - but especially with the Hahnemuhle range - ensure that the surface is clean and dust-free immediately before printing by brushing gently with a soft 2" brush kept for this purpose, then using a blast of air. As well as removing anything loose on the paper surface that will drop off after printing to leave a white spot in the print, this also helps to prevent a build up of fine dust that can clog printer heads and mechanism.

Handling

All printing paper needs careful handling, and fine art materials even more so. Avoid touching in the printing surface, and load ways load the paper before you print, rather than relying on auto loading.

Since all fine art papers have a non-glossy surface, there are seldom if ever any problems with the 'pizza wheel' effect where the paper feed wheels on some printers can make marks on prints.

Sample packs

Many companies that sell inkjet paper provide sample packs containing a few sheets of the different papers they stock at reasonable prices, and it is worth getting these to decide which paper you prefer to use.

Hahnemuhle Papers

Hahnemuhle, a German company in the paper business for some 400 years, makes some of the most widely used fine-art coated papers for inkjet printing. Many of their papers are re-sold by other companies in different packaging, but it is often cheaper to buy them under the original name.

http://www.hahnemuhle.com/icm11be.nsf/(html)/FramesetFineArt

 

German Etching

German Etching is a great paper, a slightly warm white with just enough texture to be interesting without getting in the way of the print. German Etching looks and feels good, with deep blacks and saturated colors, especially with pigment inks. Although an acid-free archival paper, it is not 100% cotton rag and may include OBAs.

Photo Rag

Photo Rag is, as the name suggests, a 100% rag paper, and is a neutral bright white smooth paper designed to last several centuries. It is available in both 178 gsm and 308 gsm weights. The coating seems very similar to that on the German Etching, and it seems to suffer slightly less from the occasional surface flaking I've noticed with this paper. Photo Rag is also made in a version coated on both sides for double-sided printing.

Photo Rag is an attractive paper with a fairly smooth surface and a bright clean white color. Unfortunately, like German Etching it may contain OBAs. The lighter weight material is still a tough and easy to handle paper, and better if you want to mount work, as the thicker version is pretty substantial. Some printers may have problems feeding this or the other materials over 300 gsm.

Photo Matte and Gloss

Their 'Photo Matte' is a 100% alpha cellulose (Sulphite Paper), a relatively cheap paper with a smooth matte bright white surface, and is more a typical light weight (170 gsm) matte paper than a fine art paper; they also make a 'Photo Gloss' that gives a fairly similar appearance to a typical RC gloss paper. These latter two papers are also sold by Lysonic, and by Lumijet as 'Gallery Gloss' and 'Soft Suede'. Several other ranges of 'Photo Gloss' and 'Photo Matte' are also likely to be these materials.

Arches Infinity Papers

http://www.archesinfinity.com/flash_index.htm

http://www.dpandi.com/newsreviews/reviews/ai/index.html

Paper has been made on the Moselle River in the Vosges region of Arches, France since 1748. Their latest product is a state of the art fine-art digital paper, which promises to be a fine product. It is OBA free 100% cotton mould-made paper, with a coating on top of either the hot-press (smooth) or cold-press (textured) Arches paper that has been a favourite of leading artists for many years.

Designed (and priced) for museum-quality prints, the paper is available in 230 gsm and 355 gsm, with the lighter weight being suitable for most desktop inkjets.

 

Print this sheet until solid blocks are produced. Note that even when the white lines clear some interference patterns may still be detectable. That will be a limitation of your printer, not necessarily a fault. Stop the printout as soon as you are satisfied with the output to avoid wasting ink.