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Home >> Photography >> Digital Inkjet
Paper Review Part II Back in August 2001, I wrote about my experiences with various inkjet papers from Epson and Lumijet. The Lumijet sampler package just happened to be one that caught my eye at a local computer shop, so I bit and bought it to try out. For the most part, there was nothing offered by Lumijet that I found to be better than comparable Epson papers. Back then I was very new to digital printing with the Epson 1270 and knew nothing about custom printer profiles and other refinements required to get the best out of printing at home. However, four years is a long time in the world of digital and hopefully, I’ve learned a thing or two since then.
I decided to take advantage of these coinciding events to write a follow-up article/review on inkjet papers with one of the most current and best home inkjet printers available. There
are many dozens of inkjet papers available for purchase from
a number of leading printer brands such as Epson, Canon, and
HP, as well as from notable third-party brands such as from
Ilford, Kodak, KonicaMinolta, and FujiFilm. Then
there are a host of other brands from Lumijet,
Legion, Hahnemuhle, Crescent, International
Paper, and even store brand papers such as from
There seem to be just as many paper options, as there are printers (dozens and dozens); more than one person can really deal with in a short review article. But, apparently, all of those dozens and dozens of inkjet papers are all produced by a small number of paper factories, perhaps three or four worldwide. Despite this, it would still follow that for best results, one should match printer, ink, and paper from the same brand. A fair amount of R&D goes into obtaining excellent results from particular inks used with particular papers and of course, one would expect that the printer maker would use professional profiling equipment to produce the custom profiles for their paper and ink combinations. Not to mention that for best longevity, you need to use the same brand papers and inks with the printer, or, at least, that is the marketing spiel produced by all of the inkjet printer makers. Additionally, if you buy an Epson R2400 printer and use one of the included “canned” profiles for, say Epson Premium Luster paper then it would follow that your print should be a good match for what you see on a calibrated and profiled monitor. The Holy Grail of printing, if you will. But take another luster or pearl finish paper and then run it through the R2400 and chances are the first time through, your print won’t be of the same quality as the Epson branded luster paper. The papers could look almost identical in feel, weight, and brightness, and the results may close, but not quite the same. Which may result in much twiddling and test printing to get the settings just right to produce an accurate print. Which begs the question of why bother doing so if the original brand paper produces better results? Cost is likely the primary factor, as there’s a cottage industry of aftermarket inks that undercut the main brands by selling inks by the bottleful and even continuous ink systems for those truly prolific with their printing. As many would suggest, the printer companies don’t make money selling printers, they make their money selling ink cartridges and paper (the King Gillette model of selling the razor for cheap, but making it back on the blades). Take my Epson CX4600 printer/scanner/copier (since replaced by Epson with the CX4800). It costs about CAN $100 and as with most inkjet printers, it comes with a set of four ink cartridges. If you happen to run out of all four inks at once, guess how much it will cost you to replace all four with genuine Epson ink? $100. You’d be better off to toss or give away the CX4600 and buy a whole new unit than to continue buying ink for it, or, more likely, after the warranty expires, look into buying and using those much cheaper third-party ink cartridges. Papers are a bit different, as I don’t see a huge discrepancy in pricing between the prime brands and good third-party papers when I walk into a retail store. Sometimes, the third-party papers are even more expensive, which again begs the question of why would one bother? While there are some cheaper third-party papers, if there are no profiles, you may have potentially invested in a false economy of having to do a number of test prints before you’ll get consistently good results. Now, this isn’t to say that I have anything against third-party brand papers. Not at all, but before conducting this review, I was of the opinion that unless that paper has a downloadable custom profile for your specific printer, it may not be worthwhile to invest in it because of the testing required. We’ll see how that opinion holds up at the end of the review. Paper
Types
If only the companies would indicate exactly what kind of paper they are selling, it would make it easier for us to match paper with printer and ink set. Ilford at least clearly state that their Classic series of papers are not suitable for use with pigment printers, which indicates that they are swellable, like Kodak Ultima and the HP Premium papers (I'm guessing actually about the Kodak and HP papers, but based on what I've read and experienced myself, I'd say my guess is pretty safe). Ilford’s other papers are dual use with dye and pigment printers, so that would make them porous type, but there’s a longevity penalty to be paid if you use these papers with dye printers. Ilford only claims a 10-year life span with dye printers, but 30-years with pigment printers. The Usual Suspects
In addition to the Epson papers, I also tried out these brands:
I
was also hoping to tryout some Kodak Professional Lustre and Gloss Finish papers, but I couldn’t find these
papers for purchase. I contacted Kodak
I was also hoping to compare some leftover Legion fine art papers and compare to Epson Velvet Fine Art I bought, but as of this writing Legion does not have profiles available for download for the Epson R2400, so this comparison will have to wait for a followup report. Results Epson
Premium Gloss and Premium Luster Papers FujiFilm Premium Plus Photo Paper Professional This
paper deserves to have a custom profile made for it by
Ilford
Smooth Gloss and
As I like luster/pearl finish papers, bulk sizes of Smooth Pearl are likely to find their way to my digital darkroom for proofing purposes. Buying 250 sheets at once saves me about $50 from buying the same amount of Epson Premium Luster paper. If
in
International
Paper Ultra Gloss, Gloss, Semi Gloss These papers look and feel so much like the Konica Minolta papers, one wonders if there’s more than just a cosmetic relationship. Konica
Minolta Premium Satin, Premium
Glossy, Professional
2-Sided Glossy Without custom profiles, the first two test prints were lacking in contrast and color saturation, just like the International Paper samples, but once I settled on using Photo Enhance Mode in the Epson printer driver settings with either Premium Glossy, or Premium Semi Gloss papers, the results were very good. I’d say almost a match for the papers that had custom profiles available to them, which bodes well for the International Papers too. The vast majority of consumers that probably don't care about color management, would be very happy with such results. The 2-Sided Glossy paper was quite an interesting paper. Previously, I’d only heard of double-sided matte papers, but here we have a pearl/luster finish paper with good weight and the ability to print on both sides. It can make for an economical solution for certain types of albums that allow for insertion of letter-sized prints. Instead of using two single-sided sheets, just use one 2-Sided paper. Printer
Settings for the Epson R2400
Print
Longevity At my workplace, I work in cubicle world where the top sections of the cubicle walls are made of glass. Doesn’t make for the greatest of privacy, so I brought in a number of old letter and 13x19 sized prints and taped them up to the glass. This was back in 2002 and three-years on I’ve not noticed any of the prints on glossy and matte papers fading or becoming victims of Agent Orange. My workplace is a typical sealed, high-rise office tower environment with florescent lighting and air conditioning. Based on this type of open-air display, I don’t doubt that I should enjoy 10 or more years of print life. Prints framed under glass at home have not exhibited any problem except for a possible case of out gassing that’s fogged the glass of one frame very subtly (can only be seen at certain angles). This is all with a “now obsolete” dye inkjet printer circa 2000. Now we have pigment inkjet printers with the promise of many more decades of print longevity and I have to say that just like the Monkee’s, I’m a believer. It doesn’t take away from other users that have experienced printing problems and much reduced print life, but I’m not going to worry that whatever I print today with the R2400, won’t be enjoyed by my kids and grandkids long after I’m gone, so long as I’ve taken the right steps to protect my prints. Meaning placing my prints in archival sleeves stored in binders and albums, or under glass frames for the enlargements. While third-party papers may not offer the same longevity as the Epson papers, they’re still, for the most part, better than what’s expected from the prints made with the 1270 and other dye ink printers, with the exception of the some HP printers (and possibly some future Canon printers too), but only with a select few HP papers. Summary What I’ve seen in this round of papers is that most (but not all) third-party papers are just fine for quality output so long as you have good profiles for them, either made by you, or supplied by the paper company. There are enough good papers available with such custom profiles that it doesn’t make much sense to buy one that does not, such as from FujiFilm or International Paper, unless you’re able to enjoy significant cost savings. The
Of all the third-party papers, I liked the Ilfords the best because they have custom profiles for the Epson R2400. Good weight, good finish, reasonable cost, and great print results when used with the appropriate profile. If Konica Minolta provides custom profiles for your specific printer then I would suggest these papers are also worthwhile to look into. So,
my assumption about how “bad” using third-party papers might
be turned out to be unwarranted and presumptuous. The various
Ilford and Konica Minolta papers turned in some very nice print
quality, but from where I sit (in the freezing north of
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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In
October of this year, a couple of things transpired:
I
rounded up the usual Epson papers that I’m fond of as reference
for comparison to the other papers (as well as one new one I'm
not familiar with):
FujiFilm
