Canon Paper Suggestions

[MMardis]

Just bought the i9900 from Canon and the prints I've done on the Canon photo pro paper are absolutely stunning. Anyone have other papers they've had success with in Canon printers?

[John_T]

I get excellent results with Ilford and Tetenal papers, Canon ok too.

http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/homeng.html

http://www.tetenal.com/

But NOT HP or Kodak!

[maderito]

I second John_T's suggestion about Ilford papers. Check the "Galerie Smooth" paper line which comes in high gloss, gloss, and pearl. I'm preferential to the Galerie Smooth Pearl which has a beautiful luster, good weight, excellent colors, and costs 1/2 the price of Canon Photo Paper Pro. For eye popping colors, stick with Photo Paper Pro and Canon inks.

[iwatkins]

Canon or Ilford only for me.

Occasionally use the Olmec stuff when I want some big cheap matte prints.

Ilford Gallerie Classic or Smooth Pearl is great for colour as well if you just boost the intensity by +10. Classic Pearl also works really well for B&W printing, very neutral prints.

Oops, this is on i9100 which isn't anything like the i9900 :)

Cheers

Ian

[dn7elson]

I have had excellent results with Kodak Premium Picture Paper (High Gloss/61 lb) and use it mostly for everyday prints @ 8 1/2 x 11 and 11 x 17. Costco has it for under $25.00/100 letter sized sheets.

For "mission critical" prints, or those that I need additional comfort for resistance to fading, I use the Canon Photo Paper Pro.

Printer is Canon S9000 using Canon ink tanks.

[andrew1]

Kodak is fine, also Office Depot Glossy- really Kodak which is made by NCR.
Great results.
Andrew

[FJC]

With our i9100, we've had great results with the Canon paper, and also some Epson paper we had left over.

However, with some Kodak paper ("Kodak Premium Photo paper for Borderless Inkjet Prints" is what it says on it), we've had bad results. The picture will come out looking fine immediately after printing, but within a few minutes the ink will seem to form small bubbles, as if it just couldn't stick to the paper well enough. This makes many of our prints come out looking almost grainy.

Keep in mind this was some Kodak paper my wife bought a good year or more ago, and was on sale - perhaps it was their cheaper brand. New/different Kodak paper may give completely different results.

I've heard a lot of good things about the Ilford paper, and have ordered some to give it a try. :)

[dn7elson]

However, with some Kodak paper ("Kodak Premium Photo paper for Borderless Inkjet Prints" is what it says on it), we've had bad results. The picture will come out looking fine immediately after printing, but within a few minutes the ink will seem to form small bubbles, as if it just couldn't stick to the paper well enough.

Sounds like you may have gotten a bad batch of paper. I have printed nearly 300 sheets on the Kodak Premium Photo Paper, both bordered and borderless, and have not experienced any problems. I use it a lot for "contact prints" (really 9 wallet sized prints to a sheet) a lot for some of my wife's casual shots of family and friends. It gives her a hard copy to share where the images are large enough to be meaningful.

[John_T]

Dale, I have had exactly the same thing FJC describes happen with HP papers on a i9100. I have also heard of it happening with Kodak papers from other forums. I don't think it is due to a bad batch of paper, rather certain inks definietly aren't compatible with certain papers.

On the other hand, it could be FJC printed the wrong side of the paper, which can give the results he describes.

[FJC]

On the other hand, it could be FJC printed the wrong side of the paper, which can give the results he describes.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case, but I'll see if I have any examples of this at home and double check.

Come to think of it, I'm *sure* this wasn't the case, as I recall looking at the back of the printed photo to verify what paper it was, and seeing the "Kodak" logo/watermark on the back.

[ohenry]

I am very happy with Red River Papers...particularly Polar Gloss and Polar Satin. Red River supplies profiles for their papers for various Canon and Epson printers and I have found that they work quite well.

[dn7elson]

I don't think it is due to a bad batch of paper, rather certain inks definietly aren't compatible with certain papers.

Then that should mean that all printers using the same ink would have the same difficulties; this is not happening. I know from personal experience that the S9000 with the Canon BCI-6 inks work with the Kodak as well as Canon papers without this problem.

Could it be a batch run of paper that is bad, perhaps. Could it be a bad ink batch, unlikely, but possible. Could the printer be malfunctioning, again unlikely given that it works with the Epson paper.

FWIW, I use the Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy setting for paper when I use the Kodak paper. I only use the Canon Photo Paper Pro setting when I use that paper.

[whowie]

The key to getting optimal results with any type of paper is to send it the right amount of ink in the correct color proportions. You can usually find such info on the manufacturers WEB site or, of course, on forums like this one. For example, Kodak recommends the following for its Kodak Ultima Picture Paper (UPP-3-A) when used on the Canon i960 printer; Set Media Type to Glossy Photo Paper, Color Adjustment to Manual, and Magenta to -10. Some tweaking might need to be done but its a good starting point. I've used Epson Matte Paper, Heavy Weight, for some B+W images and have had good results using the Canon printer's plain paper setting.

The optimal paper for Canon printer's, though, is Canon Paper! IMHO.

[John_T]

I don't use Kodak papers, but I have had exactly what FJC describes with HP Premium Plus Glossy, that I thought I could use up. I haven't had any decent results using HP paper with Canon printers.

For papers that don't seem to take the ink fast enough with the i9100, in the printer driver dialog you can select Print Quality to Custom, click Set and move the quality slider to 1 Fine. This will slow down the printer head passes givint the paper more time to take the ink.

I find Canon papers excellent, but to my taste the glossy is too shiney. I prefer Ilford of Tetenal. If you want to get into fancy papers, there are many, Hahnemuhle is a good one.