Paper for laser printer?

[Claire]

Hi,
I'm wondering if you know any good paper that works well with a laser printer. Want to print out some stuff at the work printer (HP), but the previous ones... I don't know, but the colours were much nicer on the school's HP ink printer.

Any ideas?
/Claire

[robertwgross]

You might want to describe what kind of document you are trying to print.

Normal laser printers are good for black text. Color laser printers are OK for business graphics, but I've seen very few that will go a good job on color photos. Most laser prints do best with a paper that has some texture to it.

Epson and Canon inkjet printers are good for color photos. There are dozens of good papers.

---Bob Gross---

[Scottes]

A color laser won't compare to an good inkjet print. If you can, go with the inkjet.

With a laser printer the paper does not matter so much. Buy some good bright (95+) paper and it will be about the best you can get. But it won't be as good as the inkjet.

[clorich]

For text printing, I get great results from Staples 24lb 102 bright laser paper.

[Claire]

You might want to describe what kind of document you are trying to print.

Normal laser printers are good for black text. Color laser printers are OK for business graphics, but I've seen very few that will go a good job on color photos. Most laser prints do best with a paper that has some texture to it.

Epson and Canon inkjet printers are good for color photos. There are dozens of good papers.

---Bob Gross---


I was trying to print photos. I've printed some photos but the colours on the inkjet HP were so much brighter and stood out more. Your post does explain a bit why this is so. I wondered if I was using too cheap paper or whatever.

Thanks peeps!
/Claire

[robertwgross]

I was trying to print photos. I've printed some photos but the colours on the inkjet HP were so much brighter and stood out more. Your post does explain a bit why this is so. I wondered if I was using too cheap paper or whatever.


First of all, I have an HP inkjet printer here. It is the second color HP inkjet printer that I have had, so I am somewhat familiar with the results. I tried many different kinds of paper in it, and I could get pleasant results (for the time).

However, then I got a good Epson inkjet. The results were much better. I could use different grades of paper from plain to premium photo glossy, and I could get different results. What is important is to make sure that your printer driver selections exactly match the paper you are using. In other words, don't select Epson premium photo glossy in the driver and then load up the printer with laser paper. Anyway, people here in this forum get good results with Epsons and Canons mostly. There may be a few HP or other brands, but the majority use Epsons and Canons. For inkjet prints, I use mostly Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper, although I sometimes dabble with Epson Premium Glossy and a few other Epson paper types.

HP makes excellent laser printers, so I keep one here for printing text documents only. BTW, if you ever want to print a killer resume, load up your laser printer with HP LaserJet Tough Paper. It will not tear, and it is water proof. The laser print looks like it wants to jump off the paper surface. However, I would never use this to print a photo.

---Bob Gross---