Looking for the best ink jet printer paper

[thunt]

Currently own a Canon D30 and Canon S900 printer and love both. However, I am having trouble find a good, dependable, inexpensive, inkjet paper to print my 8x10's on.

Looking for your input on paper weight, vendors, and inkjet paper producer.

[Lane]

I only have the experience of Kodak paper. The the Ultima Profession glossy is the preferrable.

[Longwatcher]

I have a Canon S9000.
I use the Kodak paper (Ultima or Premium), I get it from Thenerds.net or Provantage.com (which ever happen to be cheaper at the time). I also recommend trying Pricegrabber.com to check out various sources for supplies. I can vouch for both of the above, although there was a slight glitch from Provantage, they still made the expected timeline for delivery, so I will continue to recommend them.
I have used the Canon paper, but the Kodak paper was cheaper and Canon did not have the Satin finish I like.
I do use Canon for the larger sheets though (11x17 and 13x19).

As an amusing aside: Kodak sells bulk paper (1000 sheets) but it is cheaper per sheet to buy the 40 sheet boxes from either of the above two on-line stores. Easier on my pocket book also :-)

I have not tried ilford, epson or HP paper yet on the S9000 so have no idea how well those would work.

Just my experience

[soumya63]

longwatcher wrote:
I have a Canon S9000.
I use the Kodak paper (Ultima or Premium), I get it from Thenerds.net or Provantage.com (which ever happen to be cheaper at the time).

Just to warn you, Kodak is not compatible with Canon ink. If you pick up your prints, you will definitely notice ink pooling which will be very apparent in the sold colored places like sky. It appears like grains in high-speed films. To see the difference, print the same print in Canon or Epson Paper.

I also bought those papers cheap from Costco and then gave them to my daughters to play and use in their school projects.

The only third party paper, which is as good as Canon is Epson. It is cheaper and works fine with Canon ink. There may be other brands but I am not experimenting any more. Now a day I use Canon or Epson paper with third party ink and do my ICC profile with Profile Prism. It works great for me.

[Cal Maier]

Both the Canon and the Epson work well with the Canon printers but I will mention that Ilford is making a high quality ink jet paper in the new Gallerie series that is even more cost effective than the Epson and is proving to be a popular alternative for high quality prints in our trading area. They have two types of paper that are compatible with the Canon and the Epson photo printers, they are Smooth Gloss and Smooth Pearl, both types are made for the archival inks used by these printers.

If you can get these papers in your area I would suggest that you try them. The Smooth Pearl is very nice paper for High quality portrait work, and is available in sizes up to 13" X 19".

Cal

[Sheila]

I agree that Kodak paper is not good with Canon printers. I have an 820 and was bitterly disappointed when printing out my first images. They were terrible until it was pointed out at Fred Miranda's site that Canon printers don't like Kodak paper (brand loyalty I guess!).

I now use Ilford Galerie series - Classic Pearl and Smooth Pearl is a semi matte and excellent so far. My only gripe with the Ilford paper is that it takes longer to dry than the Canon and Epsom glossy paper possibly due to it being matte. Ilford comes in packages of 100 which makes it far cheaper than buying in the usual 20 or 25 lots. In Australia, Canon do not sell any matte paper nor does the Canon glossy come in packages of 100.


Cheers
Sheila

[Lhrusovsky]

I have a Canon Canon S800 printer and use extensively with good results Red River Ultra Pro Satin.

[Longwatcher]

soumya63 wrote:


Just to warn you, Kodak is not compatible with Canon ink. If you pick up your prints, you will definitely notice ink pooling which will be very apparent in the sold colored places like sky. It appears like grains in high-speed films. To see the difference, print the same print in Canon or Epson Paper.

Interesting,
I had noticed this effect (on a person's face) when I first got my printer (although I can't remember which paper I was using Canon or Kodak), but it only occurred on one image and only on glossy paper, it did not show up on satin finish at the time or since then on any of the paper I have used (at least so I noticed). I will look closely again tonight, but am curious if this was caused more by the newness of the printer versus the actual paper.

Question: which paper were you using, Premium or Ultima, Gloss or Satin finish? I have been using Ultima Gloss and Satin.

[traveler]

I compared the Epson 1280 with the S9000 at home before I send the Epson packing. Not because it wasn't an excellent printer, but because I preferred the more "film output look" of the S9000. Right up to the 13x19's it is sweet and accurate in color tone and clarity. I use ONLY PhotoPaperPro from Canon. The drivers are indeed optimized for this paper. If you use another you are basically "on your own" or to use your creative capabilities to create a custom profile that will work with other paper. I'm not so daring nor do I have the time to dink around. Otherwise the speed alone in intoxicating. Go for it........

[johniem]

I have tried various papers in my Canon S820, and the best although not the cheapest was Canon Pro101, it's about £8.50 for 20 A4 sheets from 7dayshop.

[SteveCliff]

Sheila wrote:
I now use Ilford Galerie series - Classic Pearl and Smooth Pearl is a semi matte and excellent so far. My only gripe with the Ilford paper is that it takes longer to dry than the Canon and Epsom glossy paper possibly due to it being matte.

I've seen this comment a number of times - Any chance you can tell me how long are we talking about, say, for a full A4 colour print ?

[soumya63]

longwatcher wrote:

To Soumya63

Question: which paper were you using, Premium or Ultima, Gloss or Satin finish? I have been using Ultima Gloss and Satin.

I have used The Premium paper. According to my opinion, ink pooling can happen due to two reasons

1) Ink does not get absorbed quick enough by the paper due to some chemical reason

2) Printer sprays too much ink due to wrong selection of the paper type.

I have followed Kodak's instruction by setting Paper profile as normal paper (not a photo paper) for Canon printer. That does not work. So I tried all other setting, but results were same. I have tried with Canon as well as third party ink and both the cases the result was bad. Some pictures, it is not as apparent but picture containing smooth flat tones becomes absolutely grainy. Another reader from this forum also confirmed this observation.

Canon's own paper is so far the best and quest for other compatible paper for me was purely economic reason. I have found my solution in Epson paper which Costco sales 100 sheet 25$ or so. I have not found any other cheaper solution than that. Any advice on further reducing paper cost without loosing quality is always welcome :-)

[Gary Gibson]

Hello all,
Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to buy the outrageously expensive paper by the Top Gun photo folks.

Just by chance I tried the Glossy Heavyweight paper from ................OFFICE DEPOT !
Specs:
8.5" x 11"
69lb., 10.25mils
260g/m
High Gloss
Cost:
$39.95/100 ( maybe less @ Holiday/Sale time)

On a HP Printer this stuff is A+, used on other brand(s) printers no problem what so ever. It produces absolutely beautiful glossy photos, with no pooling, puddeling, etc.

What the hell, at this price it's worth a shot !
Gary

[Fishsnagger]

I am glad Gary mentioned Office Depot paper. I have used their high-gloss (260g/m^2) for over a year (but on Epson) and actually prefer it. The also offer a “archival paper (300g/m^2) – haven’t tried it -- and a satin gloss (260g/m^2) at the same price as the one Gary mentioned.

Fishsnagger

[Derfel]

Amazing.

I was reading the first few posts, saying "Wow... Kodak?" or "Wow... Epson?" They seem so expensive, and I get what I assumed were decent results on... OFFICE DEPOT PAPER!

And here we have it. I'm not insane, or blind. I get acceptable results on their premimum glossy paper, and it's a few dollars cheaper than the rest. Yay Office Depot!

(A friend told me that Office Depot photo paper is actually made by Fuji, of all people... but I don't believe him.)

[Longwatcher]

I am definately going to have to check out the Office Depot paper, But that aside for a moment.
Out of more then 200 sheets of Kodak paper, I can only find 4 with any indication of pooling. I erred in the message above; 2 were Ultima Satin finish, one was Premium Gloss (all same image - during initial printing); the fourth was Ultima Gloss, same shoot and set, but different image. The area on those four where the pooling occurs seems to be in a red area next to a darker area. I have several images with fields of blue (meaning sky) and can see none of this effect in the prints. I have a few with solid black or medium grey backgrounds, but again no pooling effect.
While I have not noticed this on Canon Paper, as the condition under which this occurs seem to be limited, I will continue to use the Kodak paper until I have had a chance to check out both the Ilford paper and the Office Depot brand paper.
I use the "Photo Paper Plus Glossy" mode with Kodak paper for both the Glossy and Satin finishes.
If the pooling starts to occur regularly, you can bet I will switch quickly, leaving the Kodak paper for Thumbnail printing. Until then up until this point the Kodak paper best met my needs for cost over quality.

Just thought I would provide an update after rechecking the prints I have on hand.

BTW: my cost per sheet was 50 cents each for Kodak Ultima glossy or Satin (technically it was 49.8 cents for Satin)
S&H was the major factor as this goes down as I order more sheets, but the 40 cents price/sheet for Home Depot would beat what I use now if it works out.

[jetli91]

I got Polar Satin paper from Red River (http://www.redrivercatalog.com/cgi-bin/merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=RRP&Category_Code=polarsatin)

The printouts (both 5x7 and 8.5x11) are excellent with the S900 printer. The 8.5x11 picture came out better than with 8.5x11 Ilford Classic Perl. This is with the same printer settings and so I'm not sure if this is a legitimate comparison.

I used cheap refillable ink from www.inkjetgoodies.com and got very excellent results. I can't tell the difference between printout with this type of ink and the OEM ink

Jetli91

[Sheila]

SteveCliff wrote:
Sheila wrote:
I now use Ilford Galerie series - Classic Pearl and Smooth Pearl is a semi matte and excellent so far. My only gripe with the Ilford paper is that it takes longer to dry than the Canon and Epsom glossy paper possibly due to it being matte.

I've seen this comment a number of times - Any chance you can tell me how long are we talking about, say, for a full A4 colour print ?

Hi Steve

I don't touch the Ilford print for at least an hour - no big deal I guess but a nuisance if you forget and put something on top of it as it sticks like glue! There was a debate on another forum about the Ilford Galerie series and the Canon 9000. The poster said that his Canon 9000 did not like the Ilford at all and gave up using it. I am looking forward to Canon producing and selling matte paper here in Australia but until then, I will keep using Ilford.

Cheers
Sheila

[SteveCliff]

Well Sheila, cross fingers, because I've just ordered 100 sheets of the Ilford!!!

Thankfully, if I don't like it, I know someone who will buy it off me :)