Photo Paper

When you decide to print out a digital print for display, you’ll need to use photo paper rather than simple multipurpose paper to get the appearance you desire. However, depending on your printer type, the image you want to print, and the eventual purpose of the photo, you may choose from a number of different types of paper. Selecting the correct photo paper is not necessarily an easy task, but the hassle can be minimized with a little foreknowledge.

There are two basic types of printers to be concerned with, and they each require their own type of paper. Laser photo paper has to be used in laser printers, and inkjet photo paper is required for inkjet printers. Typically with laser paper, photo quality will be better, but you can also produce excellent prints with the best inkjet photo paper. For example, Epson photo quality inkjet paper can be used to print photos of quality equal to some of the best laser printers. Epson photo paper also comes in laser versions because Epson produces both types of printers. HP photo paper can also be found for both laser and inkjet printers. The biggest difference between Epson and HP photo paper is that for laser printers, HP has the higher quality paper, while Epson has spent a lot of time developing their inkjet photo paper so that quality images can be produced from these printers.

The reason that laser photo paper is often better is because a laser printer will create one smooth, single image on the page, rather than printing line by line, which sometimes creates a striped effect on the photo. This can be mostly remedied with the right inkjet photo paper, which won’t absorb the ink so deeply and will allow the image to settle more evenly.

Kodak photo paper is often of high quality but cannot be found for inkjet printers and really caters to the Kodak EasyShare photo printers, with applications on other machines being difficult. Canon photo paper is another preferred brand, especially since the company products tend to be reliable and of high quality at low prices.

Aside from choosing a brand name and printer type, you need to choose paper for your application. For example, if you are printing photos to display on your refrigerator, you can use magnetic photo paper. If you intend to frame and mount your photos like artwork, you may want to try canvas photo paper, a thicker, matte finish paper. Most commonly, people use standard glossy photo paper to produce store-quality prints.