Which photo paper ...

ringo747

ringo747

ringo747

Soldato
Joined
1 Feb 2006
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Hi, maybe this is wrong forum but i think its something the graphics lads will be able to help with.

We have been working on designing some thank you cards for engagement gifts and have tried numerous options for printing. The sizes will allow us to print 4 cards per sheet of A4. We have tried white card, off white card, embossed card and glossy photo paper. None of these really give us what we are looking for.

I think card just doesn't look good at all and the colours are fairly poor. Embossed card is the worst.

What would you recommend for printing these out? The PSD has a heavily edited photo as a background and it looks lovely on screen but all media so far hasn't been great. The photo paper was best but it was far too shiney and flimsy.

Is there anything decent maybe around 300gsm+ , that is like photo paper but without the glossy look?

Thanks
 
How many are you sending out? Have you considered getting them printed professionally? The price difference when ink cost is factored in usually isn't that much.
 
Russinating said:
How many are you sending out? Have you considered getting them printed professionally? The price difference when ink cost is factored in usually isn't that much.
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We will probably be doing up about 80 cards, 4 per page so really only need 30 sheets at most.

Would have considered getting them printed professionally but we are still getting gifts at the moment and also we are writing slightly different messages on each.

Diggsy said:
I've used Ilford Gallerie Smooth Pearl with good results, and it's really nicely finished paper too.

Sort of a silky finish and its 290gm, really is very nice indeed....

http://www.ilford.com/en/products/galerie/smooth/desk/smoothPearlPaper.asp
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Cheers. Will check that out. As long as the underside of these are completely plain. The problem with some paper is the big tacky 'Kodak' type text on the back.
 
ringo747 said:
Cheers. Will check that out. As long as the underside of these are completely plain. The problem with some paper is the big tacky 'Kodak' type text on the back.
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Yes they are indeed plain on the reverse. :)

EDIT - I have some here if you want to drop me a line in Trust with your address I can send you a sample. In fact I bought 3 packs of 25 a couple of years ago and have never used 2 of them which are still sealed.
 
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Ilford have also released the Galerie pearl in a double sided version called 'duo'. I would have thought it will still a bit too flimsy for cards though?

Regarding poor colours, are you soft proofing correctly on an accurate profiled monitor? If you know what you're doing with soft proofing and the various rendering intents you can really drag a lot out of even poor narrow gamut media.
 
Diggsy said:
Yes they are indeed plain on the reverse. :)

EDIT - I have some here if you want to drop me a line in Trust with your address I can send you a sample. In fact I bought 3 packs of 25 a couple of years ago and have never used 2 of them which are still sealed.
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I will drop you a mail - thanks very much.

Adrianr said:
Ilford have also released the Galerie pearl in a double sided version called 'duo'. I would have thought it will still a bit too flimsy for cards though?

Regarding poor colours, are you soft proofing correctly on an accurate profiled monitor? If you know what you're doing with soft proofing and the various rendering intents you can really drag a lot out of even poor narrow gamut media.
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Yep I want something about 300gsm+. Normal photo paper way too flimsy.

It was my bro who did up the PSD - I know nothing about what you are speaking of!
 
Adrianr said:
Ilford have also released the Galerie pearl in a double sided version called 'duo'. I would have thought it will still a bit too flimsy for cards though?

Regarding poor colours, are you soft proofing correctly on an accurate profiled monitor? If you know what you're doing with soft proofing and the various rendering intents you can really drag a lot out of even poor narrow gamut media.
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Agreed. The monitor and printer really needs to be set up correctly and calibrated & profiled to get the best print. For the paper I would suggest Hahnemuhle Fine Art Photo Rag. Comes in 308GSM & 500GSM (if your printer will take something that thick) Really nice paper, but also expensive.
 
Messiah Khan said:
Agreed. The monitor and printer really needs to be set up correctly and calibrated & profiled to get the best print. For the paper I would suggest Hahnemuhle Fine Art Photo Rag. Comes in 308GSM & 500GSM (if your printer will take something that thick) Really nice paper, but also expensive.
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I think my bro has one of the Canon Pixma range - decent printers but not sure if it would handle 500gsm.

The printouts looked great colour wise on the photo paper but we just wanted it to be more thick like card and to be less shiny. Your recommendation sounds good.
 
Sorry mate, didn't get out to post this today, but I will chuck a couple of stamps on it and pop it in the postbox later this evening.
 
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