Recommend me Photo Paper!

The gsm is the weight in grams of a square metre of the paper.

The heavier the paper the thicker it is and the more substantial it feels to hold.

Standard office paper we use is 90gsm (you can get 80gsm but it feels flimsy and rubbish), if you were wanting to write a CV you would use 100gsm paper.

To say it holds ink better and is of deeper quality is a little simplistic (and I fully admit I'm not an expert on gsm/weight)...a higher gsm certainly adds to the perceived quality of a paper but there are multiple factors that make up paper quality.

  • Has the paper got a good smooth base to it
  • Will it hold the ink well
  • Does it fade over time (see Wilhelm Imaging Research for more information on this),
  • How does it react if water is spilt on it
  • Does it contain optical brighteners
All these factors can be a consideration when selecting paper, really you have to read some reviews of different papers, purchase a few types and decide on what you want to use from the results you get.

If you are selling prints then definitely a thicker higher gsm paper will impress the public but they won't be impressed if that thicker paper causes the picture to go yellow over the months/years.

Hmmm...I think I've woffled a lot there but I don't think I've actually answered anything...:confused::eek::(:rolleyes::o
 
Ilford makes some nice papers, I am fond of the pearl and the double sided matt. But I am going to buy a new printer soon, the new Epson A3 so will have to try some new papers, mostly matt though as I prefer it. Since I used print Cibachromes all gloss papers have looked naff, they were awesome almost mirror like in their gloss. I want to find a paper that feels more like a fibre based paper that I used to use in the darkroom, Anyone got any suggestions?
 
Superewza said:
Now, you know you have a problem when you get excited about paper ;)
Click to expand...

I have loads of paper swatches at work and can get quite exited about paper. I know I have a problem, lol.

al1966 said:
Ilford makes some nice papers, I am fond of the pearl and the double sided matt. But I am going to buy a new printer soon, the new Epson A3 so will have to try some new papers, mostly matt though as I prefer it. Since I used print Cibachromes all gloss papers have looked naff, they were awesome almost mirror like in their gloss. I want to find a paper that feels more like a fibre based paper that I used to use in the darkroom, Anyone got any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I suspect what you are after are Baryta papers. There are a lot of them out there now, but some of them are very close to traditional fibre based papers.
 
Just printed for the first time with ilford pearl and with it's icc profile, a very very nice print came out with great contrasts and detail. No red Tinge! :D
 
When it comes to black and whites though, they are... well..

GREEN!

:(

Have emailed ilford earlier today and no reply, so thanks for replying ilford
 
Many thanks for your email and your interest in ILFORD products

Your iP4850 is really a colour printer with limited pure black&white printing capabilities. Printers with only one black will often rely on making neutral with the colours so calibrations become critical and you may easily get a colour cast. As the icc profile is like any form of calibration, there are many influencing factors as climatic conditions, local illumination, printer to printer variations, human perception and preferencies aso. which means that it is very hard to get accurate grey balance made from color mixes. Such casts can be corrected, but it remains a difficult task to maintain them across many images sources without care and attention to the calibrations. Probably you could get slightly better results by custom building an icc profile for exactly your print system.
Nevertheless if you wish to do a lot of Black and white then we suggest you should consider using a printer where you have multi level black like the Epson 3880 which provide excellent neutral blacks. These untis also have special black and white drivers to allow toning/tinting and frankly are difficult to fault.

Kind regards

ILFORD Imaging Switzerland GmbH
Technical websupport
Click to expand...

:(
 
WOOHOO!! Sorted it, wow i love my black and whites now :D

Just do the ilford profile, High setting and Photo Paper Plus High Glossy II, but with a -3 Magneta/light in the printer colour settings this takes out the green tone and it's lovely. Finally it's sorted :D
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom