8.5" x 11" photo paper question (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

The nice paper one would use for printing color photos on a inkjet printer, are they double sided, would I have to buy the non-glossy kind? I know the 4"x6" glossy paper I buy for my HP 952C inkjet is one sided, one side is glossy the other side is not. I'm trying to buy some regular sized paper to print a photo album and would like to make it double sided.

Thanks,

Jay

 

[John_Berger]

I would strongly recommend against that. In order to prevent "leakage" where the images on the opposite side of the paper can be seen, you would need very, very thick paper as photo-quality images use a large amount of ink. This will end up being very expensive.

It will also take up a large amount of time in that photo-quality print needs time to completley dry (I give mine 24 hours) or you risk serious smudging potential when it gets fed back into the printer.

Additionally, I have not seen double-sided glossy paper with equal qualities on both sides, which would be in far, far greater demand than double-sided photo paper. That doesn't mean that it's not there, but I've looked for dual-glossy for brochures and have not yet been able to find it. I highly doubt that you'll find a double sided photo-quality paper to meet your needs.

 

[Jay H]

OK, thanks John, I guess I will go with printing one sided. I thought of the leakage issue too but just wondering if they even sell double sided photo paper. I'm not looking to spend a fortune so I'll stick with one sided prints and find a big binder.

Jay

 

[Max Leung]

Oh, stay far far away from Kodak inkjet glossy paper. They are just awful...constantly smudges, not water-resistant in any way, and exhibit terrible metamerism (colors change under different lighting conditions) even on the best dye-sublimation ink.

Jay, it should be simple to just bind two photos together, one on each side.

Personally, I strongly dislike the glossy papers. However, I really love the look of the Epson Semigloss and Epson Luster papers (I don't know if HP makes an equivalent paper). Easy to view the photo under almost any lighting condition without the harsh glare of glossies.

But of course, I'm a printer nut...I had my printer professionally color-calibrated for the papers I use ($100 US for the 3 paper types). You can say that I've "ISF'd" my printer.

 

[Jay H]

Yeah, that's another option...

I've only printed 4"x6" prints before on HP and Hammermill paper. The HP stuff is good but very very expensive and the Hammermill paper (Indian on the cover) is cheaper but lacked the tabs like the HP. I've heard good stuff about the Epson paper though, maybe I'll try them.

Jay

 

[Rob Gillespie]

The Epson Premium Semigloss is the best paper I've ever used. Beautiful stuff.

 

[RandyObert]

I recently did a cost per image calculation for printing my own stuff, Well bottom line is this, It ended up costing me about .04 more per print than to take the files to a local photo shop and have them put them on silver iodide. Go figure.

 

[Max Leung]

Yeah it can get pretty pricey. However, I was sorely disappointed with the color accuracy of many of these photo shops. Being anal, I got myself a pigment-ink printer, an Epson 2200. The prints supposedly are good for more than 50 years! It also accepts rolls of paper, with a built-in paper cutter. 13 inch wide carriage. Quite an amazing printer. However, color accuracy out of the box isn't that great, so I sent print targets to a printer profiler, and got back the color management profiles.

Man what a difference...yeah, it's costly, but it's nice having your own "printing press" that rivals the best photo shops.

I like the flexibility of choosing your own paper types...matte, glossy, semigloss, etc.