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Inkjet paper is paper designed for inkjet printers, typically classified by its weight, brightness and smoothness, and sometimes by its opacity.
Succesexful inkjet printing requires the paper to have exactly the right degree of absorbency to accept the ink but prevent its sideways spread. Many general-purpose office papers of weights around 21 to 27 lb (80–100 g/m²) have been s. However, this category of paper is only suitable for printing text, because the ink load is light. Large areas of solid color, as found in graphics and photographs, cause the paper to buckle, and double-sided printing is not possible because of show-through from one side to the other. These papers are also unsuitable for photographic work for another reason: the poor color gamut, which leads to colors being described as "muddy".
For all types of paper, the settings in the printer driver must be adjusted to suit the paper, so that the right amount of ink is delivered.
Inkjet paper
Photo paper is a category of inkjet paper designed specifically for reproduction of photographs. The best of these papers, with suitable pigment-based ink systems, can match or exceed the image quality and longevity of traditional materials used for printing color photographs, such as Fuji CrystalArchive (for color prints from negatives) and Cibachrome/Ilfochrome (for color prints from positive transparencies). For printing monochrome photographs, traditional silver-based papers are widely felt to retain some advantage over inkjet prints.
Photo paper is usually divided into glossy, semi-matte or "silk", and matte finishes. The thickness of photo paper varies over a wide range. The lighter weights are not much different from general-purpose office papers as described above, and can be used for all types of printing, although these are the least expensive lowest-quality photo paper.
Photo papers for more critical work are thicker and have advanced coatings, sometimes with quick-drying properties. They can normally only be printed on one side, because only one side has the special coating. There are a few papers suitable for double-sided printing.
Glossy photo paper, which is generally the most popular, has a shiny finish that gives photos a vivid look. It will generally be smooth to the touch and will have some glare to it. Matte photo paper is less shiny and has less of a glare than glossy paper. It is often used to produce superior text results. Matte and glossy prints will typically feel different to the touch, but when displayed under glass their results will often look very similar. To increase the resemblance to oil paintings, papers with an imitation canvas texture are available. Photo papers are usually high-brightness neutral white papers, but a few off-white papers are made.
As in offset litho printing and traditional photographic printing, glossy papers give the highest color density (or Dmax), and therefore the widest color gamut. Photo papers vary in their longevity and their color gamut. Ink suppliers often provide color profiles for their ink systems when used with specific papers. Longevity depends on the specific combination of inks and paper. For maximum life, the paper substrate will be "woodfree" (i.e. wood-based but without lignin), or cotton-based, or a combination of the two. Plastic substrates also exist.
Currently there is no official designation of what constitute glossy, semi-matte, etc., although an objective measuring scale is available for the glossiness of papers used in offset litho printing. Leading paper manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Kodak all use their own terms to describe their paper, such as Everyday (HP), Premium High Gloss (Epson) and Ultima (Kodak).
See also
External links
- Paper Features Explained (Hewlett Packard)
- Differences Between Types of Photo Paper (Pacific Ink blog)
- Inkjet Media guide (Mitsubishi Paper Mills)
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 8 October 2008, at 03:13.
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