Photo Paper Types

Heaviness, matte finishing, the anti-fading and deterioration ingredients are only the few of the features that a photo paper for your inkjet printer may be described with. The choices are plentiful indeed. It is not the question of technological limits that restrict paper manufacturers but rather it is the matter of the end user requirements towards the validity period of the photo prints, the validity of the print's color palette through the time of storage. Some of the features are inherent to some specific manufacturer. Others are applied to all types of paper.

So what are the main types? The most significant feature is the paper weight. The starting weights begin at around 230 g/m2 (grams per meter square). That is far above what we are used with the regular printing paper used in the offices. If weighted against the photo printing requirements, the regular office paper would be too thin and lacking the needed opacity. 230 paper weight figure would relate to the most general purpose paper while supreme quality samples often exceed the weight of 265 g/m2. Heavier than this limit would likely go beyond the photo realm and onto the card.

The brightness of the photo paper is the next important characteristic and is, just as the weight, being measured in points from 1 and onto 100. The highest numbers correspond to the brightest possible paper type which will provide a great deal of energy and life to your photographs. Brightness term would relate to both the specific feature of your paper and the colors that you will imprint on it. The polish type or also known as finishing may vary from the most glossy down to matte. These features may be well known to those familiar with the photo making studios of the past. Matte would mostly be employed where other imprints should be placed upon the photo and generally provide for a less vivid prints.

Today practically everybody owns a printer at home, so lots of people at least once faced the problem when ink cartridges are out. Earlier you had to make the round of a number of shops to find what you want but today you can use the Internet to look for print cartridges and even to buy them with delivery to your place. You can save a lot of precious time.

By Nickolay Bokhonok