A common complaint I hear from many who print a normal amount of work on any brand of printers is that replacement inks are expensive and that the machines use it up faster than any of us could predict. I have said several times before: Ink-jet inks are my number one loss of income.
Ink-jet photo papers are another major source of my revenue spent. My rant today is about finding affordable photo papers and paper that I wish to use for my photographs that are printed out on either of my two printers.
Photo paper for either of my printers drives me to look at all online sites with a fine tooth comb. Which is very hard for a tactile person as myself. I desire to feel a paper before I spend a lot of money on it for three reasons: I dislike thin flimsy paper, then it must not be too thick that is causes my machines to jam, and if the texture is one that is something I like also.
Anchorage has one art supplier store. They were stocking a wonderful brand of photo ink-jet papers by Canson that Fishlips fell in love with using for several of her masterpieces that had the ‘watercolor effect’ as their focus. Plus their color regular photo paper was outstanding. The last several months restocking of these wonderful papers have not occurred.
Anchorage has one photographic shop offering a small selection of inkjet photo paper also (although I have yet to crack open the box to test the brand recently purchased)
Office Max and Office Depot both have every day Inkjet photo paper with one premium paper I have purchased that I found acceptable.
Although for any print larger than 8 ½ x 11 inches are send out to a printing company…I still must print out each creation so that I know what the final outcome is for color, depth, make sure all is in focus, and that the photo meets with my standards. Plus for every piece I create… a copy is kept in a portfolio.
I do a lot of print testing. Print testing means trying out on the different type photo papers that could make or break a photo: Matt, Satin, Gloss and Textured.
Most photos will look stunning on Gloss Photo Paper. Satin is wonderful for those photos in a glass frame so that glare is not an issue. Matt and textured paper is wonderful for certain effects.
There are also times when viewing a photo that is 5 inches big on my laptop and may look pretty interesting. Then when printed out on a full size piece of photo paper that slight blur which I thought was my eyesight is actually a bad photo. Or one will print out a beauty but needs to see how it looks on all types of papers.
There are those times when wild abandonment hits me and I create artwork that requires several different steps and those need to be printed out so one can compare each different step.
This all just goes to show everyone reading this: nothing is easy as it looks when viewing the final product.
So to all those other artists out there: If you have a favorite ink-jet photo paper let me know what it is, where one can locate, and what you like about the paper . I’m sure there are brands I haven’t heard of or tried yet plus It is always fun to experiment with new papers!
So to all those other artists out there: If you have a favorite ink-jet photo paper let me know what it is, where one can locate, and what you like about the paper . I’m sure there are brands I haven’t heard of or tried yet plus It is always fun to experiment with new papers!
