So you bought a new camera. Maybe you got yourself a new Sony Cybershot or a Panasonic Digital camera or a DSLR, or even one of those high def camcorders that do stills in high enough resolution that they could be printed on a big professional printer. You may not have the ‘cake’ for an Epson Wide format printer, or need to print on wide format paper, but you still want good prints.

Let’s say you buy one of the new multi-purpose office style printers like the Canon MP980 or the Epson Artisan 700 or 800 that print in true photo quality. What do you do next? Print your precious puppy photos on stationary? Index cards? No I don’t think so. You want them to look as good as lab prints, last as long too and you want to do it yourself.  So what paper do you use?

We carry a myriad selection of ink jet papers right here at Roberts Imaging. The most popular brands like Ilford, Kodak, Inkpress and Epson and many others.  All of these companies offer different styles, surfaces and sizes too. Then there are specialty papers to look at like Moab, Legion and Harman. So where do you start?

The most popular paper surface is the Luster or Smooth Pearl look. Luster is not as shiny as Glossy papers, doesn’t fingerprint easily and is heavy enough to have a durable and true photographic feel. According to one of our sales reps’ Ilford’s Smooth Pearl is the number one selling home printer paper in the world, Epson’s Premium Luster is their top paper too, and we sell more Inkpress Luster than any of their other surfaces. These papers come in sizes from 4×6 inch all the way up to 44″ inch wide  by 100 foot rolls, so they do work in that Epson wide format or Canon IPF series professional printer if you did splurge.  We have sample prints and swatch books available if you want to try other surfaces too, so don’t just squint at that monitor print and share your photos. You know you want too.