Inkjet Photo Paper, print photos in style!

You have taken a photograph of your sweetheart with your newly purchased digital camera and you wish to surprise her by giving her a digital photo for her birthday. No problem, just load your inkjet printer with high quality inkjet photo paper and give the print command. You then wait to be surprised by witnessing your sweetheart’s photograph printing smartly and be ready to receive a smile from her that money cannot buy. Sounds great but to make it all happen you'll need to know the characteristic benefits of photo paper and how it can enhance the quality of your photo prints so that you can make a smart choice when purchasing your inkjet paper.

In tandem with the evolutionary progress of inkjet printers, the inkjet paper industry has also witnessed considerable research and development activities. The goal was clearly defined. Inkjet paper should be cheap, plain and glossy enough to produce high quality textual, graphical and photographic printouts. This kind of inkjet paper was developed by application of a primer agent on the paper that is capable of binding the pigment onto the paper thereby producing bright quality color prints.

Water Resistant paper

One of the greatest benefits of photo paper is that it is moisture resistant. The ink does not bleed if by chance the colored output should come in contact with moisture or water. Thus your valued photograph is safe from moisture and that becomes especially important for photo longevity.

High Opacity and brightness

The higher the opacity of the paper, the less chance it has of images bleeding through the opposite side of the paper. Photo papers have high opacity (94-97) as compared to other papers and thus the bleed-through problem is eliminated. Also these papers have a high brightness attribute usually measuring above 90 in a scale of 1-100. This brightness factor also contributes handsomely to the qualitative enhancement of photo prints.

High Caliper

Paper thickness is known as caliper. Photo paper is much thicker than ordinary inkjet paper. This quality helps in the accommodation of more ink that is accompanied with the printing of photographs or graphics. Typical inkjet paper caliper varies between 4.3mil and 10.4mil. Photo paper for inkjets have a caliper between 7 and 10mil.

Glossy or matte finish?

Photo paper is provided with a coating that gives your printed photograph the look and feel of a true photographic picture. The coating prevents the ink from being easily absorbed. However, today quick-dry gloss papers are available. You can find inkjet papers of varying glossiness attributes such as :

• High gloss
• Gloss
• Semi-gloss T

To enhance the photogenic look, photo paper is matte-finished and is soft, non-reflecting and not shiny. Unlike the traditional papers, these matte-finished papers are thick with special formulation to give that extra appeal to your photographic output.

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