Hello All
My new printer is on the way and I am looking for some paper suggestions from people who are more experienced than I. The prints will be for hanging on the walls at home at some at the office. I believe I will be printing 8 x 10’s mostly but I am thinking it would be nice to try something bigger once I get more comfortable with the printer. To start I would like to be able to download profiles to match the papers. I thought I had read a number of threads/suggestions in the past but now when I search I am not seeing what I remember. I am thinking along these lines: A less expensive paper to practice a bit if it seems likely I will need to tweak settings before getting it right. A more expensive paper for what will hang on the wall. I believe the matte finish works best with the pigment inks but I only see “soft gloss” in the less expensive paper at HP. My monitor is calibrated and I have a basic understanding of color management and how the settings in PS CS3 should be set. I am a little gun-shy after all the grief I had with an Epson 360 that I could never get set up to print what was on my screen. I appreciate any suggestions you can offer. Thanks BB
I've had the 9180 for a year or so. You can't lose if you start out with the HP papers. There is an HP 9100 support group over on Yahoo groups. It has a lot of info on all aspects of the printer and papers. I've gotten nice results with some of the Hahnemühle fine art papers, you might want to try a sampler pack (they come in the 8 1/2 x 11 format that you want).
Hahnemuhle and Red River both have sample packs, as does Moab. I have the 9180 and have tried sample packs from all three vendors as well Harmon and others. For about $12 to $15 you generally get 10-15, 8 1/2 x 11 papers to try. That is the only way I know of to find the papers that work best for you. I was surprised by what I saw and now have a couple of unexpected favorites.
Thank you UCSB and Todd for your suggestions. The more I look, the more the sample packs do make the most sense. So much to choose from. Merry Christmas to all. BB
As in all things-YMMV, but, don't get too carried away with all the differences in the many papers out there. The sample packs are a great way to go, but remember, for every different paper you need a good profile for that paper, and some canned profiles are just better than others.
Also, when you narrow it down to some you like, put a piece of glass in front of them, like it was in a frame. To me the glass negates a lot of the small differences in papers. It just takes time and practice to get the results you want. But it's fun learning stuff along the way.
