Making fine prints in your digital darkroom
Papers and inks
by Norman Koren

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In this page we discuss inkjet papers and inks. Although I use Epson inks and mostly Epson papers in my 2200, I'm interested in other processes and papers-- particularly fine art papers. This page lists suppliers of alternative inks-- of greatest interest for older Epson printers-- and papers. I discuss Black & White printing on another page.

Introduction

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• Dyes are chemicals that come dissolved, usually in water. Dye-based inks are less expensive than pigment inks and tend to have larger color gamuts, but they are less lightfast and chemically stable. Early dye-based inkjet prints faded very rapidly-- in months, but newer dye-based inks have much better lightfastness-- 25 years or more when displayed under glass. Dyes can interact chemically with coatings on papers-- you should always make sure a paper is compatible with your inks.  Many dye-based inkjet prints are susceptible to rapid, unpredictable chemical fading caused by oxidation from air pollution. Ozone (a strong oxidant) usually gets the blame, but it's not the only culprit. This is the cause of the notorious red shift in Epson and Canon prints, at least for inksets prior to 2005. It tends to be worst in standard glossy or semigloss papers. Swellable polymer papers such as Epson ColorLife (semigloss surface) or Ilford Galerie Classic (gloss and pearl surfaces) last much longer. Dye-based inks are still improving. The definitive source on print longevity is Wilhelm Imaging Research.

• Pigments are tiny particles that come suspended in the solvent-- they aren't dissolved. Pigment inks tend to be more expensive than dye inks, but they are much more lightfast and chemically stable. Lifetimes are estimated at 80 to 200 or more years. Early pigment inks had poorer color gamuts than dye inks (in part because pigments tend to be more opaque than dyes), but recent pigment inks are competitive. Early pigment inks also tended to clog printer nozzles, but newer pigment inks are much improved. Epson is currently the only supplier of pigment-based inkjet printers, but several independent ink manufacturers supply pigment inks. Because pure pigment inks have a difficult time achieving high Dmax (deep blacks), dyes are often added to pigmented inksets. Fortunately, black dyes tend to be more stable than colored dyes.

Inks Epson and the other printer manufacturers use the same business model as Gillette: give away the razor and make a profit on the blades. If you do a lot of printing, ink cartridges can get expensive. I tend to be cautious about using anything but Epson cartridges, but Inkjetart.com is pretty reliable. Their Inkjetart solutions replacement cartridges and continuous inking systems may be worth looking into. DISCLAIMER: I haven't tried them yet. Cheap third party inks should be avoided, period. According to Henry Wilhelm (the guy who literally wrote the book on print longevity-- now available as a free PDF download), none of them have decent longevity. Even worse, some clog print heads. Not all third party inks fall into the "cheap" class. Several have been formulated for high quality, longevity, and/or excellent B&W performance. They are particularly attractive for older, wide body Epson printers, like the 3000. It's not easy or cheap to experiment with them; most require that your printer be flushed out with special cleaning solutions. I don't intend to try them with my 2200-- Ultrachrome inks are superb. B&W inksets are typically quadtones-- K remains black but C, Y, and M are replaced with tinted shades of gray. Printers with 6 or more colors use the same gray in more than one ink cartridge. Here is a brief list of the major manufacturers. Inkjetart.com carries Luminous, Lyson, Media Street, and MIS. DISCLAIMER: I haven't tried these.

View image galleries How to purchase prints .An excellent opportunity to collect high quality photographic prints and support this website

• Luminos Lumijet Media and inks.

• Lyson

• Media Street  Generations archival ink. Their product line is explained here. Several of their inksets are 100% pigmented. They also have an interesting list of papers.

• MIS Archival hybrid dye/pigment inks for color and carbon pigment inks for B&W. Choice of master B&W printer Paul Roark. His page, Carbon Pigment, Variable-Tone B&W Printing, contains an excellent discription of the new MIS Ultra Tone 2 (UT-2) inkset. My friend Jorge Ituarte particularly likes Eboni black, a part of this inkset, for its excellent Dmax. Less expensive than comparable Piezography products.

• American Imaging Corp. (www.inkjetcolorsystems.com) focuses primarily on professional wide-body printing products, but has an interesting bulk ink system for the Epson 1280 and 2200, using their Symphonic Me2 inkset.

• Piezography (from Cone Editions; Inkjetmall.com) Premium pigment inks for B&W printing on fine art papers. Originally required a special Photoshop plugin, but now uses standard ICC profiles (20 fine art papers profiled as of Nov. 30, 2003). Four hue sets are available: Warm neutral, Cool neutral, Selenium tone, and Carbon sepia. Relatively expensive. Starter kits start at $270 (much more for continuous inking systems (CIS)).

Papers

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Some considerations in choosing papers.

• Surface texture: Broadly divided into shiny and matte. Shiny papers generally have resin-coated (RC), i.e., plastic bases, and include glossy, semigloss, luster, "pearl," and "silk" surfaces, in rough order of shininess from high to low. Semigloss, luster, silk, and pearl are very similar. Inexpensive matte papers are generally paper-based. Archival/fine art matte papers, which are more expensive, are cotton or rag-based and acid-free. Matte papers come in a variety of surfaces ranging from smooth to rough textured. "Cold press" is textured; "Hot press" is smooth. I prefer smooth to lightly textured papers.

• Surface color: Typically white, white with brightners-- flouresecent dyes that respond to UV light, natural, or cream. The brightness (percentage reflectivity) is often given in the specifications. Has little effect on dynamic range-- much less important than Dmax (below). Your choice is a matter of taste; I prefer neutral whites, without brighteners (which make it difficult to create accurate ICC profiles).

• Weight: Grams per square meter (gsm or g/m²) is the best measure. Thickness (usually in mils, where 1 mil = 0.001 inch) is also of interest. My baseline is Epson Enhanced Matte, which is 192 gsm (10.3 mils). It rumples slightly when ink is applied, but flattens out when it dries. Heavier is better, especially for large prints, where heavier (i.e., thicker) papers are more resistant to damage. ~190 gsm is adequate for 8.5x11 inch prints, but I prefer 250+ gsm for 13x19 and larger.  More from Inkjetart.com.

• Dmax: The maximum density, i.e., the deepest black a paper can reproduce. Depends on the ink as well as the paper. The higher the better: one of the most important quality measures for a paper/ink combination. Density is defined as log₁₀(fraction of reflected light). Dmax = 2.0 (reflects 0.01 of the incident light) is considered excellent. Dmax is rarely specified in manufacturer's data sheets, but sometimes appears in reviews. The best matte inkjet paper/ink combinations have better Dmax than matte photographic (silver emulsion) papers. Glossy papers are generally better than matte papers. Glossy inkjet prints have Dmax comparable to glossy photographic prints. I'm planning some tests when I have the time.

• Ink compatibility: Be sure the paper is compatible with the inks in your printer. Many pigment inks work poorly with glossy/semigloss media, but Epson Ultrachrome inks work remarkably well. Swellable polymer (SP) papers such as Epson ColorLife are not compatible with pigment inks; they protect dye inks against fading caused by air pollution. Many papers have longevity problems with dye-based inks.

• Archival quality (longevity): The best papers are 100% rag or cotton-based and acid-free, though some non-cotton papers are quite long-lived. RC media can also have excellent longevity with pigment inks. Standard RC papers (not swellable polymers) and some coated art papers should be avoided with dye-inks. The definitive source on longevity is Wilhelm Imaging Research. Their page on the Epson 9600 (hence 2100/2200, 4000, and 7600) is particularly interesting. Epson has a page of Print permanence results from Wilhelm Imaging Research. (If this link doesn't work, go to Epson North America, click on Paper & Media, Matt Paper Heavyweight, Print Permanence Ratings. It has some surprises. Watercolor paper (Radiant White), which isn't 100% cotton, is one of the longest-lived.

• Fine art vs. photo papers: This is an arbitrary division: photo papers cover the range from glossy to matte; fine art papers tend to be versions of traditional art papers: thick, archival (100% cotton or rag), with variety of matte surfaces ranging from smooth to rough textured. "Velvet" is lightly textured; "Watercolor" is more heavily textured. Surfaces can be quite delicate: they should be handled with care, especially between printing and framing.

• Coated vs. uncoated: (Relevant to cotton art papers) Uncoated papers are highly artistic and more stable when used with dye inks. Coated papers are more photo-realistic-- better Dmax, sharpness (less ink spreading or "dot gain"), and color gamut-- but are more expensive and potentially less stable with dye-based inks. They should be fine with pigment inks, which are much less chemically active. More from Inkjetart.com. I strongly prefer coated papers. Many art papers are coated on one side; identifying the coated (printable) side can be difficult (though it's obvious after one print).

• ICC Profiles: It's highly desirable for manufacturers to supply ICC profiles. Every paper has unique ink absorption properties; a good profile is de rigeur. Don't even think of experimenting with papers unless you have a color-managed workflow. You won't need manufacturer's profiles if you have high quality profiling hardware/software of your own, but such packages tend to be expensive. Inexpensive packages that generate scanner-based profiles are not as good. Users of Imageprint RIP can access a huge library of profiles.

• Protective sprays: PremierArt^TM Print Shield  is a lacquer based spray for all ink jet prints. It offers protection from light, water, moisture, airborne contaminants and even fingerprints. Testing by Wilhelm Imaging Research indicated significant increases in print permanence ratings. I plan to try it in the near future-- I hope it helps make fine art paper surfaces more durable. Carried by Inkjetart.com, which has some additional sprays.

• Suppliers:  I've done business with the first four. The rest look promising.
• Adorama carries many of the papers listed below. Low prices. You can help support this site by linking to Adorama for your purchases.
• B&H has about everything photographic. What more can I say?
• Inkjetart.com I've done a lot of business with them. Their site is a rich souce of information.
• Red River They have a wide selection of papers, many with ICC profiles. Many are available in 13x38" panoramic size.
• LexJet.com carries a wide range of papers and supplies.
• Inkjetgoodies.com specializes in art papers. Promising.

One of my purposes in compling this table was to locate more archival (100% rag, acid-free) alternatives to Epson Enhanced Matte. Epson Smooth Fine Art paper was supposed to fill this niche, but it has been slow in coming (it's only available in large rolls). There are several possiblities, ranging widely in price. I'll be testing some papers when I have the time...

Links

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Dry Creek Photo has a nice list of Paper Recommendations for Epson's UltraChrome Ink Printers.

Images and text copyright (C) 2000-2013 by Norman Koren. Norman Koren lives in Boulder, Colorado, where he worked in developing magnetic recording technology for high capacity data storage systems until 2001. Since 2003 most of his time has been devoted to the development of Imatest. He has been involved with photography since 1964.