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How to Choose the Right Photo Paper for Printing at Home

When doing any printing project, you need to choose the right type of photo paper. You need to decide what you need to print on the paper, how professional it will look and durability of the paper after being printed on. Here are some tips to help you pick the right printing paper for any job.

What Do You Want To Print?

First, you need to have an idea of what you want to print before choosing the right type of printing paper. Is it a commercial spread that will look like a magazine page? Is it a digital photo that you want to frame? Is it something that will be handed around and touched by many people so it needs to be smudge proof? Once you have answered these questions, you should be able to narrow down the best choice of photo paper.

What Type of Photo Paper Is The Best?

Paper for photo printing often comes in varying sizes and types depending on your photo needs. These include the following.

1. Matte Photo Papers

These printing papers produce traditional-looking photographs without a lot of shine. It’s a high-quality paper for printing photos that is immune to fingerprint marking, smudging and glare.

2. Soft Gloss Photo Papers

These printing papers provide a low amount of shine. They also produce high quality colors and the most realistic skin tones.

3. Standard Gloss Photo Paper

Do you want your photos to stand out? Well, the standard gloss photo paper is the best choice. It provides enough shine to make sure that your photos stand out. They are also referred to as glossy photo papers.

4. High Gloss Photo Paper

These are the highest quality of photo papers in the printing niche. They are perfect for using when printing photos to frame or for public display. For instance, magazines are printed to have an exceptionally glossy and shiny look.

You can count on the colors coming out vibrantly and enticing the target market to the advertisement. As you go through a magazine, you are likely going to notice there might be a smear and the ink is often transferred to your fingertips because of the natural oil on your skin.

Yes, a glossy photo paper is perfect for these advertisement images. However, it has a shorter lifespan in terms of the photo quality unless it’s well protected from elements and people. If you have a project where the final printing should be sturdier and smudge-proof, you can’t go wrong with matte photo paper.

Here, you can create photo prints that look like traditional photos but with less shine. (There’s even a paper for canvas prints). Since matte photo papers lack gloss, it helps reduce the glare thereby making it easier to view it from various angles, regardless of the direction of lighting.

Note that, the matte finish also holds up better when it comes to smudging and fingerprint smudging. Before you begin any printing job, you need to ask the right questions so you can choose the best photo printing paper for the project. You can experiment with different brands and styles of printing paper to get the best results.

How To Buy

Photo papers are available in different brands with some being cheap and affordable while others are expensive. When you are buying photo printing paper, you need to take note of the following.

1. Acid Free Composition – You should always choose photo papers that are acid-free to avoid fading or yellowing over time.

2. Thickness – Make sure the printing papers you choose for your photos are not too thick because it may result in uneven printing or a paper jam. You should always choose papers that can be easily handled by your printer.

Well, that’s what you need to know about choosing the right printing paper for photos.

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