Find The Paper That Suits Your Needs

Laser printer photo paper – How to select the paper that suites you

 

When choosing what laser printer photo paper to use it can be surprisingly many details to consider in order to make a great choice. There are quite a lot of different paper types and I will go over the here step by step.

Glossy Photo Paper

Glossy photo paper looks very shiny and that creates a vibrant looking color quality. It does reflect light very well. Some drawbacks with glossy paper is that it does accumulate finger prints quite easily so you have to be careful how you use it. Glossy paper is the type that you can often se in modern time magazines.

Matte Paper

Matte Paper does not have the shiny surface as glossy photo paper has and it does not reflect colors as glossy paper does. This makes matter paper perfect for printing black and white pictures for instance. Matte paper does not pickup as much dust as glossy paper does.

Semi gloss paper (satin finish paper)

There is one last photo paper type to consider, and that’s semi gloss paper. Semi gloss paper or satin finish paper is something between glossy and mate paper. The paper finish is not as shiny as glossy photo paper but at same time not as dry as matte paper is. The good thing about semi gloss paper is that it does not reflect light as strong as glossy paper does, which means it easier to see clearly under strong light. One other really great aspect of semi gloss paper is that it does not get as easy dusty as glossy photo paper does. This makes semi gloss paper a really great laser printer photo paper

Printer compatibilities

It´s very important to check your laser printer or photo printer user guide what paper is supported by your printer manufacturer and what paper sizes and paper types you can use. If you happen to get unlucky and your photo paper jams in the printer and you need a visit by a printer technician to solve it. That might very well void the warranty depending on your printer manufacturer even if you printer is within warranty. You can usually find the specifications if you search in Google for something like “printer model + technical specifications”.

Pay attention to weight

It is important to pay attention to the paper weight. In general you as a rule of thumb you can say that the thicker the paper is the less it will curl and likely the better result you will get. However if you use too thick paper for your printer the paper might very well jam in the fuser and worst case scenario damage it(fuser is what you can call the oven in the printer that burns toner onto the paper, the fuser is usually the most expensive part of a printer). So be sure to check your printers user manual for specifications.

Buying Paper online will save you money.

One last recommendation to consider is to buy your paper online the competition is much greater online than in any local stores. You will get a much better bang for your buck buying your photo paper online. If you take all these factors to consideration I am sure you will have great results with your laser printer photo paper selection.