Printer Paper Pointers

As dry media artists, we all know how important our choice of paper surface is - toothier papers will grab more color, but really eat up your pencils.  Smoother papers tend to make a very even coverage harder to achieve, since every little stroke shows up.

But did you also know about the huge, huge difference printer paper can make when printing out a reference photo, or when printing one of our Digital Download Kits?

Same image printed on different printer papers.

Printer Paper Pointers

As dry media artists, we all know how important our choice of paper surface is - toothier papers will grab more color, but really eat up your pencils.  Smoother papers tend to make a very even coverage harder to achieve, since every little stroke shows up.

But did you also know about the huge, huge difference printer paper makes when printing out a reference photo or one of our Digital Download Kits?

When you print an image onto regular printer paper, what you'll get is a very washed out image that generally doesn't have color that is true.  Values are off and and contrast and depth are reduced.

Matte Photo Paper

We print our Project Kits on Office Depot Brand Presentation Paper, Matte, 32 lb.  Before printing, we make sure we change our printer settings, changing the paper source to "Photo Matte".  Even if you have great paper, if you don't let the printer know you're using a specialty paper, it still won't print appreciably better than on plain paper.

The weight of this kind of paper allows for intensive color saturation, so the values are great, and you also get details that are completely lost when printed on plain paper. We prefer Matte, but a Glossy presentation paper would also be great for printing reference photos.

Major Differences!

Below is a great example of the difference in printing paper.  On the right, I've printed out on plain printer paper a jpg of my granddaughter, Evey, enjoying some corn on the cob. On the left I printed the exact same jpg on matte presentation paper.  Notice how much information you lose when you print on plain paper?  Seems the difference is almost of a "make or break" magnitude.

Which one would you rather have as a reference photo??

Yep...me, too!  ;-)


Do you have a favorite printer paper for reference photos?

Comments (16)

For Betty – I actually download my photos to my computer. From there I can print and email it to myself. I pick the email up on the IPad and save the picture. That keeps my IPad from being cluttered with pictures I don’t want. I have a folder called reference photos and they all go in there. Hope that helps.

Cheryl Metzger - Aug 20, 2013

Thanks for the great tips, folks! I’ve had mine professionally printed on an adhesive paper that is then bonded to foamcore so I can take it anywhere without the picture curling around the edges. It stays in great shape when I have to work outside.

Helen Bailey - Aug 20, 2013

Which printer do you recommend for final prints?

Phyllis Henson - Aug 20, 2013

Thank you Ann for the information .It is very helpful .:)

Suzanne Baugh - Aug 20, 2013

Forget the paper. Where can I get a similar baby granddaughter? Adorable!

Leslie Wiener - Aug 20, 2013

Awwww….Leslie…you made my daughter’s and my night! Thanks for such a sweet comment.

We think she’s pretty adorable, too, of course! :-)

Ann Kullberg - Aug 20, 2013

Great tip Ann!

Sue Brooks - Aug 20, 2013

Great, helpful tips from so many of you! Thanks for commenting!

Phyllis…I don’t print my own final prints, so I’m of no help there. Anyone else have an answer for Phyllis?

Ann Kullberg - Aug 20, 2013

Do you think the software that does the printing matter very much?
In a program like Photoshop, not only can the software alter the picture (brightness, contrast, color), but in the printer properties you also have a wide choice between using the printers color space to determine how the print comes out or let the software determine how the picture is printed.
There are quite a few choices to make, could you write an article on how software influences the output quality, and which parameters to choose to get the best prints?

john - Aug 20, 2013

Wow! Well maybe this is answering a longstanding problem I have had! It seems that my pictures look beautiful on the computer screen, nice and clear with wonderful color. Then sometimes I will print them out and they look all faded, like really washed out and I cannot use them. No matter how many times I print them, they are horrible. I never thought of printing them out on a photo paper, but I guess that makes sense. Sometimes I have wanted to get rid of my printer! However, maybe the problem is the paper. Thanks for the info. I will try it!

Dawn - Aug 20, 2013

Leave your comment