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?
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! ;-)
Comments (16)
I actually use my IPad for my reference photos now. I can zoom in on small areas and the color is wonderful. It’s easy to transport and I never forget where my pictures are! If I do decide to print my photo, though, I use matte photo paper. I like to have it the same size as I’m working on.
Cheryl Metzger - Aug 20, 2013Thanks for this enlightening and helpful information. What a difference it makes!
Carol Ballarad - Aug 20, 2013I’ve been using Kirkland (Costco brand) Professional Glossy Photo Paper for a few years now – and an Epson Photo printer (actually, I have two Epsons) – The quality of their paper is great – like it much better than Epson’s or Kodak’s photo papers. I’ve tried the Office Depot versions, but felt the results were not nearly as good.
Paulette Moudakis - Aug 20, 2013I also started using my iPad recently. It is a great reference because I can zoom in or elevate it. It has one disadvantage because the screen can be reflective. I still print out reference photos sometimes. I like to use a good quality matte photo paper. When I want sharpness and clear colors I print on glassy photo paper.
Barbara Baker - Aug 20, 2013What a great idea Ann. Thank you! Also I would like to know from Cheryl, do yo download the picture from the iPad to the computer, then print from there?
Betty Theis - Aug 20, 2013I too prefer matte presentation paper. I have found too that when I use the brand of paper that is the same brand as the printer, well, it makes a huge difference. I have an Epson all-in-one that I never considered using to print reference photos until I mistakenly bought Epson presentation paper. I thought I’d give it a try because I was too lazy to take it back to the store. Lo and behold, the Epson produced a great photo reference! Due to the high cost of ink cartridges, I do, however, send my reference photo via email to Office depot and they print it up on matte paper while I’m on my way to pick it up (I usually do several at a time so it’s only one trip to the store). But it’s nice to know, on a snowy day, I can print my own if I want to.
Linda Phillabaum - Aug 20, 2013