Photographers tend to have very strong opinions about the paper surface they like, also the colour and the amount of optical brightners used. I haven't tried every paper and certainly not on every printer, but here's some observations:

1) matte inkjet paper is a world away from matte silver paper - with dramatically better blacks.

2) matte paper behind glass looks like gloss paper, minus the problems with reflections - so if you are going to frame, you aren't going to benefit from the really deep blacks of the glossier papers anyway.

3) the usual semi-gloss plastic papers from the major manufacturers are ok, but they are so thin that handling 24 inch and larger prints is difficult - I would strongly recommend using a 300 gm. weight paper for even 17 inch rolls and up.

4) in the world of glossy prints, we have moved from bronzing in which black ink sits on top of the print and looks slightly dull compared to the paper, to glossy inks which are now shinier than the paper they are printed on and you get the reverse of bronzing. The only way round this problem is to

a) overcoat the paper - that's a hassle,

b) use a gloss optimizer - only available on the Epson R800 series printers and the new HP 3100 series, or

c) wait for new papers to be developed - apparently Innova has a new smoother shinier paper than their previous Innova Fibaprint F gloss. Their naming system is so confusing it's hard to tell which is which - I got a batch of matte paper that I'd intended to order as glossy - I missed the F, F it! (Uwe plans to be doing an article on his experience with the HP gloss optimizer soon)

5) Of the three current papers purporting to be equivalent to traditional silver glossy dried matte paper (long the standard for fine art photographers), here's a breakdown of their qualities.

a) Hahnemuhle Pearl is the paper with the highest manufacturing standards - perfect surface, no defects. Next is Innova Fibaprint F, and last based on recent experiences is the Crane Museo Silver Rag.

b) all three papers have arrived with corners bashed - this never happened with silver paper - perhaps because of the additional heavy paper or plastic wrapping to light tight the boxes - all the manufacturers are going to have to rethink their packaging - perhaps if enough of us return papers with even slight corner damage, they will get the hint.

c) The glossiest of the three surfaces is Innova Fibaprint f, the least is Hahnemuhle Pearl.

d) the most textured surface is the Crane Museo Silver Rag, Innova Fibaprint F the least

e) the most artificial looking surface has to go to the Hahnemuhle Pearl. I'm not a fan of it's stipple.

f) The paper which shows the least 'reverse bronzing' is the Innova Fibaprint.

g) I'd tell you which paper is my favourite, but so far I'm not sure and my requirements might well be different from yours.

6) The depth of the blacks on the new papers with gloss inks from the new batch of printers are incredible and the images on these papers look wonderful, unless you tilt them to look at the 'reverse bronzing'.

7) 'Reverse Bronzing' is more noticeable in some prints than others - large white areas are very noticeable, fine textures with white are not a problem.

8) Coating the images with an aftermarket sealant is all very well but spray bombs are hardly consistent with keeping printers clean, or god forbid negatives. Fumes while not as toxic as solvent based varnishes (they are acryllic), still aren't ideal and hardly enamour you to the wife. Environmentally they probably aren't ideal either and unless you have a spray booth and air brush and compressed air supply, are iffy at best. Coating is a temporary solution at best and paper manufacturers need to solve the problems of differential gloss on prints.

Bottom line is that we haven't completely solved the semi gloss paper issues yet. That said, we are a lot further ahead than even a year ago and with luck we will have great semi-gloss papers in the near future. Stay tuned.

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