Inkjet Printer Paper
Inkjet paper is a special paper which is designed for inkjet printers and is especially fine. It is generally classified by its weight, brightness and smoothness. Today most brands of printing paper offer inkjet printer paper. These brands of paper are suitable for all of your printing needs. This paper is ideal for creating greeting cards, printing digital photos, custom t-shirts etc.
Inkjet paper is manufactured from very high quality deinked pulp or chemical pulps. Although for lower quality printing, uncoated paper will suffice, but generally higher grade of paper is made with coating for better printing results. Inkjet papers normally do not use traditional coatings. While a coating of silica pigment together with PVC is used for matter paper, the glossy inkjet paper can be made by utilizing coating or resin coating.
The inkjet papers are available for daily office use as well as for other versatile uses such as printing photographs, greeting cards, business cards as well as for transferring images on to fabrics.
For high quality inkjet printing the inkjet paper should have just the right degree of absorbency to accept the ink yet preventing its sideways spread. In normal inexpensive low weight inkjet printer papers the double-sided printing is not possible due to bleed-through from one side to the other. For double sided printing heavier wieght inkjet paper may be required. Normal ink jet papers available for use as office stationary are unsuitable for photographic work since they have limited whiteness. This results in a muddy image as the colors are not bright and clear.
For the purpose of printing photographs special inkjet papers are available in the market. These papers are quite white and are coated with highly absorbent materials that limit diffusion of the ink. An example of this kind of coating is refined clay.
The photo inkjet papers are usually available in different grades such as glossy, matte and semi-glossy paper. This nomenclature is based on the finish of the paper. The various kinds of photo papers also differ in their thickness. The thickness may range from lighter weight ones similar to general office papers to much thicker ones. The thicker photo papers used by professionals have advanced coatings. Due to this special coating, they can be printed only on one side.
Amongst the wide range of photo papers available the glossy photo paper is the most widely used. It has a shiny finish and adds vibrancy to the images printed. Yet one inherent disadvantage of this kind of paper is that it will have some glare. Other kind of paper with matte finish is less shiny and provides better contrast. Another variety of inkjet photo papers in use today are imitation canvas texture papers.
The inkjet papers which have a wood free substrate i.e. which are wood base but without lignin offer the highest longevity. For all types of inkjet papers it should be ensured that the settings in the printer driver are adjusted to suit the paper so that just the right amount of ink is delivered to the paper.