Professional Printing London:
If you’re a keen or professional photographer, you’ll have lots of precious photographs which you only ever view on screen. Printing photographs is a very satisfying process, you can touch and feel your pictures, frame them, or add them to a photo montage where you’ll be able to view them at your leisure. So, if you’ve got much loved photographs which never see the light of day you should round them up and consider Professional Printing London your favorites.
Many ordinary inkjet printers have the capacity to print high quality photographs. Ink quality and printers have come a long way since their early days. However, your printed photographs are only as good as the paper you print them on!
Paper Structure
There are two types of photographic base paper that are turned into photographic paper. Normal base paper has a single sheet of normal printer paper, the second, is made on the base of 2 layers of polyethylene otherwise called PE Base paper. PE paper is much higher quality paper and is less affected by humidity, and provides a better base for photographic finish and sheen. PE paper provides a waterproof barrier to ensure that ink does not sink into the base paper and saturate it.
In (Professional Printing London) Both PE and Normal Base paper have a chemical layer coating known as the receiving layer. This receiving layer affects the quality of the photographic paper and is the most important element which affects the quality of the photographic paper. It is the chemical receiving layer which separates high quality from low quality paper. There are 2 main types of receiving layers, Cast Coated and Pore Base.
Cast Coated –cast coated is undeniably a cheaper option found in budget photographic papers for everyday use. Paper is fed using hot rails giving a glossy finish, however the chemical layer carried on the surface of the paper can smudge and smear.
Pore Base Coated –is used in high quality professional photographic paper and can be applied in micro porous or Nano porous finishes. Cast coated paper means that the ink can be absorbed by the coating and the base paper. However, pore based paper holds the ink within the micro pores in the receiving layer. Therefore, pore-based photo papers enable vibrant colors, more stability and better ability to archive. A further advantage is that the paper dries instantly and is undoubtedly higher quality. Make sure you weight up quality against the type of printing you are doing. Pore based reeving layers will always prove better quality than cast coated receiving layers
Professional Printing London: Type of Finish
There are 3 options for finish and all refer to the level of shine that the paper can provide, namely Glossy, Matt, or Satin.
Glossy – the angle from which the images are to be viewed must be considered when choosing glossy finish. This is because the higher gloss the paper, the more glare particularly in direct light.
Satin – different manufacturers of photographic paper have different scales of sheen. Satin involves a level of gloss, but minimizes glare. Pearl and luster finish are all types of original satin finish with a slightly different texture. So be clear about what your requirements are and test some papers out to get the best finish for your needs. Satin finish holds color finish very well.
Matt – is normally recommended for high quality gallery photographs because it minimises glare and can be viewed from any angle. It’s particularly good for printing black and white gallery images. It is also more inexpensive than glossier papers.
Finally, weight as measured in Grams Per Square Metre (GSM), is the thing which affects paper quality greatly. Heavier weights of paper feel heavier and therefore more expensive. However, the most important indicator of quality, is the receiving layer. Paper weight varies from between 120gsm to 300gsm and higher in fine art photographic papers. Inkjet printers can usually cope with 280gsm paper, any heavier, and you should check the manufacturers recommendations.
If you would like to purchase photographic printing paper, The Printing Site (Professional Printing London) have a range of photographic papers to suit your needs. Equally we can also print your photos for you within 24 hours to gallery standard if you have an upcoming exhibition or family event.
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