Printing on different photographic papers

[Bear Dale]

When printing on my Canon printer it has a drop down box that you tick which Canon paper you are using.

Just wondering what the printer would actually itself do differently between say a matt paper or a glass paper etc?

[ricktas]

You can get 'profiles' for various papers that you can install and use with your printer. They are usually referred to as ICC profiles.

One of the things they do is counter the tint of the paper. If you hold several different papers up against each other, you will see that some look more blue, or more yellow, than others. White paper is not necessarily white. Try it outside on a sunny day!

What these printer profiles do is take into consideration this slight tint to the paper and counter it when printing, as much as can possibly be achieved, by altering the mix of inks to ensure a more accurate colour rendition. Take green, if you printed the exact same green onto three papers, one of which looked white, one seemed to have a blue/grey cast and the other had a yellow cast, the green would appear slightly different in the final result on the printed page of each one. By installing the ICC profile for the paper, you can make your printer try and correct for that.

[Bear Dale]

Thanks for that Rick, I wasn't sure if the printer actually really adjusted anything or whether it was just drying time before it put another print on top of another.

I have an assortment of papers and there is a visual difference between matt and gloss and Platinum gloss.

I should have also asked what paper choices (in regards to gloss) do people make when printing? Is it a personal choice or is it something like gloss for landscapes, matt for portraits???

[ricktas]

Personal choice. Some people like gloss, some like matt, some like canvas, some like rag cotton based surfaces.