I have done a lot of comparison printing on my various Epson Printers. Currently we are using both a 7800 for lager prints and a 2400 for smaller stuff. A while back I purchased a large variety of papers (50+) and printed the exact same image on all of them. One that had a broad range of color and tonality and was indicative of the type of real world imagery I would be printing. When I started this process I had no bias towards any product but was simply looking for the best thing out there. I will say that despite the fact I tested ALL kinds of surfaces I was specifically looking for a matte fine art paper on which to print my portfolios. But I did want to see how all kinds of papers performed so that I would have my favorites on hand for various other uses (i.e. client proof sheets, hi-res proof prints, etc.)

I am a “cut-to-the-chase” kind of guy so I won’t bore you with all of the details. The Winner is…. Hahnemühle Photo Rag. This paper surpassed anything we tested or have seen since for a Fine Art Matte Paper. A close runner up was the Moab Entrada. We were using the Moab for about two years as they were a Corporate Sponsor for the 14 Days Project, but since they are no longer supplying us with , what is really a very good paper, we are falling back to our true favorite. The clarity, depth, richness and saturation of the Hahnemühle is simply beautiful.

For those of you looking for a Glossy Surface, we recommend two… First place in our book goes to Pictorico’s High Gloss Film, but not far behind is good ‘ol Epson’s Premium Photo Glossy.

Everyone is looking for different things in their printing so you may like papers that are completely different but for what it’s worth, these are ours.