At the present moment one can find a variety of photo paper for printing at home. There are also a great number of amateur and professional digital cameras which give photos of exceptional quality due to the huge resolution power of their matrix. Therefore an amateur photographer sets the problem to find not only a good photo printer but photo paper of the best quality for day-to-day printing and art photo exhibitions as well.

Photo paper represents paper specially designed for photo printing, graphic presentations and illustrations. It is a dense paper with multilayer surface meant for the improvement of mixing of inks to impenetrate the paper. Photo paper also has a special superficial layer that protects the image from external actions. Thanks to a special structure, the photo paper provides a high resolution of image. Photo paper is also distinguished by high density, to prevent the printing of an image on the other side of paper. You can purchase photo paper in various formats. Depending on the character of special covering, photo paper can be Semi-gloss, Glossy, High-gloss and Matte. You can find double-sided paper such as Glossy/Matter and some other variations.

The glossy photo paper is characterized by high density and the presence of glossy layer on its surface. This layer prevents washing-off and discoloration of inks from the paper surface. It is usually used for printing of photos with soft halftones and bright sceneries. The glossy photo paper is also good for portrait photos and some other types of printing that requires rich color rendition and high reflectivity. The disadvantage of this type of photo paper is the following: you can not use pigment inks for printing as they are easily obliterated. If you want to print photos on paper with glossy effect by using pigment inks, in this case you should apply super glossy paper that has a special layer that prevents the physical tear and wear of a photo.

The matte photo paper can be of various densities. The matte paper with less density is mainly used for the production of the printing produce such as booklets, leaflets, presentations, etc. The matte paper with higher density is used for the printing of high quality photographs for exhibitions and photo albums. As distinct from glossy and High-gloss paper, the matter one goes very well with all types of inks such as water, sublimation and pigment ink. The matte paper is ideal for images with many details, for such photos where it is more important to render small parts rather than halftones. The advantages of the matte paper are characterized by its low cost and its steadiness to mechanical failures such as scratches and fingerprints.

There are also a variety of specialized photo paper such as self-adhesive and textured (canvas) paper, heat transfer paper and many others. You can use both water and pigment ink for these types of photo paper as it is mainly used for the needs of printing industry.

As regards the durability of photos printed at the inkjet printers, the type of paper covering plays a very important role. The photo paper covering meant for inject printers can be swelling or porous. The swelling covering consists of synthetic and natural polymers that swell when getting into contact with water or ink. Once the printing dries up, the dye stuff is airtightly fixed in the paper covering, and this prevents the contact with the air and its admixtures. The photo paper with porous covering dries faster than that with the swelling covering. However the photos printed on the paper with porous surface fade under the influence of the air, therefore such photos should be kept under the protective glass.

Photo paper is produced for inkjet, laser and sublimation photo printers. It is produced in various formats from A3+ (Super A3) to wallet cards for printing of photos. The characteristics of up-to-date high quality photo paper for inkjet printers are characterized by lightfastness and steadiness to discoloration. A photo can preserve its initial state in the course of approximately 20 years if you will keep it under glass and in the course of 15 years without keeping it under the glass. It is recommended to keep printed photos in a cool and dry place with relative humidity no more than 80 %.

Not the least of the factors is of course the price of photo paper. The most expensive photo paper is the original one such as Epson, Canon, HP, etc.

Photo printer represents an easy-to-use device that operates by pressing a single bottom. A photo printer is turned on very easily and it prints photos directly from a computer or a digital camera. It should be noted that a sublimation photo printer is created on the bases of high technologies; therefore its printing resolution is higher than that by the laser photo printers. In the issue you receive pictures which correspond to a magazine printing quality 300*300 dpi. The quality of colour rendition makes up 16.7 million colours and tints. Such photo printers dispose of built-in programs that are intended for pictures’ correction. In addition, such a photo printer is very compact, that is why you can even take on the trip.

The principle of a sublimation photo printer is the following: a picture is transferred on a photo paper by the means of heating the dye and mixing of 3 colors at one point. Thus there an imprint remains on a special thermo paper. In the capacity of source materials for the given photo printers one uses film cartridges. The film in its turn has layers of hard dye stuffs which contain three basic colours. These colours are blue, yellow and purple. While heating, the dye evaporates from the film, transferring into gaseous state without any liquid transference. Such transition is called sublimation. Further the gasiform dye falls on the paper. It is worth mentioning that the printing head of a sublimation printer includes tiny heating elements. Each heating element gets warm closely equal. Consequently, dye evaporation and its absorption by photo paper depend on the temperature of the given elements. Such method of printing presupposes safe dye fixing on a paper. In the issue, the surface of the paper becomes smooth and glossy.

Nowadays the sublimation technology has found wide application in the capacity of photo printers for consumer users. The technology in question is highly appreciated by professionals of art of photos as well. Therefore the printers in question are often met at professional workshops and film-developing laboratories. It is notably, that one needs special paper and cartridges for the operating of sublimation printers.

One of the main disadvantages of sublimation photo printers consist in high costs for consumable suppliers, however there is an irrefutable argument. If you want to receive professional photos, a sublimation photo printer is the best choice for you.