There are numerous types of papers that can be used in a photo printer, the most important of which are standard photo papers, glossy papers, luster and pearl papers, semi gloss papers, matte paper, laser photo paper and proofing paper. These papers are available in multiple brands like Epson, Canon, HP and Premier Photo. Other manufacturers are ILFORD, PremiumArt and Harman.
Glossy and semi gloss papers are usually covered with a vinyl or polyester film and are employed as boards and displays. The vinyl coated paper is used in flexible displays while the polyester coated photo paper finds its application in rigid displays. The glossy paper is available in heavy weight material as well. The luster and pearl photo printer papers are coated with a thinner vinyl film with a lustrous finishing. The matte photo printer papers have a matte finishing instead of a lustrous one. Some photo printer papers are coated on both the sides, hence making them suitable for duplex printing.
The photo printer papers are available in various packs containing different sizes and number of papers. The standard printer paper sizes recognized by ISO are A4, A3 and A2. The standard dimensions of A4, A3 and A2 papers are 8.3in x 11.7in, 11.7in x 16.5in and 16.5in x 23.4in respectively. Other common paper sizes available in the market are letter size, legal size, B size, super B size and C size. The dimensions of letter size and legal size printer papers are 8.5in x11in and 8.5in x 14in respectively; while those of B, super B and C size are 11 x 17 paper, 13in x 19in and 17in x 22in. papers are usually available in packs of 20, 25, 50, 75,100 or 250 sheets. Photo printer papers are available in both with border and borderless variety.
The two broad types of printer inks are dye based and pigment based. The dye based inks produce brighter colors and are stable. The drawback associated with dye based inks is that they penetrate slowly and require a long time to dry completely. Owing to the longer drying times, the dye based inks often produce blurry images. Contrary to the dye based inks, the pigment based inks dry quickly, hence resulting in clear and better images. In addition, they are less toxic as compared to the dye based inks.
A particular kind of printer ink can be filled only in the kind of cartridges it is designed for. The most important manufacturers of photo printer inks are Canon, Epson, HP, Kodak and Dell. The photo printer inks are found in a variety of colors. Canon, for instance, manufactures cartridges of four different colors for a photo printer. These colors are black, cyan, magenta and yellow.
Other manufacturers have their own range of colors. Printer ink is usually costly and many printers allow the usage of ink manufactured only by the printers' own brand.
