Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss

Ilford Galery Smooth Gloss paper is amazing paper for Epson Stylus R1900 printer. It is much better than Epson Premium Photo Glossy Paper. No calibration problem with Ilford Galery, but big problems with Epson paper.

I've been printing with a Canon i950 for a few years now. Great, reliable printer by the way. Never once clogged, even though I've let it sit without printing for weeks at a time. Canon's Photo Paper Pro is wonderful stuff, but awful pricey. I thought I was stuck with using it when I wanted top quality, colorful glossy photos because the Canon printers tend to be so picky about what paper you feed them. I had a photographer friend who suggested the Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss, and he told me how inexpensive it was at Sam's. I bought a box to try. I was pleasantly surprised when i opened the box and found a list of color settings for most of the common printers, including mine, inside the box. Ilford recommended tweaking the intensity to +5 and cutting yellow back to -15 for my printer. I figured that made sense since the Canon printers had always been a little heavy with the yellow. I made the adjustments and printed one of my favorite photos. My jaw dropped when I saw the results! They were indistinguishable from the much more expensive Canon Photo Paper Pro! The colors were right on and were identical to what I saw on the monitor. I've been using it for 3 years now, and so far the color retention has been excellent. I use only the Canon factory inks. This stuff is the bargain of the century. Bought at Sam's, it costs 25 cents per 8x10 sheet. Later I discovered that Ilford's web site had downloadable ICC profiles for most common printers. They make it as easy as possible. I am awaiting the arrival of a new Canon Pixma Pro9000 13x19 eight color printer that I ordered a cuple of days ago. I have no doubt that the Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss will work just as well with the new printer. Why? I went to the Ilford website and there it was: an ICC profile already made for the new printer with my favorite paper! I wish Ilford made this stuff in some other sizes. If they did, I wouldn't print on anything else.

Heavy weight.
Colors pop.
Instant dry and doesn't scratch easily.
Very inexpensive for top quality paper.
So far, good color retention.

None that I can think of.

Canon Photo Paper Pro

Haven't needed any.

Recently, I got an Epson Stylus CX6400 printer/scanner/copier to replace my Epson Stylus Color 740 because of the pigment-based inks. I tried one of the sheets of the Epson DURABrite Ink Glossy Photo Paper that came with the printer. It was great stuff! However, I ran into a problem: I couldn't find the Epson paper anywhere. I tried Gateway Country, OfficeMax, Office Depot, Staples, Best Buy, and Circuit City. None of them had even a single package of the paper. I almost exchanged my Epson for an HP, but then, all of a sudden, it dawned on me: Why not try other photo papers? So, I tried Kodak Ultima Picture Paper. Good stuff, but as I found out, pigment-based inks stay on the top of swellable polymer paper, making it easy to scratch off your precious images. (Kodak has since reformulated the paper, adding a nanoceramic top surface.) Then, as I went to Sam's Club, I found out about Ilford's Galerie Smooth Gloss paper. I've used Ilford's B&W paper before, so I assumed it would be great paper. Guess what-it is great! I tried a couple of sheets and got great pictures every time. I found out that this paper was every bit as good as the Epson paper (and much less expensive, too!). Since then, I've found a source for the Epson paper around 40 miles away from home, but I still love my Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss. Give it a try-you'll be impressed.

Works great with pigment-based inks Excellent pictures every time Dirt cheap when you buy it at Sam's Club

No 4x6 size yet-why not?

Epson DURABrite Ink Glossy Photo Paper Kodak Ultima Picture Paper

Never needed it