should i buy Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl 8 1/2 x 11 inch Inkjet Photo Paper reviews

Designed for use with all inkjet printers, Ilford Galerie smooth pearl photo paper uses a Micro-ceramic technology and a smooth pearl finish to help you achieve professional-looking results, without a trip to the photo lab. This 280 g/m2 paper has a 99% opacity and a 14-22% gloss, resulting in a sturdy feel and a life expectancy of about 10 years. 100 sheets of paper are provided in each package.

GALERIE Smooth Pearl Paper features the very latest HDR (High Dynamic Range) optically clear nonporous coating for outstanding imaging performance combined with the benefit of 'touch dry' from the printer. The high density heavyweight base has a natural photographic white tint to produce prints with excellent color gamut and high sharpness. The pearl surface eliminates glare and finger prints giving the true look and feel of a photographic print. It is compatible with all high quality dye and pigment based inkjet printers.

When I first started developing my own black and white prints almost 30 years ago I fell in love with Ilford pearl. More recently I switched to digital imaging and Ilford Smooth Pearl provides the same beautiful paper finish for ink jet printers that they provided for film developers. The paper has a great look and feel and is reistant to fading. It has the feel of a high quality traditional photo paper. It also works with encapsulated pigmented inks as well as dye based inks. It drys instantly and because of its luster type surface is resistant to smudge marks and finger prints. Ilford also offers a classic version of Pearl, but it is not usable with pigmented inks. I am using Ilford Smooth Pearl with my Epson Stylus 2200 with great results.

Like other reviewers, I have tried virtually all the E surface, satin, semigloss papers. I have used Digital Art Supplies' ICI Olemec for years, preferring it to Epson's Photo Lustre for brighter whites and heavier grade(260). Ilford's Smooth Pearl paper, particularly in larger quantities,at Amazon's price, is about 40% cheaper, palpably noticeably heavier(290), and equal in quality and surface to ICI. The base whiteness of the paper is slightly less than that of ICI, and essentially equivalent to Epson Luster. Even though, when framed, weight is not particularly important, the heft this paper has when handled bespeaks its high quality, similar to the analagous professionally produced custom halide photographic print.

Ilford provides free profiles for all of their major papers for most of the late model quality inkjet printers from Epson, HP and Canon. This is a must download from www.ilford.com/gallerie, if you are printing from Photoshop(where you select the profile in the Print with Preview dialogue box) and calibrate your monitor; that is if you want the optimum congruence between your monitor's output and what you see on the print. With proper attention to details, color matching is excellent and the wide RGB gamut is faithfully reproduced.

Prints are immediately dry and exhibit no significant metamerism with the Epson ultrachrome inks. I currently use an Epson R800, but I have seen prints on this paper with the Epson K3 inks and they are superb as well.

With the K3 set on the latest generation R2400 or 4800, which includes three shades of black cartridges, this paper beautifully displays neutral blacks and greys with a wide tonal range to produce spectacular black and white prints(if the files themselves are such!) which is not possible with the R800 printer whose ink set effectively uses only one tonal black cartridge, either photo or matte black. The B/W prints are good with the R800, but have an unavoidable slight color cast and a compressed tonal range which is NOT the fault of the paper.

Smooth pearl is a fabulous all purpose surface with a satin type gloss, muted with respect to pure glossy, but with more sparkle than a standard matte finish. The E surface is a standard for professional output, particularly for portraiture and the wedding industry, but is a worthy format for just about any type of subject matter.

In summary, this is a super quality product at an amazingly competitive price.I have tried all the papers. Ilford is above all the others. I only used the Ilford Gallerie Professional Inkjet Photo Range - smooth gloss paper until I tried this. What I just mentioned is fantastic for high gloss prints. Touch dry before it falls from the printer. This pearl finish is excellent - the best for portraits. There is NONE better