Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss

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