Laser Photo Paper?

[Nod]

My Samsung Laser printer turns out 1/2 reasonable B&W prints but all I have is plain paper for it. Anyone got any experience with Photo quality papers suitable for Laser printers? Unfortunately my inkjet isn't that good for B&W prints - metamerism runs riot!

I've got to pass Staples tomorrow so will pop in and see if I can blag a few sheets as samples - don't really want 50 sheets if it isn't up to what I want.

 

[cosmicma]

i have a samsung CLP310 colour laser which i tried some HP laser photo paper ( 120g glossy ) and to be honest the results were poor

this was with a full colour photo i havn't tried a mono print but i can't see it being any better
the problem was the toner didn't seem to gel with the paper very well and gave an almost mat look to the photo rather than a vibrant glossy look i was hoping for ( i did try both sides of the paper just in case i'd inserted the paper the wrong way up ) maybe different makes of paper will give better results but this was my experience with HP paper or a better quality laser printer i think mine is the cheapest samsung make

 

[Nod]

Mine is a mono laser - I have a decent colour photo printer but it doesn't do B&W too well. I could get another inkjet and dedicate it to B&W work but I do very little shooting for B&W so it would be a waste, not just of money but (more importantly to me) space as well.

I've never had any good results when using one manufacturer's paper in another's printer - 3rd party papers seem to be OK though. I'll see if I can blag a few sheets of each of the Staples weights to try, if I can't blag any, I'll buy a pack of their heaviest and experiment. I'll post my conclusions when I've had a play.

 

[Nod]

Oh well, it was worth a try! Bought a pack of Staples's A4 Photo colour laser matt 170gsm^2 paper and have done a few trial prints all from the same source file. I converted a colour shot using PSE 7's B&W converter (Urban Snapshot option, unaltered) and ran off some test prints using both my Laser printer (Samsung ML-1660 series) and my inkjet (Canon iX4000) using the same paper so direct comparisons could be made.

There's no paper option for photo paper in the Samsung driver so I simply went for the plain paper option and in the Canon's driver I opted for Matte photo paper. As a sort of control, I also ran off a print on Canon's own Photo Paper Pro Glossy PP-101. In the Canon's driver I tried the default setting and printing as greyscale, somewhat to my surprise, the default has given me a good B&W while the greyscale option has landed me with a mild magenta cast. Not too bad but noticeable when viewed next to the default version. As another test, I ran off a print using the colour file and the print as greyscale driver option - again a slight magenta cast. I guess that for mono conversions I'll have to dip into PP!

My conclusion is that the Staples paper isn't bad but I prefer the gloss print (as does my wife, unprompted and a "blind" tester) over the matt ones. None of the matt inkjet prints is terrible - the cast has to be looked for but the Laser printer's effort shows far too much in the way of banding to be useable - a "feature" not nearly as visible in plain paper prints.

As a final trial, I found a pack of Canon Matt paper and did a print on that - indistinguishable from the Staples paper print at the same settings. The paper's the same weight and looks identical to my eyes (which are good at colours but less good at focus these days!) so could well be where Staples get their papers. The only difference I can see is that the Staples paper specifically says it's suitable for Laser printers but the Canon pack makes no mention of Lasers. At least the Staples stuff is also suitable for inkjets so the pack isn't a total loss!

 

[cosmicma]

just had another play with a different laser printer ( dell 1250c ) which seems to be a much better printer than the samsung clp310 and my findings are the end result are more vibrant on plain paper
using HP laser photo paper ( glossy 120g ) the colours stand out better and are more accurate than on plain paper i also have some Hp laser photo paper ( glossy 220g ) which is too thick for my particular laser printers and leaves quite obvious roller marks on the paper the 120g paper is less prone but still isn't perfect
on 80g plain paper there is no signs of roller marks i suspect this will be down to individual printers and paper handling capabilities

another thing to point out is the differences in print ( plain paper ) from each printer the samsung gives an inkjet look to the print where the dell has a glossy finish which reminds me a bit of the old thermal wax printers ( without the banding )

my conclusion is my canon s9000 which i purchased over 10 years ago and is still going strong beats the laser printers i own by a mile on colour photo prints
using laser photo paper doesn't really give enough difference to warrant using it i think a decent 90 - 100g quality pure white plain paper would give comparable results without roller pressure marks or the slight banding i am noticing using the 120g laser photo paper

 

[Stratman]

Be careful of using photo paper in a laser without a dedicated 'photo paper' driver setting.

Some photo papers achieve their glossy look with a plastic coating. One of the things a photo paper driver setting will do is lower the temperature of the fuser. Using this paper with a 'normal' setting will melt the plastic coating, covering the roller with horrible goo.

Don't ask me how I know this

 

[POAH]

you could try and get a linear profile made for the printer.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/printfix_pro_for_bw.html

 

[cosmicma]

the stuff i have been using is photo paper for laser printers but i do understand your warning

Be careful of using photo paper in a laser without a dedicated 'photo paper' driver setting.

Some photo papers achieve their glossy look with a plastic coating. One of the things a photo paper driver setting will do is lower the temperature of the fuser. Using this paper with a 'normal' setting will melt the plastic coating, covering the roller with horrible goo.

Don't ask me how I know this

 

[Nod]

Be careful of using photo paper in a laser without a dedicated 'photo paper' driver setting.

Some photo papers achieve their glossy look with a plastic coating. One of the things a photo paper driver setting will do is lower the temperature of the fuser. Using this paper with a 'normal' setting will melt the plastic coating, covering the roller with horrible goo.

Don't ask me how I know this

Possibly fortunately, the matt paper was the cheaper option than the glossy! Also fortunately, the paper's suitable for use in inkjets too, so although the Laser experiment was a failure, the rest of the paper will get used.

I was aware that there would almost certainly be problems if I used any of my normal (inkjet) papers in the Laser printer, hence my original question.