And this is the reply I received from a dpreview Forum member who was most helpful.......I post this for the benefit of new members who may have the same problem trying to identify different paper types
They are not well defined terms, one paper company's lustre could be another's semi gloss. They are usually gloss papers with some micro stipple to make them less glossy. In order of glossiness, probably something like:
Pearl
Lustre
Satin
Semi-gloss
Semi-matte
They are all RC papers (resin coated = plastic coated), and therefore use photo black.
What images work with them depends on you, your sensibilities, and your image. In short: anything you want.
With matte papers are these the Fine Art grades like Canson Platine
Canson Platine Fibre is a baryta coated cotton rag. If it were an RC paper, it would be called lustre/pearl/satin. It uses photo black too, because of the surface.
or Innova Smooth Cotton.
Innova Smooth cotton is smoth cotton rag. It is perfectly matte. It would use MK.
Baryta papers aren't really fine art papers, although some paper companies like placing them in that category. A baryta paper can be anything from the full soft gloss of Harman Gloss Baryta and Gloss Baryta Warmtone, to the lustre like surfaces of Museo Silver Rag, Canson Baryta Photographique, Epson Exhibition Fibre (Epson Trad Photo Paper in Eurpoe), and Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta. They use gloss ink (ie photo black), and are sometimes put in a 'gloss' category because of this.
In general they fall into the category, of what was known in the darkroom as fibre papers.
Terrific info with one correction. Canson Platine is not a Baryta paper. It is coated with a pulverized white silicon sand (called carbon white). Lovely stuff. It is formulated to give B&W a touch of a platinum print look. Neutral with a slight red lift in the highlights that gives the highlights a warm "buttery" look. Worth a try.
