To me there is nothing quite as satisfying, after capturing the image in the first place, than printing it out on a good quality fine art paper. Let’s jump right into it now though, and see how I got on with my Fine Art Inkjet Paper printing tests. You can download the test print with the link or thumbnail in the notes at the end of this post. It’s around 8 megapixels, so should be good for tests up to 13×19″ and still look great.

I’ve also made the test image that I created available, so that you can use the same image to test your own printer and papers if you want to. Here you can download a standalone PDF document including the text and images. I printed on twenty high quality photographic and fine art papers, and in this and the next Podcast episode we’re going take a look at the results. Having put some thought into this, I decided to make test image contain both photographic images and scientific charts, that I would can to build an archive of the various papers that I’m interested in, and that I have available to me. At some point, something slips through the net and catches you unaware.

Until now my method has been to print my favorites at the time, and a few prints that I know are troublesome, but it can be difficult to judge how good or bad a paper is based on photographic images alone. Testing papers can be costly, in terms of both time and money. The one paper, or maybe even two or three types of paper, that you turn to for your high quality, fine art prints. With the plethora of great fine art inkjet papers available today, it can be difficult to find “your” paper.

Printer color ink test page