Clues and Knowhow Office Paper: Clue No. 4: Choose the appropriate paper
There is no "right" paper for every print. The interaction of printer, inks or toners, and paper all together contribute to satisfactory results.
Papers for laser printing
Papers are stressed a lot passing through a laser printer. They are dragged, bent, pressed, and heated up to 200° Celsius or more. That´s why only special kinds of paper are fit for laser printing.
In no case use a paper which is coated to enhance ink-jet printing. High temperatures could melt the coating, frequently doomsday for the fuser unit.
As a rule every manufacturer of printers also sells papers, which are tweaked for their products.
You will often find lists, which show what papers are best for every printer.
These papers are ususally more expensive than "no-name" products, but they have features that limit wearout of the printers.
Manufacturers of paper offer a great number of paper for laser printing, most of the time at a lower price. After you buy a printer you should test several types of paper, before you finally decide on a specific brand.
Paper for ink printing
As a beginning follow the manufacturers advice, good color prints are products of optimal interaction of printer, inks, and paper.
Before you try out inks and papers produced by other manufacturers print samples of several colored documents, which are often used in your firm or household, using the original inks and papers. Then do not switch inks and papers at the same time, if misprints occur, you will not know, what caused them.
It pays off to use offers by paper companies: They send you a package with different kinds of coated papers as a try-out.
"Normal paper" or copy paper usually is unfit for ink printing, because it is unable to absorb ink fluid fast enough.
You will find more information on foto paper in this DC-article
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