Photographic paper - which one's the best?

Did a printout A4 size (250g) on HP Advanced Photo Paper Glossy which is quick drying. I have to say I have found it very very good although a bit on the expensive side. I used my HP Photosmart 8150 printer so I don't know if matching printer make to paper makes any difference. Have to say I prefer glossy prints to matt finish.

Does anyone else print their own, and if so which photo printer and paper do they find the best.

Bazz

I don't print that many although I should really.

To be honest i tend to buy whatever paper is a good price at whatever shop I'm in at the time.

At the moment I have some Fujifilm photo prestige glossy 270gsm which seems to produce nice prints out of my Canon MP470 printer.

I have a Canon MP500 Pixma and am currently using papers from Mirror

www.mirrorproducts.com

The resin coated gloss paper is excellent at €10

I think it also pays to calibrate your monitor to your printer, to get the correct colour match, or youre wasting your time using quality paper.

I agree very strongly with Jack here.
If your monitor and printer are not matched then you will get duff prints.
I have just installed a new 'pooter and what you see on the monitor is much brighter than the print you get. Just got to fathom out balancing them up now.

On paper choice I use an HP photosmart D7160 and I am more than happy with the prints it produces with HP Advanced Photo paper and even more so with the A4's on Canon Photo paper pro 245gsm.

Some cheaper papers seem to absorb ink rather than build up a print on the surface.

I use a HP1220C with Epsom premium glossy paper, the printer takes A3 paper so it uses quite a bit of ink but the cartridges are huge, the colour one holds 48ml and it's a bit expensive so I don't do prints unless I really like the photo.

Nero I have the same printer as you for my business but I do find a dedicated printer is better for photos as in my original post.

I have calibrated as close as possible monitor to printer but was still considering getting a Colour Munki or similar at the Photo on Image show at the NEC. I would like to see how they work first so will wait until then.
Bazza

Apart from an Epson printer years ago, I have always bought HP printers, the first colour one being the HP 500C around about the stone age (feels like it now lol)

Anyway, I have always bought HP paper and HP cartridges, avoiding the messy refils (I used to work in a shop that sold printers, and saw the state of some of the printers that people used to bring in, after using refils, no thanks)

I have tried other paper, Kodak was one, I used their 'photo' paper and their premium paper. The Premium was good (as was the satin matt one they did) but the photo one (used to have a purple banner) was rubbish, I printed a photo of my black car that I had at the time on the kodak photo, and on HP paper, on the HP you could see the grill, the kodak was just a black shape, the whole image was awaful, I sent kodak the two images and they sent me a hundred sheets of assorted papers from their range, nice

So my advice is to use the paper and periphers that are designed for your printer, so if you have Epson, buy espson ink and paper, etc.

If you buy the cheap end of the paper, expect to get cheap end results

I always print my own and prefer the best HP paper to all others. I use a Canon printer. It is always better to match the manufacturer of the printer to the the same brand paper. A pack of paper lasts me a year. 4"x6" are the exception. I always use the highest gloss I can find.