Our list of top recommended papers for the Canon Pro 9500 is posted here

We began printing on the Pro 9500 this weekend and will post impressions, recommendations, and any tips we find here and on the main 9500 page.

So far its a nice printer overall. Performance on matte and art papers is a little weak with muted colors and low dMax. Pumping up saturation will probably be the job of good custom profiles and a little Photoshop work.

Also look out for weird margin requirements with any of the “Premium Art” paper media settings. Right now, it looks like the printer driver forces very specific (and large) margins when using these media settings. We’re investigating this and certainly will take any feedback you might have.

To help clear out stock, buy 8.5×11 65lb. Premium Matte and get one free!

This is a unique paper that we custom designed. Customers who use 65lb. Premium Matte say they are attracted to its unique thickness and rigidity. It comes in at over 13 mils thick, about 2 mil more than the average dual coated inkjet paper. Good dMax and wide color gamut performance are well suited to use with pigment inks like Epson’s UltraChrome K3.

You can read up on 65lb. Premium Matte C2S and place orders here

Compete transition to the 2.0 versions is almost complete. If you have not already, now is a good time to go and download the new profiles for your printer.

If you are a “power user”, make sure to look at the 600 pack of 8.5×11. We’ve worked the price down to 24.6 cents/sheet – as far as we know that’s the lowest price in North America. And remember this is not a discount paper. UltraPro is a premium grade sheet made by a top notch mill.

8×10 – A new 100 pack of 8×10 UPSatin 2.0 is now on the shelves. Item number 1670 is $38 per box.

The UltraPro Satin home page is here

John Nack writes, “The good news is that we’ve been thinking about these problems for quite a while; the less-good news is that solving them takes time and coordination. Adobe has been working with the printer vendors, as well as the Apple & Microsoft operating system teams, on plans to improve the printing experience.”…

Read More…

A quick and interesting read on our favorite program!

Via Imaging Insider

Interesting read on pixels and image resolution here

We recently read the Digital Outback Photo guide to using an “evaluation image”. The idea is to print a high res file with different components to evaluate the performance of a printer or specific paper. The article walks you through the individual components of the evaluation image, and what to look for in each piece.

Read the article here

You can even download the full 40mb test image on this page