sir nick,

i heard people printing on watercolor paper specially on epson printers...

have you tried doing this?

do you print your wedding photos using your epson or you have a pro lab print them?

Hi Francis,
I know some people who print on either Fabriano or Arches watercolor papers bought from National Bookstore or Sketchbooks. These papers are great for watercolor but are not optimized for inkjet. You will get a very soft and sometimes flat effect. For some this is the look they may be looking for. I would suggest though that you purchase some matt paper that has been made specifically for inkjet. These specialty papers have a special coating on the paper that make your colors pop. Your print will be richer and deeper. If you like B&W printing, you will also get better DMAX.

We print almost everything in-house on Epson printers. And yes, we have "watercolor" papers, but they are inkjet watercolor papers. I had a conversation with Epson and they informed me that the Ultrasmooth Fine Art paper would finally be brought into the country. If you want to try some matt paper printing, this would probably be your best choice.

Feel free to ask more questions.

With my first epson 9500, i can't achieve the red, it always comes out brown on arches france (watercolor paper)...but with our new 9600 and 9800, red is really red when it was before you can only get this red on dye based inks. Arches France is my favorite among watercolor papers. I dont use coated watercolor papers because i dont have a proof yet that it will last for years. I started using the arches france when i was still in college way back 1977 and i still have in my collections those artworks done on this paper, still no trace of moulds (yellow spots). I really like to see my archival inkjet prints to last to show my grandchildren. If you smell the arches france "amoy keso", this is one way also of warding of insects that destroys your watercolor art or inkjet print. For some artists out there you know what i mean by that when you left of your artworks and all colors are gone because the taste is attractive to cockroaches. Yes, inkjet particularly epson can take watercolor papers...i will show you edition prints by masters in my gallery if you have free time. Nick is right, the smooth fine art paper of epson is fantastic, im using it in all my special prints=)

Ross is right that Arches is tried and tested to last practically forever. Each paper gives an image a different effect. I put my trust in branded coated inkjet papers if they come from a reputable supplier like Epson. Epson pays big money to research institutes like Wilhelm to make sure that their products in combination with their inks do not fade for a long long time. Like Ross implied, the acid test really lies on real world experience. Testing at labs are usually "accelerated" testing and do not provide total real world results. But for me that is good enough. For fine art printers like Ross, maybe not.