Ilford Printer Paper Testing
Keywords: paper, printer, non_nikon, ilford
Thanks to Nikonians and Ilford for asking/allowing me to review/test some very nice photo paper. I hope my review and data will be helpful to potential customers looking for great printing paper for their photos, both pros and home printing photographers.
I am an American living in Germany with an Event & Studio Photography business. Primarily, I shoot Equestrian sports, but I do not limit my self to a single sport or subject. Auto Races, HS Sports of all kinds, Communions, Weddings and Company Events are to name a few of the types of events I shoot. To present and print my work at these events, I use my self made Event Photo Truck. With this truck, I can service between 8 to 12 customers, depending on configuration, all at the same time with different viewing stations. I am able to produce photo prints for my customers from 4x6” all the way to 44x66” on location using any of the five photo printers in the truck. You can learn a bit about me and my Event & Studio business, as well as see some photos of my self-made event photo truck at www.dennisowens.com. Each time you refresh the page on my website (by pressing F5) or show a new page, you should see a different random photo of my truck on the top right of the page. Enough about me, lets get on with this review.
Here is how I intend to do this review…
- First The Paper Details (the boring stuff)
- Then the Test Methodology used (more interesting)
- Subjective - My Impressions (what we are all interested in)
- Objective - A chance to See for yourself
- Internet Web Link URL References
My first step was to realize what paper I have and find a way to objectively compare this new paper to my very trusted Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper 260gm which I use primarily in my Event Photo Truck.
1. The Paper Details
The five rolls of Ilford paper I was provided for this testing/review are…
- 1154504 Gold Fibre Silk 43,2 cm x 12,0 m 310 g Ilford Galerie Gold
- 1161764 Smooth Gloss 43,2 cm x 30.5 m 290 g Ilford Galerie Smooth
- 1161720 Smooth Pearl 43,2 cm x 30.5 m 290 g Ilford Galerie Smooth
- 1151534 Smooth Fine Art Canvas 43,2 cm x 12,0 m 375 g Ilford Galerie Smooth
- 1129131 Smooth Fine Art Matt 61,0 cm x 12,0 m 310 g Ilford Galerie Smooth
All were in rolls of 17” except the Fine Art Matt was a roll of 24”.
Next step was to get the Printer ICC Profiles from www.ilford.com for the Epson Stylus Pro 9880 for the five types of photo paper.
Printer ICC profiles were loaded into my Print Computer which uses the German Operating System Windows 7 Home version.
Breaking the code to the Ilford ICC Profiles was a bit confusing at first, but it is done like this…
On page 3 of the Read Me PDF file that comes with each Ilford ICC profile an explanation is given per Ilford Paper type, which printer you will be using it with, what selection of printer driver “Media Type” to use in your printer as well as which application, if any should perform color management. See Figure 1.
For instance, the paper I was provided with to test using the Epson Stylus Pro 9880 brakes down like this per paper type…
1154504 Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk 43,2 cm x 12,0 m 310 g
ICC Profile – IGGFS13Roll_EPP9880_PSPPN250n
IGGFS13 is Gold Fibre Silk Roll, EPP9880 is for my printer, PSPPN250n is for the Media Type that I should select in my printer to use = Premium Semigloss Photo Paper 250gm, and the small ‘n’ at the end of this ICC profile indicates that I should use no color management from my Epson printer driver. The “n” indicates that the color management should be done from within the application being used and not by the printer driver. You are still using color management, in fact.
1161764 Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss 43,2 cm x 30.5 m 290 g
ICC Profile – IGSGP11Roll_EPP9880_PGPPn
IGSGP11Roll is Ilford Galerie Smooth Roll, EPP9880 is for my printer, PGPP is for the Epson Media Type that I should select in my printer Driver to use = Premium Gloss Photo Paper, and the small ‘n’ at the end of this ICC profile indicates that I should use no color management for my Epson printer.
Same comment as above.
1161720 Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl 43,2 cm x 30.5 m 290 g
ICC Profile – IGSPP11Roll_EPP9880_PSPPn
IGSPP11Roll is Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl Roll, EPP9880 is for my printer, PSPP is for the Epson Media Type that I should select in my printer Driver to use = Premium Semigloss Photo Paper, and the small ‘n’ at the end of this ICC profile indicates that I should use no color management for my Epson printer.
Same comment as above.
1151534 Ilford Galerie Smooth Fine Art Canvas 43,2 cm x 12,0 m 375 g
ICC Profile – IGSFAC_EPP9880_USFAPn
IGSFAC is Ilford Galerie Smooth Fine Art Canvas, EPP9880 is for my printer, USFAP is for the Epson Media Type that I should select in my printer Driver to use = Ultra Smooth Fine Art Paper, and the small ‘n’ at the end of this ICC profile indicates that I should use no color management for my Epson printer. Same comment as above.
1129131 Ilford Galerie Smooth Fine Art Matt 61,0 cm x 12,0 m 310 g
ICC Profile – IGSFAM_EPP9880_ USFAPn
IGSFAM is Ilford Galerie Smooth Fine Art Matt, EPP9880 is for my printer, USFAP is for the Epson Media Type that I should select in my printer Driver to use = Ultra Smooth Fine Art Paper, and the small ‘n’ at the end of this ICC profile indicates that I should use no color management for my Epson printer. Same comment as above.
Originally written on April 13, 2012
Last updated on September 23, 2016
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4 comments
Dennis Owens (DennisOwens) on April 17, 2012
Thanks John. Dennis
Dennis Owens (DennisOwens) on April 17, 2012
Hi David, I made my Editors note after my comments on the Canvas and the Matt. I continued with my Impressions for the other three types of paper tested just after this. Dennis
David B Arkin (sazerac_the_dog) on April 17, 2012
I find it somewhat troublesome that an EDITOR'S note is listed at the end of the My Impressions comment. If someone didn't read this they would assume that the paper is not very good. At least this Editorial comment should be at the beginning of the article or the article Impressions retracted.
John D. Roach (jdroach) on April 17, 2012
Pretty Cool set up!