I’ve always used Epson or Ilford paper in my Epson R1800. After trying the Ilford Glossy I fell in love with it. It just “pops” a bit more than the Epson. Recently I tried a sample pack from Red River and I have to say that I prefer their stuff better. (Arctic Polar Gloss – Wow!)

Besides the normal Matte and Glossy papers Red River has a Linen paper that is beautiful. For those of you who use Epson’s Velvet, you may want to try the Aurora Art Paper. It’s a cotton rag art paper with a beautiful look to it. And these are very reasonably priced; most are 20-40 percent less than the Epson/Canon equivalent.

From the Red River website you can choose your printer model and get a listing of all the compatible papers. They also sell sample packs with 2 sheets of each paper type for less than 10 bucks. All the ICC profiles are available off the website and from my test prints I can see that they’re dead on.

Their papers are supposed to have the same archival life as the Epson or Canon papers. Give them a try, get the sample pack and see what you think.