Does anyone here use a color laser printer to print photos? If yes, what kind of paper do you use?
I’m having a hard time finding “photo paper” intended for use in laser printers. Any search term that I use on Amazon or Google returns results for inkjet printers only.
I’m concerned that the heat used in a laser printer may have a bad effect on normal inkjet paper.
Any suggestions?
What are you intending on doing with the print? I have a laser color printer and when I – very infrequently – print a photo it’s on regular ol’ paper albeit heavier weight than usual, but it’s hardly archival quality.
I say infrequently because printing a photo or art work really chews through the toner and $100+ bucks a cartridge.
I don’t need archival quality or longevity, but I need to send prints to family and friends that are still stuck on actual paper. I don’t want to use a printing service like Walmart and such because I want control over the final print.
I would like to find some paper for the printer that’s equivalent to inkjet photo paper.
I would like to find some gloss or semi-gloss paper.
Good luck.
Inkjet paper is grossly because it has an emulsion on it. That type of paper can’t be used in a Laser printer (at least, not very well), because the toner won’t stick to it, or the fuser will melt it.
You can get “Bright white” (98 brightness) Laser paper that makes decent prints, but nobody is going to confuse them with a commercially printed photo.
I print calendars every year using a color Laser, and I’m happy with the results, but for actual photos for display, I use Walmart or Walgreens.
That’s discouraging.
There’s plenty of gloss and semi-gloss paper for laser printers out there. (HP makes several kinds.) It’s slightly more expensive, but so is good photo paper for inkjet printers. I often have to print photos to use as exhibits in legal cases and I save the good laser printer paper for that. The result is very, very good and the pictures are much more stable than using inkjet.
Just check Amazon.
I thought that there would be, but every time I think I’ve found some, it turns out to be intended for inkjet. Amazon’s search algorithms are REALLY crappy.
Try HP 4WN10A. It is VERY expensive, but my HP color laser prints beautifully on it and the images are very stable.
I’ve tried some other brands and some of them are almost as good. Hammermill 163110R does a decent job at a much better price.
Hey, that great info - just what I was looking for. Amazon has that for at $30 for 150 sheets. Thanks!
Your results will really be worse than getting the print done by some service. Do you have a local camera shop that does prints?
Laser printers are not good for photos.
No - just Walmart, Walgreens etc.
I’m beginning to get that.
I’ve never tried to print photos with my printer, but I assumed that a color laser printer would be superior to any inkjet.
I’ve only ever tried it on regular paper (at work, because I don’t have a color laser at home) and the results were not very good. Maybe inkjet colors run a little, which looks more natural, more analog? I don’t know.
I think Walgreens or Walmart will both be better, and if you have more time, there are some good online options as well.
Inkjet are far superior to home lasers because they use variable dot-size, transparent inks and very fine step size. A cheap inkjet can (slowly) print a photo that is basically as good as a commercial printer (my decades-old Epson 300 could print photo-quality images that were indistinguishable from commercially printed photos). But, even the most expensive color laser can’t compare.
Note that there are commercial laser printers that are photo quality, but they are extremely expensive.
Just yesterday, I sent a few photos over to the local Walgreens for them to print. In the past I’ve also used Target and FedEx Office.
If you want to keep the printing in-house, you may want to look at one of the small photo-only printers - search for ‘4x6 photo printer’ and there’s a handful from Kodak, Canon, HP, etc. You’ll get much better results with one of these than attempting to coerce a laser printer to print photos.
At work I’ve always had decent laser printers (Konica-Minolta BizHub types, 600x1200dpi and costing $3,000-5,000). No it’s still not quite up to par with a good inkjet, but plenty solid even for photos. Do the home color lasers show a lot of dithering? Is the toner just not that vibrant? I’m curious exactly how they look bad.
Anyway, even with a high-end laser printer the main thing is that you can’t get that glossy photo appearance even with coated paper, since the toner kind of sits on top of the paper, and it’s only so shiny. It looks more like a book or at best a magazine print, which honestly can still look very good. Hammermill Premium Laser Gloss always worked well for me. There’s different weights but the 32lb stuff has a decent weight without being too hard to feed or needing extra long fusing time like some thicker card stocks.