I guess the best way would be to try, but I was wondering if anyone has a definite answer. Because we have a nice laser printer at work, I was wondering if I can use digital photography paper (usually just one side glossy, and it’s a little thicker than regular paper – for use with digital photo printers), but I worry a bit about it somehow messing up the printer. Anyone have any experience about this?
Unless the paper is reactive to heat, it would be fine. Most laser printers fuse the toner at a very high temperature, but at work I see millions of pages a month of glossy, photo-type paper run through large production printers with no problems.
Yeah, my thought would be that it should be fine, but this paper that I’m looking at (specifically for digital photo printers, there’s two versions in which one side is glossy [like a normal 4x6 photo, about same rigidity and thickness], or both sides) is a bit different – a bit thicker, but I don’t think reactive to heat. Worst case scenario, it just doesn’t come out so clearly.
Does anyone know the difference between digital photo printers versus laser printers, and the paper they use? My thinking is that although the former may need special paper, the latter can be more flexible. But I don’t know, the processes may be different enough that I don’t want to mess with it.
High end digital photo inkjet “papers” are often either pure mylar plastic sheets or paper with various plasticizers embedded in the surface to absorb and/or hold the ink. Given the vast difference in the way a laser printer and an ink jet lay down ink and toner for imaging I don’t think you would get any enhanced clarity with a high end ink jet paper used in a laser. You would just be wasting expensive paper.