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I will be printing many repros of watercolor and oil paintings for an artist and she wants them to all be in the 16"x20" size range on matte paper. I typically print on either luster or satin papers, so this will be my first attempt at printing matte finishes. I use a Epson 4880 that has 17" roll capabilities, and I always use rolls as they are a little more economical in the long run.

She has had previous prints done for her and Epson Enhanced Matte paper was used, and she was happy with this paper's results. I guess I could just continue to use the Epson paper, but maybe there's a comparable alternative out there that's better? I just looked at Red River's Aurora Fine Art Natural (and Aurora Fine Art White), and they both looked interesting. I'm certainly not opposed to using sheets either if someone prefers a different paper that doesn't come in a roll.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I really like Breathing Colors matte papers. In fact, I rarely print on luster type papers anymore after seeing how good these papers look. I like BC's Optica One for a smooth finish and BC's Elegance Velvet for a paper with texture. Both available in rolls and BC offers 20 foot trial rolls at greatly reduced prices.

Red River Paper also has some nice matte papers as you mentioned.

Mark,

I regularly use both the papers that Randy mentioned and they are my "go to" matte paper finish for artists as I tend to print my own work on Photo Lustre. I have pretty much switched my entire line over to Breathing Color. It is a great produt line with excellent customer service. Their 600 MT is also a nice economical choice for a textured water color style paper. I recently made about 30 prints on it and it looked great.

Moab Entrada bright White and Hahnemuhle Rag are also nice papers. Never tried Breathing Color.

Thanks Randy, Les, and Jackie! Now I guess I gotta' try out a few of these good suggestions.