I received my sample pack of Red River Paper about a month ago and have been putting them to the test to see if a third party paper manufacturer can stand up to professional standards. I have always recommended staying with your printer manufacturers papers for best results and consistency.

Unfortunately I don’t have every printer in the world so be aware that individual results will vary. So what printer was used in these tests? How about the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 Ink Jet Printer? Man, I love this printer.

So we’ll start with the beginning. This would, of course, involve going to the Red River Paper website and ordering a sample kit. There are a few sample kits to choose from such as a “pigment ink sample kit”, “greeting card sample kit”, “dye inkjet printer sample kit”, and more.

Their website is fairly easy to navigate and is full of really great information to help you get the most out of printing at home. One of the coolest features is the ability to shop by printer model so that you are assured to get papers that work well with the equipment you’re using.

Along with the sample kit we received some of the Aurora Fine Art Natural in 8.5 X 11, some of the Arctic Polar Satin in 11 X 14, and more.

After we got our paper in and uploaded our color profiles we were ready to test out this third party paper company.

I was skeptical.

Then blown away!

This company is the real deal. After a few minor tweaks to get my prints to come out how I wanted them to (I have to do this with Epson’s papers as well) I found that the Red River Papers produced results that were just as good if not better than what I was getting out of the Epson papers. Truthfully, the dry run with no tweaks produced photographs that I would have had no problem framing and hanging on my walls.

So would I give these to clients? You bet your slowly recovering assets I would. Here’s why:

• Red River Paper is one of the very few independent paper houses to subject their media to fade testing
• The color profiles provided by Red River Paper provide accurate and consistent results
• You’ll save up to 40% by using Red River Paper over your printer manufacturers paper

I was particularly impressed with two specific papers.

The 66lb Arctic Polar Satin produced stunning black and white photographs without the “bronzing” often found in glossy inkjet papers.  With the Satin I was able to get deep blacks and great contrast throughout all of the photographs I printed.  As the name suggests “Arctic” does provide a slight blue, or coolness, in the white color of the paper which really made everything pop.  I would have no problems at all handing photographs printed on this medium to portrait or wedding clients.

The Aurora Fine Art Natural is going to fill that perfect gap for a great cotton rag photo paper.  There’s a very pleasing warmness to the natural white color and I’m really loving the surface texture and thickness.  Of course it’s acid free and contains no optical brighteners all while providing the look and feel of the finest high quality fine art photo paper. This has become my favorite paper to print with by far.

I would highly recommend heading to the Red River Paper website and grabbing a sample kit.  The ability to save tons of cash and still get fantastic results not to be sneezed at.

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