Difference between photo-copier paper and photo paper
The paper that you find in a photocopier is usually wood-free paper, usually with thickness of 70-90 gsm. The paper is uncoated, so any ink that lands on it will streak out and bleed into the fibres of the paper. This is especially obvious when you print fine text on a copier paper using inkjet printers. The text is slightly soft and blurry due to the streaking of the ink. In addition, because the copier paper is thin and uncoated, it does not hold large amount of ink well. Printing photos on normal paper will end up with a soggy piece of photo that looks flat and unattractive.

Canon photo papers are heavyweight paper of 200 gsm and more. They are specially treated and coated to be ink-receptive, so every drop of ink that lands on the paper is immediately absorbed. This property is very important in a photo paper, because of the high resolution of inkjet photo printers today. Canon photo printers can print up to 9600 dpi, which means a drop placement accuracy of 1/9600th of an inch! There is no point in having such a high-resolution printer if the paper cannot absorb the ink droplet exactly where it is meant to be placed. Using Canon photo papers is a good way of assuring that you will be getting rich and colour-accurate photos.

Sizes
How about the sizes then? Photo papers are available in a wide variety of sizes, mainly divided into two types of sizes – the traditional photo sizes (4R/5R/8R/12R) and international paper sizes (A4/A3/A3+). Canon offers the entire range of sizes so you can pick and choose the exact size you want. Before printing, think about how you'd like to display the images. Various portfolio, photo frames and albums come in different sizes, so check out the final print size to be sure.

Glossy and semi-gloss papers
In terms of texture, there are four main types of photo paper – glossy, semi-glossy, matt and fine art. Glossy photo papers come in various grades, from the top-grade photo paper such as the Canon Photo Paper Pro PR-101 and Photo Paper Plus Glossy PP-101. Glossy photo paper are extremely smooth in texture and shows off bright and punchy colours the best. For those who prefer the satin finish of traditional photo labs, you can look at the semi-glossy photo paper such as the Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss. Because the finishing is less reflective, the colours may not be as punchy as glossy papers. However, semi-gloss papers work well with a wide-variety of images including monochrome photos.

Matte and Fine Art papers
If you are preparing your images for a exhibition, consider using non-reflective photo papers such as the Matte Photo Paper MP-101 or the Canon Fine Art series photo paper. These paper are perfect for portfolio or exhibition use because of the zero-reflectivity which makes them easy to view. Because of the fine art texture, the Canon Fine Art papers are also ideal for fine art images and monochrome prints, conveying a sense of class and occasion.