Red River shipped us a fifty sheet box of their new GreenPix inkjet paper. On their information sheet they specify that the GreenPix paper is 100% post-consumer paper meaning that every GreenPix sheet would actually contain hundreds if not thousands of different recycled woods and papers. This appears to be a great asset to the environment as all of that paper is not wasted and just burned into the atmosphere. But how good could the paper truly be?
When I took a sheet out of the box I noticed that it felt smooth and sturdy. It has a nice matte photo paper feel.The paper is a beautiful bright white on one side and a pale white on the other. This gives you the advantage of knowing which to print on. Looking closely throughout a sheet you can see tiny spots which ensures that the paper is recycled. The tiny specs are scattered and scarce.
Initially one of my co-workers had done a test and the image didn’t come out too clear at all. It was flat and blurred. I asked him how he did it and he stated that he just hit print. Oddly enough, the photo he printed was of a focus chart. On any paper, this should look clear. After seeing this I was a little disappointed that an eco-paper is so horrible, but decided to give it a try on the Epson 9800. This paper does not come in rolls but is available from greeting card sizes up to 24″x36″ sheets.
I followed Red Rivers steps to using their color profile with Photoshop and printed my test image. I used a new test image supplied from Colorvision’s PrintFix Pro. The result was ever so nice to see. The result, in fact, was the best image I have ever seen on a inkjet matte paper. The image was extremely crisp & the colors and contrast were on point. The black actually achieved a black point of 0 and the white achieved a white point of 255 giving true colors across the board.
They do come in rolls – 17″ and 24″ x 100′
I’ve used their standard size 8×11 inch Greenpix recycled matte papers on my Epson R2400 and prints looked identical to Epson’s own heavy weight matte papers, which is a very good thing. It’s very important to make sure the printer settings and what ever editing software you are using, are set up correctly. Now I just wished they’d make a recycled luster paper. Although I am a fan of matte papers, I have to admit I fall for luster papers more often than matte.