Kodak 8456147 Ultima Picture Paper, Satin, 8.5inx11in, 15 Sheets

I will tell you right now, I am not a professional. Just a picture-taking mother of a busy 1 year old. I have tried several different types of paper and have to say I'm quite impressed with the quality of my images with this paper. Feels like a real photo and cuts nicely with my paper-cutter. Some papers don't cut cleanly. This dries quickly and makes wonderful prints. I can't wait to try the Glossy. I can not believe the difference in this paper. It is fantastic. The pictures of my daughter's 1st Birthday turned out better than I ever imagined, thanks to Kodak. Also, Amazon prices on this item can't be beat! I will be adding this to my online shopping list as a regular item to purchase. My next order will be for the Glossy, so I will let you know on that, too!

I had very high hopes for Kodak's Ultima Satin, but unfortunately the paper has not lived up to those hopes. I had used Kodak Premium paper before, and liked the output but not the feel of the paper; and it wasn't available in a matte finish. With the new Ultima, I was excited to see the sattin finnish. Unfortunately, rather than going with an e-surface type paper like HP Premium Plus Matte or Epson Premium Luster, Kodak chose to go with a flat semigloss. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, I was kind of longing for the extra glow that an e-surface gives your prints. Because of this, I somewhat disliked the Kodak paper before even printing with it.

How the prints look is, of course, what really matters. The included instructions recommend turning up the saturation one notch in the print driver for my HP 900 series printers. When I used Kodak Ultima High-Gloss, this provided a perfect match for my prints. The satin paper, however, looks oversaturated even at a reduced setting in the driver. Beyond that, colors loose their accuracy, gaining a magenta tone. Blue skies look slightly purple, and greyscale looks almost sepia or duotoned. This is in stark contrast to the Ultima Glossy paper that matches colors perfectly to my screen and prints greyscales with no perceivable color (the only paper I've found that does this on my HP). Ink dries fairly quickly on the Satin, but not as instantaniously as it does on the Glossy (note that ink never seems to dry on HP premium-plus matte). While I dislike glossy paper in general, I would much prefer the accuracy of Ultima Glossy to Ultima Satin on HP printers.

I love Kodak Ultima paper. It prints great on my lexmark printer. The colors look more vibrant and black prints are even sharper. I've already tried the other kinds photo papers and nothing beats Kodak Ultima. It is way better than kodak premium and well worth the extra money. It has a real professional texture and the gloss makes your pictures stand out more. I believe that Ultima is the exact same paper that is used in the "Kodak Picture Maker".