For those who have some trepidation about printing your own sheets let me share how I print the PRINTED sheets.
This is from my experience of printing thousands of collage sheets over the years.
My current printer is a Canon Pixma Pro 100, which I’ve been using for about five years.
Prior to that it was a Canon Pixma Pro 9000. Before that some other Canon model because I’ve always used Canon printers because I have always had a Canon camera. It's just a personal preference; there are other photo printers out there that are highly rated among their myriad users. I do, however, recommend a photo printer.
PAPER
The paper I use for the printed collage sheets is Epson Presentation Paper Double-Sided. I’ve used this paper for more than a decade. A personal favorite. I have a Canon printer and have no issues using Epson paper with it. There is a version of this paper that is single-sided that is a bit less expensive - it's also a bit lighter in weight but still nice. I prefer double sided because it's a bit heavier and I can print on both sides (comes in handy when proofing prints).
When using an inkjet printer, I find office paper, including office paper for color printing will tend to give you washed out colors and will never compete with the Epson Presentation Paper. Again, a personal preference - I prefer a rich colored print and I prefer selling rich colored prints to my customers.
PRINTER INKS
I always always always use OEM inks - genuine inks made by the manufacturer of my Canon printer. These inks are archival and made specifically for my printer. I highly recommend that you always use the inks made by the manufacturer of your printer and never use cheap knockoff generic inks. In the beginning of my printing career I made a huge mistake using generic inks and ruined my printer lickety split because it plugged up the print nozzles of my printer. Pay the extra $ so you know your inks are compatible with your printer and you know whether they’re archival.
Be prepared to spend a lot more on printer inks over the years than you spent on your printer. In the long run it's worth the investment.
PRINTER SETTINGS
The settings I use for my printer are:
Media Type: Matte Photo Paper (based on the paper I'm using which is matte)
Print Quality: Standard
My printer happens to print a bit on the dark side so standard works best for me. You may discover that standard doesn’t give you as rich an output as you’d like so you may need to use High as your print quality.
And that is it! My secret printing formula.
In my opinion getting a good output boils down to ink, paper, printer settings. Photo printers nowadays generally have excellent print quality and you don’t need to buy a beast of a printer for $$$ to get beautiful prints.
❤️