The Glossy Photo Paper is back at Lidl...

[The Hat]

I got myself ten A4 packs of this Cheap Premium Photo paper this morning and from what I could see it was selling like hot cakes, they only had the one size in stock this time.

click to enlarge...

After waiting well over a year for Mr Aldi (Not his real name) to stock the Sihl Photo paper again, I had all most given up and was in the process of sourcing some cheapo photo paper elsewhere, but now I don’t have too.

I talked a while ago to one of their helpful staff and she said, it should be in this store after Christmas, I taught, is she for real or just a good spoofer, because Lidl head office here hadn’t got a clue if they would ever stock the stuff again.

I have enough to last me now for more than a year, but if it comes back on sale again in the next six months I’ll get a few more packs, even if I never get to use it, it’s well worth keeping plenty on the shelf, just in case...
Now maybe I can get the colours on my printers sorted out, properly, this is another story...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Does it say 'Manufactured by Sihl' or something on the backside ?

Lidl Germany does not carry such paper at this time in their online store .

 

[CakeHole]

Lucky so and so, Lidl site says not until next week (26th jan) ill have to start pestering the staff now also

Bit expensive though at £4.99 for 50 sheets Im almost certain i can remember a few years back it was £2.99.

 

[PeterBJ]

This week Lidl DK has some office offers similar to those from Lidl UK, for instance plain printer paper white and coloured, the combined guillotine/roller paper trimmer and more but sadly no photo paper. I think that for more than a year Lidl DK has offered no photo paper.

 

[The Hat]

Does it say 'Manufactured by Sihl' or something on the backside ?

@Ink stained Fingers, it’s the same stuff as always just a new box from United Office, A4 280 gm and Sihl GmbH. are the manufacturers.

Bit expensive though at £4.99 for 50 sheets Im almost certain i can remember a few years back it was £2.99

@CakeHole, I reckon you’re getting a bit mixed up with the price its £4.99 for the Photo paper and £2.99 for the 80 gm copier, and I don’t reckon its expensive at all, why do you thing I like it ?...

for instance plain printer paper white and coloured, the combined guillotine/roller paper trimmer

@PeterBJ, We got the extension leads, Envelopes, Document Shredders, Paper Cutters, A4 Coloured paper, Office Floor Protection Mats, Drawer Filing sets, Portable laptop Trays and 80 gm Copy paper, very much the same as the Lidl UK....

 

[CakeHole]

@CakeHole, I reckon you’re getting a bit mixed up with the price its £4.99 for the Photo paper and £2.99 for the 80 gm copier, and I don’t reckon its expensive at all, why do you thing I like it ?...

Its possible though i swear back around 2014-15 it was £2.99 for the photo paper and £1.99 for the 80gm regular paper. A small jump for the standard paper but considerably more for the photo.

Either way i agree it is good quality paper and even at £5 ill probably pick up a 50 pack next week, had a pack before and like you i would recommend it still.

For anyone interested in other good quality paper who do not have a lidl or the offer available where they live, I have been using Projet 240gm glossy A4 paper more recently (slightly thinner than the lidl 280gm stuff) and have found that to be good quality, you can pick up 100 sheets of it for £6-8 (depending where you look) online. Not a massive saving i know but if planning on buying a lot the odd few quid here and there soon mounts up.

 

[martin_k]

Hi folks,

I have bought this Lidl/United Office 280gsm and did a test print of well-known Outback printer evaluation image.


My setup:
Printer: Epson pro3800
Media type: premium glossy photo paper
SW: Lightroom CC
Profile: Epson PRO3800 PGPP
Intent: perceptual


printer driver:
No color management
Photo quality – superphoto (highest quality) 2880x1440dpi
Finest detail - on


Print result: awful bad
Mixed dark colors have visible puddles – like paper is unable to absorb this amount of ink. Real photo print with these settings would be unusable.


My question to all epson folks: is there any way to avoid these puddles? Does proper profiling solve it? I have used original Epson pro3800 PGPP paper profile.


I will provide puddle pictures ASAP

this is printscreen of my printer driver setup

here are puddles:
- you can see it in black&white monochrome macro picture
- blue and violet square under monochrome macro picture
- top right corner with dark electronics (phone, cd player etc)

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I don't know which in which country you purchased this paper, it is actually produced by Sihl in Germany , it is the quickdry paper 0769 280gr and offered as well via the Lidl online shop , see my posting here
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/netbit-photo-paper-at-aldi-dk.11563/#post-101095
Since you are printing on a Pro 3800 I'm assuming that you are using pigment inks.
There are two details to consider - the paper selections in the driver refer to the genuine Epson papers and their capabilities - in this case the ink absorption of the coating, and some other paper parameters like white point, OBA content etc. You may try to use other paper settings - e.g. photo glossy whether you still get these ink puddles or not, and you may try as well other quality settings. Don't assume that less ink always means less color saturation - there is an effect of saturation reversal that more ink may give less color saturation a t the end. That's dependent on the specific paper/ink combination. And you can try and use another mode, it is correct as a standard to use 'No color adjustment' if you plan to use your own profiles, but that setting as well puts more ink onto the paper than the color adjustment mode. Again - you may not loose anything of the gamut in this case.
And there is some hidden information which I found longer time ago on the Sihl web pages, a rating of their paper with particular ink and printer combinations (This info is gone since the modernization of their web pages ) - the rating was very high for all dye ink/printer combinations - Canon, Epson , HP, but they gave a lower rating - fair - for some Epon pigment ink printers and a good for Epson printers with a gloss optimizer - R2000 - and very good on Canon Pro10 like printers with a Chroma optimizer overprint.
This is all pretty tricky, the best performance of a print is a complex interaction of the printer/driver settings and the inks used, prints may look different on the same paper but printed with different pigment inks, and prints may look pretty different on different papers with the same inkset.
So with all that in mind profiling would not solve ink puddles/excess ink on the paper.

 

[martin_k]

I'm from Slovakia and yes, I'm using pigment inks.

The paper I bought is exactly same paper as in first post – united office, A4 280gsm, 50 sheets pack, same picture as in first post. And yes, on the back side it says made by sihl


Here is a link to sihl website – http://www.sihl.com/en/products/quick-dry-photo-paper-280-glossy/

Under Documents, there is “Recommendation of use” (http://www.sihl.com/wp-content/uploads/Printer_Settings_Photo_UltimatePhotoPaper.pdf ) and it says:

For older EPSON printer series, please select "Photo Glossy Paper" as media type and set the print quality to "Superfine 1440 dpi" under "Advanced Mode" => "Custom Settings" => "More Settings". For newer EPSON printer series, please select "Photo Quality Glossy Film" or "Premium Glossy Photo Paper" as media type and a high print quality or "Photo" [Advanced Settings: "Mode" =>"Custom" "Print Quality" => "1440 -2880 dpi" or "Photo". Note: "High-Speed" off at 720 dpi]. For Stylus with EPSON DURABrite™ printers, please select "Premium Semigloss Photo Paper" as media type and a high print quality or "Best Photo".



With a little help from google, I have found a datasheet (http://www.sihl-intranet.de/downloa...ick-Dry-Fotopapier-280-131477950157028702.pdf ) to sihl quick dry fotopapier 280 glossy 0769 – datasheet is only in german, but it clearly says


Printer - Epson Stylus Pro 3800 UltraChrome K3
Quality – Fair


Basically (as Ink stained Fingers correctly remembers) – all pigment printers are rated “fair”


Sihl recommends "Photo Quality Glossy Film" or "Premium Glossy Photo Paper". So I will try to use “Photo Quality Glossy Film” media type and will see if there is any difference.


Is here anybody with Epson pigment printer printing on sihl 0769 paper, who is not having this kind of puddles? If yes, what kind of settings do you use?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

the data sheet states that the paper is as well best suitable for use with pigment inks - 'Auch für pigmentierte Tinten hervorragend geeignet' but the rating is only 'fair' - so much for the valitidy of this datasheet...Whatever their recommendations are try to find driver settings which don't give you those ink puddles e.g. with the color adjustment mode.