Canon Water Resistant Matte Polypropylene paper review

Water resistant matte photo paper 115gsm

During recent testing of a Canon PRO-2000 printer, Keith was able to test numerous high quality photo papers. Although pretty robust, you’d not want to get any wet.

However the matte photo paper looked at here is specifically marked as water resistant and rated for six months exterior use, with the ordinary LUCIA pigment inks found in the Canon PRO-1000/2000/4000/6000 printers

At Northlight Images, we’re not signmakers, so have no real interest in the kinds of printers you’d normally use for such printing.

However, once people know you have a big printer, you never know what you may get asked for…

Article Index

• About the paper
• Using ICC profiles
• Print Quality
• Summary

About the paper

This from Canon:

The synthetic based Water Resistant Matte Polypropylene is a first for the imagePROGRAF media line-up allowing for posters to be placed outdoors without any lamination. With a resistance to peeling and fading, this media keeps its robust colours over time regardless of weather conditions. It is ideal for advertising signage in stadiums, construction signage and point-of-purchase (POP) for retail graphics and gift shops for up to six (6) months outdoors.

Paper available at Adorama and B&H in the US

Not long after I got the paper, a business colleague ‘wondered’ if I could do a poster for an event…

Specifications

ICC profiles and media settings

Media settings for the paper were registered into the printer using the media configuration tool.Don’t forget to update the printer driver on your computer, and (if you use it) the Canon Accounting Manager software.

There is more about this in my PRO-2000 review.

I created an ICC profile for the paper with i1Profiler

Print Quality

The paper is quite thin and, if you are not used to synthetic papers, very strong.

I’m printing from Photoshop, from a PDF I was sent for the business event.

The surface is a bright white and gives good vibrant colours.

Water resistance

It had to be tried – especially since it’s not rained significantly for some time…

I left the tap running for ten minutes or so.

Then, just to re-live that distant ‘dark room’ experience it’s time to dry the print.

Almost like ‘real photography’ ;-)

Summary

It does exactly what it says on the box. A lightweight tough synthetic matte paper that produces water resistant prints.

Not a mark on the print once I’d wiped it down. We have hard water here, so leaving water splashes to dry naturally did leave slight marks when dried.

No creasing or warping – it looked just the same after its wash.

Not a paper I’ll have a lot of use for, for my fine art photos, but definitely one I’m happy to have in the stock in the print room for trade show use.

Paper available at Adorama and B&H in the US