Cut Through the Paper Marketing Noise — Here's What Matters

Paper names like 'lustre,' 'pearl,' and 'satin' aren't standards — they're whatever a manufacturer wants to call a finish that week, which means you can't trust a name to tell you what you're actually buying. Know these three things instead: base weight (heavier isn't always better for your printer), coating type (resin-coated dries faster and resists moisture; baryta behaves more like fibre), and optical brightening agents (they boost whites now but can cause colour shift in 20 years).