UltraChrome inks are also used in the 2200, 4000, 7600 & 9600

Recommended Papers

First Choice : Permajet Museum Classic 310gsm

Most fine art matt papers work very well with the 2100. My own favorite is Permajet Museum Classic 310gsm but any of the Permajet Fine Art range will probably perform just as well. Museum Classic is very heavy with a light watercolour paper style surface. I’m not a big fan of heavily textured surfaces, but that’s just a personal preference. Permajet have a surface to suit all tastes. The real plus of this paper is the depth it seems to give the image. Compared to Epson’s own Archival Matt the difference is far bigger than I would have expected. Prints just look much richer.

Budget Choice : Epson Archival Matt 192gsm

Although the Permajet Fine Art paper is wonderful it isn’t cheap, so for day to day printing with the Epson Stylus Photo 2100 this Epson paper is a really good buy. Sold in packs of 50 sheets at reasonable prices it’s one of few OEM bargains out there. Archival Matt’s one fault is that it’s not quite heavy enough. Image quality is good, but areas with dark colours tend to wrinkle just a little - not as much as some other Epson papers - but it would be so much better if it was even 210gsm. It makes me mad that Epson sell this and many others in their range as photo papers but when you print photos on them they don’t dry flat. A basic requirement I would say

Papers to Avoid

Glossy papers - any maker

I tried every glossy paper I could find with this printer before learning to accept it just doesn’t do glossy. It makes superb matt prints but if you want lovely glossy prints you should buy a Canon inkjet printer - it’s why I use both. The problem is chroming - where darker areas on the print look .... weird. Looked at, other than absolutely straight on, glossy prints from the 2100, look embossed and metallic. Lots of papers say they’re compatible but I’d disagree. I’ve been to lots of trade shows where Epson hand out free samples of the output from their printers. I kept asking for a sample glossy print from the Epson 2100 or 4000 - strangely enough they could never find one. In the end I bought a 2100 and found out why.

Others

Fotospeed High White Smooth 315gsm - this is probably capable of good results - Fotospeed offer a free icc profiling service which is great, and important, because on default settings the output colours are quite different from the Epson or Permajet papers. Needs work to get correct colours and even then I wasn’t that impressed.
Olmec Double Sided Matt 170g - results just look flat and lifeless compared to Epson Archival Matt never mind the Permajet.