The testing staff of FLAAR are in the process of testing all kinds of papers.

Since we are independent, we can test anything and everything.

Since we are real end-users (and not paper merchants), we can tell you point blank what papers work best.Here a fork-lift truck brings paper samples into the back shipping entrance of the FLAAR Digital Imaging Technology Center, kindly donated by Weyerhaeuser.

Samples include Weyerhaeuser First Choice 32# letter size, Cougar Opaque in 11x17" size, an ink-jet paper (Jet-Xtra), and regular copier paper.We began testing within 48 hours.

The papers which are recommended in the official printer's Users Guide are great for business use for reproducing pie charts or bar charts. But if you want to do art reproductions, and if you feel that a 1000-year old Maya treasure is worth a better quality paper, we recommend Weyerhaeuser First Choice.

If you don't make the effort to track down First Choice (easy, just telephone Mac Papers toll free number), you will end up buying normal copier paper at Office Depot, Office Max, or compable place in your area.

Coming soon, what premium laser papers are best in Europe? If you can't get Weyerhaeuser paper in Europe, what is a recommended paper in Germany, France, Belgium, Austria?

HP is a respected name and they make quality products. Their paper is okay, but we must admit we like the quality of Weyerhaeuser paper better.

Some test labs use all kinds of scientific instruments. We prefer using the human eye. If it looks good, we will let you know.

If it looks bad, it will be self-evident and we will report it.Mountie Matte is made by Potlatch and distributed by Mac Papers.

We like the substantial weight and the surface feel. This is a selection we recommend for fine art prints.

The papers we like the best are both distributed by Mac Papers but we welcome samples from other distributors. We prefer to recommend companies that distribute nationwide, since these reviews are read in all 50-states (and in Europe, Latin America, Asia, etc). Our reviews are seasonal, and this is the beginning of our color laser season, so there is much more coming (papers from other mills, papers from Unisource, Xpedx, etc). Weyerhaeuser got enough paper to us, quickly enough, that we started with their papers first. Weyerhaeuser is well aware that more and more people are moving into in-house desktop publishing. Desktop printers get better every year, so they have developed First Choice (in the purple box being opened on top of the pallet full of paper to the right).

We will also be testing papers for 11x17 inch format, for the Lexmark Optra N as well as comparable black-and-white laser printers from other companies.

text by Nicholas Hellmuth, Director FLAAR Digital Imaging Technology Center even more links to Maya art and archaeology from another web site, www.maya-art-books.org desktop publishing (how best to print your reports, class notes, publish in your own office).