Ilford Gold Fibre Silk for most "glossy" prints and occasionally Epson Exhibition Fiber (though I don't find it outperforms the Ilford paper and this is maybe why we've seen the recent price cut by Epson as maybe their sales are low).
Regarding these two papers - initially I thought them to be "competitors" but the more I print with both, I tend to see these as complimentary. I hope what I type next might make sense as it's late and the gin and tonic sitting next to me is pretty tasty!
Anyway, for my tastes, in B&W images, I find the Epson Exhibition Fiber to have a slight bit more dynamic range than the Ilford. It's a subtle difference, but I find I get a slightly better black and a slightly better white out of the Epson paper, although at times this seems to make the paper a bit "hot" in the whites for some subjects. The biggest difference for me is that I've not yet found a paper from anyone that does as good a job at delineating the 3/4 tones as the Epson paper - in that range it just has this magic that makes it my favorite paper. I haven't noticed this difference on every image though - at times I've printed an image on both papers (on an Epson 3800) and the differences are barely perceptible, and other times it's more apparent.
So I'm finding as of late that if a print just seems to be a bit too hot on the Epson paper that running it on Gold Fibre Silk is the answer and it turns out dialed just right. Hence, I'm going to go forward and stock both papers since they both have their place, and also keep some Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta around for when it does the job, although I tend to experience more curl issues with their papers than everyone elses.
Great to have these choices, we live in exciting times!
-m
