Most jewelry tags are made from matte papers. Inkjet paper is made from high quality deinked pulp or chemical pulps and requires good dimensional stability, no curling or cockling, good surface strength, and surface smoothness. Sufficient and even porosity is required to counteract spreading of the ink. For lower quality printing, uncoated copy paper will suffice, but higher grades require coating. The traditional coatings are not widely used for inkjet papers. For matte inkjet papers, it is common to use silica as pigment together with polyvinyl alcohol. Glossy inkjet papers can be made by multi coating, resin coating, or cast coating on a lamination paper.

When paper is manufactured, it is formed from a fiber mat that collects on an open mesh screen, which is then dried and pressed flat and smooth. Large areas of inkjet color, such as found in graphics and photographs, soak the paper fibers with so much moisture that they swell and return to their original shape from before pressing, resulting in a wavy buckling of the paper surface.The thickness of photo paper varies over a wide range. The lighter weights are not much different from general-purpose office papers such asjewelry tags, and can be used for all types of printing, although these are the least expensive lowest-quality photo paper.

Double-sided inkjet printing is usually not possible with inexpensive low-weight copy paper because of bleed-through from one side to the other. Heavier weight jewelry tags works better due to the thickness of the fibers limiting bleed-through. These papers are also unsuitable for photographic work because standard office paper is usually not "white" enough. These results in a poor color gamut and leads to colors being described as "muddy". For all types of paper, the settings in the printer driver must be adjusted to suit the paper, so that the right amount of ink is delivered.