Both evolved because folks with a new job title wanted a magazine printed on glossy paper, and a conference and an association that they could call their own.

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Yet as it turns out, glossy paper is soooo 1999.

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Photo printing on glossy paper is OK but not exceptional.

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's decision to shed its Time Inc. magazine unit last week underscores the challenges facing an industry that remains wedded to glossy paper even as the use of tablet computers, e-readers and smartphones explodes.

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The outlook for newspaper printers is particularly grim, says Robert Picard, a media economist: advertisers are now keener to run their adverts in magazines on high-quality glossy paper than in newspapers, whose circulation is dwindling.

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But for those of us who came up in an era when a glossy hunk of paper and ink was a thing to behold, the tangible result of a hardworking group of professionals operating in a weekly cycle that felt as natural and inevitable as the tides, this is a day for memory and regret.

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Unlike America's paper comics, French ones are glossy hardbacks.

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If photo albums are your preferred method of storage, digital shots can be turned into glossy hard copies with inexpensive color printers and the right paper.

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