Product development activity in the area of ink jet printing papers has accelerated greatly to meet the rapidly growing market for ink jet printing. Advancements in ink jet printing technology have also placed new demands on the paper substrate, due to faster printing rates, greater resolution through decreased drop volumes, and better colorants added to the ink. For glossy ink jet papers, small particle, large surface area fumed silica and aluminum pigments have been shown to provide the desired properties for high quality glossy ink jet coated papers. However, their high cost and low make-down solids in comparison to conventional pigments, has limited their use by the industry to these specialty grades. In previous research, it was seen that the presence of coating cracks increased the micro-roughness of the papers coated with silica based formulations, thereby reducing the gloss of the silica based coatings. Coating cracks were not observed for the alumina coated papers. To minimize the shrinkage of coating layer, coating solids greater than 30% solids should be targeted to reduce the difference between application solids and the coating's immobilization solids point. Since the immobilization solids point is the point at which the free drainage of coating water to the basesheet ceases, raising the application solids will reduce the amount of free water lost to the basesheet upon its application and metering and hence reduce the incidence of cracks. The focus of this study was to determine if the costs can be reduced and application solids could be increased by extending the pigments with less expensive compatible pigments. The effects of the resultant change in packing volume and particle size distribution on the optical properties and printability were determined. It was determined that up to 50 parts of the fumed silica and up to 30 parts of fumed alumina can be replaced with less expensive compatible pigments, without significant loss to the optical and printing properties of the glossy ink jet paper.