Combination ink set/image-recording element for ink jet printing

A pigment-based ink jet ink set and image-recording element combination is described, wherein the ink jet image-recording element has a gloss value of at least 5 when measured at 60°, and wherein each ink in the ink set has a normalized differential specular reflectance, NDeltaRS(X), of less than 1.25. NDeltaRS(X) is defined as the maximum value within a set of NDeltaRS(Xn) values in which each NDeltaRS(Xn) is the normalized specular reflectance for a density patch of a printed test image. The printed test image consists of a series of at least eleven density patches printed such that the ink laydown of the patches increases incrementally, from no ink laydown to a maximum level generating a density of at least 1.5; and wherein NDeltaRS(Xn) for each patch is determined according to: N ⁢ ⁢ Delta ⁢ ⁢ R S ⁡ ( Xn ) = [ R Smax ⁡ ( Xn ) - R Smin ⁡ ( Xn ) ] R Smean ⁡ ( Xn ) where, over the visible spectral region between 390 nm and 720 nm for patch Xn, RSmax(Xn) is the maximum, RSmin(Xn) is the minimum, and RSmean(Xn) is the average specular reflectance.