An ink-jet media having an absorbent substrate with a front surface and a back surface. The front surface of the substrate is coated with an ink-vehicle permeable, preferably radiation-cured coating. A microporous ink-receptive coating is deposited on top of the ink-vehicle permeable coating. An optional protective layer may be deposited on top of the microporous ink-receptive layer. The back surface of the substrate may also be optionally coated with a polymer curl-controlling coating.