<p>I have been looking at getting some painters tape to use on the glass plate for better print adhesion, and everything I read suggests the <em>blue</em> painters tape, such as this:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/WNCHm.jpg" rel="noreferrer" title="Blue painters tape"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/WNCHm.jpg" alt="Blue painters tape" title="Blue painters tape"></a></p>

<p>However, this white tape is considerably cheaper:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Kp92s.jpg" rel="noreferrer" title="White painters tape"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Kp92s.jpg" alt="White painters tape" title="White painters tape"></a></p>

<p>This looks like normal masking tape to me.</p>

<p>Is masking tape ok, or is the blue painter's tape preferable? If the latter, then why is that so? What is so special about the blue tape? Is it a different material?</p>

Of course, I don't know what kind of tapes you have. My experience with blue tapes is, that they seem in general softer and "nicer" than white tapes. Their structure appears denser and they seem to have longer "furs" while the white ones are "dryer" and "sharper"
This surface makes the blue tapes I sourced more suitable as the molten filament catches more furs.
Here are magnified photos of my comparable tapes. Unfortunately, my microscope is pretty lame but at least we can take a look on closeups:
This comparison shows the lower density of my white tape better:
to complete the picture here goes angle photos which reveals some more details
above shows that this white tape is made out of flat plastic fiber as they shine when illuminated from different angles
this could lead to another question
is such tape melted in any way in contact with extruded filament?
worth to analyse...