Papers For Fine Art Prints

Some time ago I bought a Canon iPF 5000 specifically so that I could take advantage of the much touted new papers which purported to do a good job imitating traditional glossy dried matte photographic paper, long the standard fine art surface of most photographers.

it should be understood that while this surface was 'the standard', it doesn't necessarily mean it was or should be the gold standard by which everything else should be compared.

Truth is that matte silver papers are incapable of producing a decent black and have generally been shunned. The surface was very visible in dark areas. The same is NOT true of matte inkjet papers which both show a fairly decent black (OK, not tested nearly as dark as glossy papers and glossy inks, but pretty darn good none the less) and a surface which shows no reflections at all and so is essentially invisible. This is a huge improvement over silver matte papers and has made them the new 'standard' for fine art work. The lack of surface awareness makes them better in some ways than even traditional glossy dried matte which still has some reflection issues.

Now however, the issue is one of comparing the new inkjet 'glossy dried matte' papers. Specifically I'm talking about Crane Museo Silver Rag, Hahnemuhle Pearl and Innova Fibaprint F Gloss. I have now had a chance to try all three papers and here's my observations about these papers in general then specific comments about each paper.

All three papers have a slight sheen to the unprinted surface however this isn't nearly as shiny as the black ink so the result is that at angles, the ink really does look like it's sitting on top of the paper and the light areas are noticeably duller than the dark areas. This is the reverse of bronzing in which flat inks sat on top of glossy paper. I don't see why we couldn't have a slightly glossier paper which matches the gloss of the inks.

The blacks are good and yes, holding a print in hand, they do look deeper than matte prints though oddly it's more to do with picking up surface reflections than actually looking blacker. Under 150 watt spot lights I dare say the difference would be a lot more noticeable but that's not the real world of print viewing, in home or in galleries.

Silver Rag - was the first of the new papers. The paper is noticeably cream coloured especially when compared to the others. Some yellowing of lighter inks can be avoided by using a neutral ink setting rather than warm. The surface has a fair amount of texture - the most of the three papers. It has a natural look to it and is quite nice. If an image suits a warm paper, prints look very nice. Two boxes of paper had to be rejected due to surface defects that showed both before and after printing and every other box has shown some suface markings, all be it barely noticeable once printed on. A few sheets show scuffing of the surface as if the sheets have been rubbing on each other in the box - these have had to be relegated to test prints since it does show in the final print and these sheets can't be used for good prints. Given the cost per sheet, this is pretty significant. Silver rag has been the only paper which has not had bashed corners in some boxes - whether this is coincidence or better packing I'm not sure yet.

Pearl - two boxes showed bashed corners - fortunately a third box opened at the store also showed the same bashes showing it wasn't my fault. I don't remember anything like the same problems with silver gelatin photographic papers - was it the light tight wrapping or stiffness of the sheets - I don't know but I do know I'm frustrated and I'm at the point now that I will have to open every single box of paper in store before going home. I didn't have this problem to nearly the same extent with Moab Entrada for whatever reason. Pearl has a slightly finer surface than Silver Rag on a white paper. The texture is just a little bit repetitive (like a weave)in places but this is subtle and for the most part not an issue. Sheets show no defects at all, through the whole box. Review articles have suggested a deeper black than Silver Rag but I haven't seen the difference and if I can't see it I have no interest in measuring it. If you can live with the gloss differential and like a slight texture to the paper, this is a nice paper to work with.

Fibaprint F Gloss - I can't buy this paper locally but ordered some and waited a month for it to come. The texture is the least of the three and I chose this paper for submitting for magazine publication (though I suspect that if they accept the images, they will probably want the digital files anyway). This isn't an all rag art paper but lets face it, silver gelatin paper was never all rag either. It is however lignin free and should be archival. The surface has been free of defects. I don't happen to like their plastic boxes for the paper but that wouldn't prevent me from using the paper. If you want as little suface texture and as close as possible to glossy dried matte, then this is probably the paper you should use.

After all this discussion of the new papers, I'm still not sure that I'm not going to go back to using matte for most of my work. As I've written in the past, once matte papers are behind glass, there is no noticeable diffecence between them and glossier papers, except for reduced reflections with the matte paper, and without the gloss differential as discussed above.