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If you are interested in digital printing, whether it is printing for yourself or having a professional printer handle your work, the choice of paper for the task is an important one. Here in 2012 we truly live in a golden age for papers — there are literally hundreds of available papers suitable for fine art digital printing. That wealth of choices does come with a price as it has become increasingly difficult to choose the appropriate paper for one’s work. In this article I will outline some of the crucial decisions you will need to make in selecting a paper for fine art digital printing.

Matte vs. Photo Papers

Papers suitable for digital inkjet printing typically have a substrate (such as a cotton rag) upon which an ink-receptive coating is applied. Without this special coating, image quality, particularly sharpness, suffers.

With the current technology of papers, the first question you must answer is what type of coating you prefer – do you prefer matte papers or photo papers (which include lustre and glossy, among other treatments)? The two types of papers are aesthetically very much different, and I strongly recommend photographers try both, as most people take an immediate like or dislike to one or the other. This is a very personal choice and there certainly no right or wrong answers, and I will highlight some of the advantages of each below. Like everything else in photography, there are no absolutes, and there are exceptions to many of the general rules of thumb below.

Advantages of Matte Papers

- Potential for more satisfying feel in hand (though some of the newer fiber-based lustre papers are in the ballpark)

- No reflections from inconsistent lighting

- No gloss differential (areas on a glossy print where it appears a different amount of ink has been applied than in other parts of the image)

- Reduced sharpness as compared to photo papers can help hide problems in an image

Advantages of Photo Papers

- Image quality – Potential for deeper blacks/more dynamic range, larger color gamut (i.e., has more color capability), increased sharpness

Substrate

Once you’ve decided on either a matte or photo paper, your next decision is substrate – do you want an art paper, a fiber paper, or a resin-coated paper? I’ve written a longer article about choosing a paper substrate on my blog, but I’ll summarize the choices here.

Art papers used for matte prints can be made of a wide variety of materials, including cotton rag, alpha cellulose, bamboo, and sugar cane. Cotton rag is widely accepted by galleries and collectors as being very desirable and is thus the safest bet. Alpha cellulose papers are made from wood pulp and when lingin-free are also considered very archival. Hahnemühle provides bamboo and sugar cane papers that provide excellent image quality and archival characteristics, a unique look, and with purported environmental advantages. Art papers usually have very good in-the-hand characteristics and an elegant feel.

Many lower-cost photo papers utilize a Resin-coated (RC) base that uses plastic resins in the paper base. These photo papers provide very good image quality at an affordable price. Some people find that they look like “real” photographs (i.e., like photo lab prints in days of yore), some think they look a bit plastic. I’m in the second category myself, but try them for yourself and see.

Many higher-end photo papers are fiber-based papers (which include baryta papers) that utilize either a cotton rag or alpha cellulose base. These papers are similar in the base to traditional silver gelatin papers (with a different coating, obviously), and share the great feel in the hand to the nicer art papers. At their best, they combine the quality feel of an art paper with the image quality characteristics of the best lustre papers.

Other considerations

There are many other factors to consider when choosing a paper. One big issue is the color of the paper. Papers often have a warm, neutral, or cool look, and your work may look its best on one of these types. With black & white printing, this choice is even more important as the overall image look will greatly depend on the paper’s color characteristics.

Another key related consideration is the brightness of the paper. For many papers, brightness (i.e., how white the whites are) is achieved through the use of optical brightening agents (OBAs), an addition to the paper that helps make the paper brighter. Papers with OBAs typically still have good archival characteristics, but testing has shown that OBAs will often fade before the rest of the print and the OBAs thus become the limiting archival factor. I still recommend many papers that use OBAs, but many artists prefer to avoid them entirely.

Availability is another factor to consider. Is the paper available from your favorite retailer? Do they offer the sizes that you need? Epson’s popular Velvet Fine Art, for example, is only available in sizes up to 17″x22″.

Cost can also be important as paper prices vary dramatically.

Surface texture is another vital consideration in choosing a paper. Papers range from very smooth to heavily textured, and the nature of the texture can vary in unique ways. With certain lustre surfaces I find the pebbled surface very attractive while others I find distracting. I usually do not favor heavily textured matte papers, but for certain types of work nothing else comes close.

Making a Selection

When choosing a paper for my own photography, I wanted a paper that had very good image quality characteristics as my work often relies on sharpness, detail in the shadows, and subtleties in color. I also wanted a relatively neutral (or slightly warm) color, a great feel in the hand, and a cotton rag base without OBAs. I ordered and tested a number of papers that met these criteria and laid them all side by side and chose my favorite. Some of the papers had more capability than the one I chose (Canson Platine Fiber Rag), but the surface texture of this paper was just perfect to my eye.

If you view the print as the final and ultimate expression of a photograph as I do, the choice of paper plays an incredibly important role in the final print. (I do highlight a few papers that I’ve been happy with for my own work and for that of clients here). Given how subjective your choice will be, I recommend using these factors to narrow your selections down and then put ink to paper. Holding prints on different papers side by side is the best way to make the choice that works for you. Most manufacturers also offer sample packs so that you may sample their papers without a major investment. Once you’ve chosen a paper or two, I recommend working with them a while to really learn their abilities and idiosyncrasies.

Please feel free to comment below with any questions or if you have your own personal favorite paper!

- Jim Nickelson

Jim Nickelson is a professional fine art printer based in Maine (proprietor of Nickelson Editions) as well as a fine art photographer.

This entry was posted on February 10, 2012 at 1:27 pm and is filed under HELP!! Doing it right... . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.