Choosing a Photography Paper for Fine Art Prints

For my personal print archive project, I need premium, high quality papers that not only look fantastic when printed on but that also feel good in hand and that have a surface texture that looks good when viewed up close and from different angles. I also need two types of photography papers: one with a luster/satin or semigloss finish for vibrant landscapes and most black and white images, and a matte paper for more subdued or soft color and black and white images.

Matte Photography Paper

Thus far I’ve been using Canon photography papers exclusively. Canon papers are high quality and relatively inexpensive compared to other brands, and I have no complaints about the appearance of the images when printed on the right paper. For everyday use and even for framed prints. Canon Pro Luster and Pro Premium Matte papers are incredible, and Pro Platinum rivals Fujiflex, my previous favorite for brilliant color images. However, none of these papers feels particularly premium in hand.

Canon Premium Fine Art Smooth, however, has exactly the premium feel that I am after. It is a 100% cotton fiber paper that is 16.5 mils thick and weighs 310 gsm. I’m not sure if it it the cotton specifically, but something about this combination of material, weight, thickness, and texture feels like pure quality on the fingertips. Plus, the print quality of images on this paper is superb. Compared to the Pro Premium Matte paper, it is slightly heavier and thicker, but it just feels like silk. Obviously, I have found my matte photography paper.

Satin Photography Paper

As for the luster/satin paper option, I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking for just the right paper. Canon does not currently make a paper that fits this category. Pro Luster is certainly good enough from a strictly visual standpoint. However, it does not have that premium, weighty feel but instead feels very plasticky and thin. I want a heavyweight cotton paper similar to Fine Art Smooth but with a semi-gloss finish.

After some preliminary research, I decided to try some photography papers from Red River Paper and Canson Infinity so I ordered a fine art sample pack from each company. The sample packs include 6 to 7 different papers including cotton rag, baryta, and matte.

Red River Paper

From Red River Paper, my favorite is the Palo Duro Softgloss Rag. I have printed on two sheets of this paper from a test pack, but two sheets is not enough to fully explore the capabilities and characteristics of a paper. I like the look of Palo Duro Softgloss Rag, and it has a nice weight at 310 gsm and thickness and is also 100% cotton. Compared to the Big Bend Baryta and Palo Duro Baryta Fiber papers also included in the test pack, I prefer the thickness and texture of Palo Duro Softgloss Rag (although Big Bend Baryta has a very nice smooth satin surface that looks fantastic).

Canson Infinity

I tried the Red River papers first, and while I really like some of them, I wanted to try some papers from one of the brand-name manufacturers just to compare, especially since there’s not a lot of cost difference depending on the brand and paper. I decided to order a fine art sample pack from Canson Infinity. It may be that the Red River paper is just as good or better, but I wanted to check out the offerings from Canson before deciding. I also looked at the papers from Hahnemuehle, but I think I can find something acceptable from Red River or Canson that will be more affordable.

What struck me the most about the Canson photography papers compared to the Red River was not any obvious difference in the papers but the neutrality of black and white prints from my Canon Pro-200 printer. All of the test prints on the Canson luster papers were noticeably more neutral than any of the Red River or even Canon papers that I’ve tried (and I confirmed this with additional testing). Since creating high quality black and white prints is one of my main objectives, this immediately got my attention. Only the Canson matte papers, Rag Photographique and Edition Etching, did not print neutral but instead had a noticeable cool tone.

By comparison, none of the test prints on the Red River papers were neutral using the ICC profiles, and I noticed more variation among all of the prints (although it is difficult to see in the photo above). Unfortunately I could not quantitatively evaluate the neutrality of these prints since I did not have access to the spectrophotometer when they were printed (and thus were not printed using a standard test strip that can be easily evaluated afterwards).

Cotton Rag

Unlike the smooth cotton matte papers which have a luxurious feel on both sides, all of the luster-type papers have some type of coating on the print side, whether baryta or something else, that takes away from the feel. However, the cotton rag papers, both Palo Duro Softgloss Rag and Canson Platine Fibre Rag, at least have that same cotton smoothness on the back and have a nice thickness and weight. My main complaint against the other baryta-style papers from both manufacturers is that they either have a rough paper or plastic feel to the back, so I definitely prefer the cotton rag papers for my project.

These are both excellent photography papers; I would be satisfied using either as my fine art luster photography paper (or truly with any of the other semi-gloss papers included in the sample packs). I handed a stack of test prints to my wife and daughter and asked them which one would they have expected Ansel Adams to use-both of them picked the Canson Platine and Palo Duro Softgloss as being equally good!

Moab Juniper Baryta Rag 305

Update (January 2024): I really like Canson Platine, but unlike the matte photography papers where I am totally satisfied with Canon Premium Fine Art Smooth, I still felt like there could be something better than what I had tried from Canson and Red River. Over the last couple of months as I continued to read about inkjet papers for fine art printing, I noticed that Moab Juniper Baryta Rag 305 is often mentioned as a favorite, so I finally decided to order a box to try.

Like the Canson Platine and Palo Duro Softgloss, Moab Juniper is a cotton rag paper and feels just like the Canson but with a baryta coating. I jumped right in and printed a couple of images using the standard Moab ICC profile for my printer. The images had a slight cool tone although the paper is noticeably warmer than the Canson (and very slightly warmer than the Red River).

But I was struck by the texture in the printed image on Moab Juniper-it is subtle but somehow more pleasing to my eye than the other papers. I’ve also noticed that Canson Platine has a kind of pattern on the page that appears to sit on top of the texture and is very noticeable in the right light. I had kind of just accepted it, but after seeing the same image printed on Moab Juniper, I realize that the pattern on the Canon Platine is very distracting.

The spectrophotometer confirmed that the Moab ICC profile was printing with a cool tone, so I created a custom profile using the Color Munki. With my custom profile, the shadows and dark tones of the prints appear neutral (also confirmed with measurements) while the highlights retain noticeable warmth (I read one article that quoted Moab as claiming they intentionally created a warm-toned baryta paper to differentiate their product from their competitors).

Verdict

Although the Moab Juniper Baryta Rag is about 20% more expensive than the Palo Duro Softgloss Rag (currently ~$40 for a box of 25 letter-size sheets compared to $33), and Canson Platine is slightly more expensive, cost is not a primary factor in my decision. I prefer the look of the Canson and Moab papers over the Red River (and I really wanted to prefer the Palo Duro since it is named after our local natural landmark). Besides, I think the cost difference will be negligible since Red River only offers free shipping for orders over $150 whereas I can get Canson or Moab shipped free from a number of online retailers.

The Canson paper is a bit whiter and the ease of printing using the Canson printer profile is a definite plus but I prefer the look and texture of the Moab Juniper and with my custom profile it is printing very neutral. If not for the distracting pattern on the Canson Platine, I think choosing between these papers would be nearly impossible. But once seen, that pattern can’t not be seen, whereas Juniper Baryta is flawless.

Test Results

The following table shows the test data results for the Canon, Moab, and Canson photography papers that I’ve tested using the ColorMunki Photo (refer to my previous post for more details). Canson Platine Fibre Rag and Moab Juniper Baryta Rag are essentially tied as the brightest papers that I’ve tested and also have the second- and third-highest dMax (along with Canson Baryta Prestige II) with the Pro-200 printer (Canon Pro Luster can print blacker but is not as bright). Platine Fibre Rag is one of the most neutral papers, while Juniper Baryta Rag is the warmest.

Premium Fine Art Smooth performs comparably to Canon Pro Premium Matte, although slightly worse in every statistic, but beats that paper because of its weight and feel. These numbers support my photography paper selection but ultimately my decision was based on look of the print and feel of the paper.