Struggling to decipher the best paper and product for your Art Prints? Our latest guide has you covered.
While it ultimately comes down to personal preference in terms of texture, size and finish, we’ve pulled together our most popular Art Print products so you can find the perfect match….
When it comes to luxury paper for Art Prints, Giclèe is where it’s at. These papers were designed especially for high-quality reproductions of art and photography. Not usually used for bulk printing, Giclèe is one of the best choices for short high-quality runs of artwork.
So what makes Giclèe so special? While products like Flyers and Posters use standard four-colour printing (known as CMYK). Giclée prints use a 12 colour printer so that your artwork colours can be matched exactly. Plus, each paper has been specially selected from the experts at Hahnemühle, so that you don’t have to worry about fading over time.
Posters are a great choice if you’re looking to print larger designs in bulk or on a budget. For example, if you want to offer cheaper prints of your original artwork or create an affordable collection of large prints. Keep in mind that Poster prints are only available in two paper stocks, Matt and Satin, but both offer great colour vibrancy and a quality finish.
Posters are also an ideal option if you’re planning on displaying your Art Prints outside thanks to our outdoor and weatherproof options.
Whether at your home or in a gallery, eye-catching Photographic Prints are perfect as feature or standalone pieces. They can be ordered as flat prints, finished edge to edge or wrap mounted onto your choice of board. Available in two premium papers, Epsom Premium Luster and Kodak Photographic Gloss, your photos are ready to be brought to life!
If you want to go all out sparkle with your designs, Foil Art Prints are the way to go. Available in seven shiny shades, including gold and silver, your designs are guaranteed to turn heads when they catch the light.
The humble Postcard is one of the most customisable and flexible prints…so naturally it can be used to create stunning Art Prints too! Besides the obvious choice for turning your art and photography into unique postables, they’re a fast and affordable way to create small decorative art pieces or a mini collection.
Another thing Postcards include? Special Finishes. Whether you want to add some shiny highlights to your art or highlight features using White Ink, Postcards are a great place to start. Both of these finishes take a couple of extra steps to set up for print, so check out our video tutorials.
An absolute advertising favourite, Leaflets and Flyers are also great for creating Art Prints on a small budget. One of the main advantages to Leaflet printing your designs is volume. As one of our most affordable prints, they’re ideal for printing designs both quickly and in bulk.
Not everyone is looking for Poster-sized art, so Leaflets can make perfect pocket-sized Art Prints. You’ve also got a much broader range of papers to choose from compared to Poster printing or traditional Art Printing. Soft Silk? Fine-lined Nettuno? Shimmering Pearl Oyster? The choice is yours!
And there you have it! Art Prints in a nutshell.
Want to get a feel of our papers before you decide which is best for you? You can order a free Sample Pack right here. And when you’re ready to get your print to the presses we’ll be ready and waiting.
Discover our full range of print
There is an abundance of paper options out there to choose from and it can sometimes be challenging to decide which paper would produce the best results for your print. Undoubtedly the best option is to find a way to view the different papers in person so you can better appreciate the weight, texture and tone of the paper, but of course this may not always be possible.
In this article we’ll walk through some of the key components that make-up various fine art papers. As always, if you need any advice – please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
At Fine Art Printing we are focused on stocking the highest quality papers and canvases from Hahnemühle, a German paper producer that has been in the trade since 1584. We offer two paper types:
Let’s touch on each of these types of papers in slightly more detail.
As the name would suggest, cotton rag papers are made from either cotton or a percentage of cotton combined with other materials. As an example, the Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 is made from 100% cotton, whilst the Hahnemühle Bamboo is made from 10% cotton and 90% bamboo fibres. These types of papers provide exceptional results for art printing as the texture of the paper combined with giclee printing [12-colours] is able to produce an almost original artwork look and feel.
Cotton rag papers are also typically very durable and have excellent age resistance.
Alpha-Cellulose refers to papers that are made from a high grade wood pulp. These papers have been refined to remove the acid and lignin to ensure they are able to meet strict standards for durability and age resistance. An example of an Alpha-cellulose paper would be the Hahnemühle German Etching, which is a high textured matte paper and produces amazing artwork reproductions.
Alpha-cellulose papers are typically slightly less expensive than cotton rag papers, but the quality and output is not necessarily inferior. The below image is a close-up of the highly textured finish on the Hahnemühle German Etching paper made from 100% Alpha-cellulose.
Another key component of fine art papers is the weight, which is measured in gsm or ‘grams per square meter’. Generally speaking we recommend a weight of between 280 – 310gsm for fine art printing. This gives you that durability and premium feel whilst making it suitable for easy mounting.
Below is a general guide to different paper weights for reference:
60 – 100gsm – the standard paper weight for most household printers – think of your typical A4 sheet of paper.
110 – 140gsm – typically used for mass produced posters. Often laminated to give them extra strength and protection as they aren’t overly sturdy without.
170 – 240gsm – could also be used for posters, but still on the light side for fine art production.
250 – 310gsm – around the perfect weight for fine art print productions. Premium feel, nice and sturdy, great for mounting inside frames.
320gsm+ – thicker weight that is perhaps more suitable for premium greeting cards or invitations than art printing.
The texture of the paper is arguably one of the most subjective elements when deciding which paper to choose. If we were to print the exact same artwork on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, German Etching or Bamboo, you may even struggle to accurately call out the differences without being able to touch and feel the finish. Once the paper goes behind acrylic or glass, the differences may be extremely subtle.
Every customer has slightly different viewpoints depending on their preferences and circumstances. For example, a customer who is purchasing prints to sell to others may favour a smooth cotton rag paper to provide that “premium feel”. Another customer might choose a highly textured paper purely on the basis that they feel a textured paper is more appropriate for an old artwork reproduction. There is not really a right or wrong decision here and we are happy to give some guidance based on your requirements.
The photo below is the Hahnemühle Photo Rag. This is a smooth matt paper, but as you can see there is some slight texture visible.
Similar to the texture of the paper, the finish is also highly subjective. We generally stock fine art papers with either a matte or pearl finish as we find these to be the most popular options whilst producing the best results.
The majority of fine art papers are matt finish. They can have a smooth or textured surface, but they feel natural and don’t have any sheen, which ensures they don’t give off any light reflection. Due to the nature of fine art papers even those defined as having a smooth finish will have some elements of texture when handled compared to a pearl or glossy paper.
Matte finish papers are great for any type of print – whether its a family photograph, a photo of a forest landscape, or some reproduction of an original piece of art, you generally can’t go wrong. When comparing a matte paper to a pearl or glossy paper, the main thing we would highlight is that matte papers may produce slightly less vibrant colours.
There is definitely images [typically photographs that contain vibrant colours] that just pop much more when combined with a pearl or gloss finish paper. If you aren’t quite sure which is most suitable for your image, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to guide you.
There is subtle differences between pearl, satin and lustre finishes. All are very similar, but satin is often a touch more shiny in general compared to the pearl [its often called semi-gloss]. These papers are a nice middle-ground between a matt and glossy paper. They are really resistant to fingerprints and glare when compared to glossy paper but still produce exceptional colour vibrancy.
We usually recommend this finish whenever a customer is looking to print a photograph with vibrant colours but is concerned about glare or other end customers potentially mis-handling the prints later down the road.
The Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl is one of our most popular papers for clients looking for that extra vibrancy without high-sheen.
Glossy papers are generally very smooth and have a highly reflective surface. They are a good option for producing high contrast prints with vibrant colours, but we generally prefer to leverage a pearl finished paper to reduce the overall glare. Generally we also find that glossy papers are less resistant to fingerprints compared to pearl papers which can be a challenge if you think people may be handling your prints [i.e., if you are selling to other end customers and are concerned about them mishandling the work on delivery].
Metallic finish papers have a rather distinctive glossy finish and can be a good choice for photographs containing metallic elements, reflections, glass, and architecture. They are also quite popular for black and white photographs with high-contrast tones. Much like the pearl finish paper, metallic paper is quite durable and resistant to fingerprints when compared to glossy paper so it can be a good choice if you are printing with the intent of selling your prints to others.
We currently stock Hahnemühle Metallic Photo Rag® and Hahnemühle Metallic Canvas that provide this metallic finish.
The last component we’ll cover is the paper tone. You will generally find paper tone described in terms such as natural white, bright white, off white, warm white and so forth. Papers with a more natural or warm white tone will typically be more of a creamy tone whilst bright white will be show a more pronounced white finish.
Sometimes the paper tone will not play a major part in the print output. If you are printing an artwork with a visible white border around the edges, you may be more selective over the tone of the paper as this will show more visibly on your final print.
Generally natural white, off white, warm white type tones work better for prints that are using yellow or lighter tones in general. This is because lighter tones may be ever so slightly overpowered by a bright white paper. We’d also tend to recommend natural white -> warm white papers for images of natural settings such as a forest or mountain range as the colours themselves appear more natural.
Papers that are bright white tend to produce a little more vibrancy in the colours but also work well for high-contrast black and white photographs.
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