When I'm looking for a fine art paper with a crisp, clean, and beautifully tactile feel to it, one of my first thoughts is to turn to the William Turner paper from Hahnemühle. This is without question one of my top five papers that I've seen and printed on thus far, have you tried it yet?
If you've explored the world of print, paper choices, or been tuning in to my pieces written about said topics, then you're already familiar with the name Hahnemühle. You know that they have a plethora of different paper options available in a variety of categories ranging from canvas, smooth and matte options, textured papers, and traditional art medium papers for things like water color painting and sketching. I like different things about different papers but generally speaking I've found Hahnemühle to be tried, true, and reliable for delivering quality paper choices.
One of my top five all-time favorite papers (maybe even top three) is the William Turner fine art paper. It's from the line of textured papers, along with Torchon, Museum Etching, Albrecht Dürer, and German Etching®. It is a mould-made paper complete with a distinct and readily visible watercolor texture that jumps out at the viewer upon inspection. I'm a huge fan of watercolor work so any paper that's going to make me think of it is already off to a great start. For my own print work I have always been drawn to the textured options and the William Turner texture both looks and feels great.
The images you see in this article are of a 13x19 print and the paper looks gorgeous. The colors are vivid, the texture is bold and prominent, and the paper maintains a subtle matt appearance that really lends itself to the content of this image. The floral background looks beautiful, alive, and this is exactly the type of image that I would want to print on this type of paper. While you're encouraged to experiment and try different types of content of all kinds of different paper, in my opinion this is a great choice for any image with a natural feel to them.
This paper is available in packages, boxes, and rolls in either 190gsm or 310gsm (grams per square meter, think of it as the weight or thickness of the paper) and is also available in a hand-torn deckled edges format for a more distinct look. Is this a paper that you have printed on before? If so, what did you print and were you happy with the outcome? As you print work whether for clients or for yourself, do you find that you're developing your own short list of favorite papers?
Happens to be one of my favorites as well. :)
Heck yeah :)
I love it too though one does deal with white speckles from time to time. I usually brush off the sheet before printing to try to minimize this. Anyone else have a better technique? I also use the German Etching which I like almost as well. It doesn't suffer from the speckle issue in my experience.
German Etching is one I'd like to print more with :)
German etching is my fav
flakes less I prefer it :) but its personal this is just like me saying I prefer thin pizza more sauce less cheese :) nothing more :) so if someone likes something else :) all good !!!!
I purchase just about every paper they make by the roll for the large format printer here. And everytime I swap out paper for that 'special look' I'm going for --- it's like Christmas morning.
Never disappointed with anything they produce.
Will have to try this one out next time I do a larger print. I don't like textured paper for 8x10 or smaller. I love their smooth Photo rag for 8x10s.
Never tried this one. I liked most of their others until I gave up with buying printers. Had 2 Epson large formats that ended up with faulty print heads (due to underuse) so have given up with printing myself :/
Evan curious what are the other 4 papers on your top 5 :)
I'd have to give that some serious thought if I were going to put a list together. I can tell that you William Turner and Unryu 55 would definitely be two of the five :)
Thanks. Always curious what people’s favourite paper stock is.
I have printed on this particular paper landscapes at 150 mm wide and it looks fantastic, the high texture makes things pop in your landscape photos, if you have a photo with lots of detail like sand, rocks or mountains, this paper is a great choice
Wow, that is a serious print! Looks amazing :D
I'm a big fan of their FineArt Baryta 325/gsm. Here's a 20x30 Advanced Black & White coming off the Epson 9900. Not too into textured matte papers.
How does this paper feel to the touch? Is it close to the feel of the Epson Exhibition Watercolor Textured paper (now discontinued)? I'm looking for a paper with a lot of tooth, that almost feels like shark skin or sandpaper when you run your fingures across it.
Excellent question Kevin,
It has a light sandpaper surface touch and the thicker stock is impressive in the hand.
Offhand I don't know the Epson paper, sorry.
Performance wise this paper has me perplexed, it can show bright shiny metallic objects and textures as well, pretty amazing actually.
Expensive but it looks super rich.