French and best.

The French company Canson claims it has been making paper for artists for over 450 years, so you would think they have got it down by now. And my experience with Canson Infinity Photogloss Premium RC paper suggests they have.

Long time readers will know that I used an HP DesignJet 90 printer for many years. The long lived dyes in that paper mean I have prints made 20 years ago, hanging in bright sun, which remain fade free. When HP discontinued their DesignJet printers many years ago they remaindered supplies of their branded swellable paper (meaning the surface swells to absorb ink dye) and I bought some 600 sheets at a few cents a sheet. That supply lasted me for the best part of a decade until my studio dog project which between free prints to owners and further prints for local display used up some 150 sheets and printing of archival images for placement in large format albums accounted for 250 more, and counting. My dirt cheap supply of HP Premium glossy was done.

There’s a lot of clap trap surrounding fancy printing papers. Some of the worst, as my extensive tests disclosed, come from the vaunted Hahnemüle every one of which was marginal to very poor. This only went to prove just how good the HP branded product was, though I never did discover who actually made it. Most certainly it was not Hahnemüle.

I only print on high gloss paper as anything else destroys definition and dynamic range. Glossy also produces the deepest blacks. You pay thousands for your gear and then destroy definition by printing on fancy schmantzy matte paper? No thank you. Sure, matte will hide blemishes and mounting errors the answer to which is that you need to fix your technique and use glossy.

If I had a complaint about HP glossy it was that heavier areas of ink would reduce gloss locally and overall gloss would drop a tad once the print/mounting tissue/board went through the Seal dry mounting press. Also, the print needed a good 24 hours for the ink dyes to dry thoroughly.

Well, I’m happy to report that none of these issues plague the Canson paper. The gloss is very high, is not remotely reduced after laying down ink (I am using an Epson ET8550 dye printer) and, better still, is full preserved after dry mounting at 190F for 75 seconds under pressure. (Interestingly, Canson makes specific reference on its site to the surface maintaining its high gloss even after being subjected to heat). Whereas HP paper would emerge tacky from the printer the Canson product comes out dry. Obviously I cannot speak to longevity – which is largely attributable to the ink not the paper, but Epson has been in the printing business a long time so there’s reason to think they have got the ink design right.

Based on my experience Canson Infinity Photogloss Premium RC paper is strongly recommended. It weighs 270g, just a tad less than HP’s 280g, no that any of that matters if you end up mounting the print on mounting board. It costs around $2 a 13″x19″ sheet and B&H has it.

Gorgeous Hazel in the studio, my first Canson candidate.

Canson makes a broad variety of icc paper profiles including one for the Epson ET8550, and it’s what I use with Lightroom Classic.

The cryptically named
Canson icc profile in LRc.