Paper for Fine Art

Once you have a fine art image ready for printing you are faced with the decision of which paper to use. Assuming you already have a printer, the selection of ink is usually made for you, just get the printer manufacturer's inks. So the decision is which paper to use with your printer's inks. When it comes to fine art printing there are two major criteria for selecting a paper; the longevity of the paper/ink combination and whether the paper has optical brighteners.

Longevity

When a print is exposed to light a process of change begins. This can be a fading of the ink, a yellowing of the paper, or a variety of other effects. Atmospheric agents such as ozone, sulfur and other chemicals can also effect the print. The lifetime of a print is measured by comparing prints exposed to various factors such as visible light, UV light, heat, ozone and other agents, against reference prints kept in the dark. Measurements are made of the inks and paper, compared to visual tolerances and a lifetime prediction is made. This lifetime represents the amount of time the print can be exposed under normal conditions before it changes objectionably. Since all the artists I've known want their art to last, paper and ink combinations should be selected with long lifetimes.

There are two places to check paper/ink ratings. The first is with Wilhelm Research. His website has ratings for most of the printer inks and many of the available papers.

The second place for paper/ink ratings is Aardenburg Imaging & Archives. This is a newer site with some interesting methods of testing archival qualities in the laboratory and in situ.

Brighteners

Everyone likes white things bright. At least this is what the soap and bleach manufacturers have been telling us for decades in their advertisements. Paper naturally has a yellowish color, due to the materials used in its construction, such as wood pulp or cotton fibers. To counteract this natural yellowness, paper makers add optical brighteners, also called fluorescent whitening agents, to the paper. Their effect is to make the paper look whiter and brighter by converting invisible ultraviolet light to visible blue light. The extra blue reflected light when added to the natural yellow paper color makes the paper appear brighter and whiter.

Another benefit to using paper brighteners is to even out the variations between paper batches, making the paper consistent and predictable.

So if optical brighteners and fluorescent whitening agents make the paper whiter and brighter, what is so bad about using them in papers for fine art printing?

Artists want their works to last for a long time. They go to great lengths to select long lasting inks and papers for their reproductions. Some optical brighteners fade after a few weeks, changing the appearance of the print. If the brightener does not fade, then the whiteness of the print will appear differently depending on the amount of ultraviolet light present in the illumination. If a print is prepared by the photographer and printer for one type of lighting, but ultimately displayed by the customer in a different lighting, the paper's optical brighteners may make the print no longer match the original or the artist's intention.

In my opinion, when it comes to optical brighteners in fine art prints, "Just say No!".

Detecting Brighteners

The question then becomes how to check if your paper has these brighteners?

Method 1, Check with an Expert.

One way is to check the Wilhelm Research or the Aardenburg Imaging & Archives websites. Their longevity ratings of printer paper and ink combinations now include information about brightening agents.

Method 2, Measure with a Colorimeter.

Some people measure the paper with a colorimeter, or spectrometer that gives colorimetric data, looking for a negative b* in the L*a*b* colorimetric values. This method works for some papers, but not for all since the brightening effect depends on the measuring instrument and the amount of paper brightener. An instrument with low UV illumination, combined with a paper having a small amount of brightener, might produce too small an effect in the b* value. It is even possible to have a small positive b* value and still have a brightener in the paper (see the example below).

Method 3, Measure the spectrum.

A more accurate way is to measure paper samples with a spectrometer both with and without a UV light blocking filter. Comparing the difference in the two spectra will show how much brightener effect is present. When looking at a spectral graph of the two measurements, brighteners usually show a peak about 430 nm. This method can easily detect small amounts of brightening agents.

Method 4, Use a UV LED flashlight.

Of course, none of the first three methods work when you are in the store shopping for papers. To make a quick judgement in the store, a small UV LED flashlight can be used. When the paper is illuminated by the UV LED, the paper will appear violet if there are no brighteners present, blue if there are brighteners.

One source for an LED flashlight is Photon Light. Another source is a counterfeit money detector which uses UV LEDs to check paper money for their fluorescent anti-counterfeiting measures. For example, in the US $5 and greater denominations, there is a fluorescing strip embedded in the paper. Sometimes the counterfeit detectors are available as pens, which provides a convenient way to carry the flashlight.

I usually carry a Photon Micro-Light when I go shopping for fine art papers. The UV Micro-Light is available in a variety of models, but be careful, some Micro-Lights have push on, push off modes which sometimes accidentally turns it on in a pocket when it pushes against keys and things, resulting in a fully drained battery when you need it. Their UV Micro-Light I has a simple push on, release off mechanism that reduces this problem. Another nice feature of the Micro-Lights is that a range of accessories such as lanyards and magnetic clips are available for mounting the lights in interesting ways.

Example

Here is an example of a paper checked using Methods 2, 3 and 4.

Epson Proofing Paper measured with a Spectrolino equipped with the D65 filter, L*a*b* values calculated using the 1931 2 degree observer with a D65 illuminant gives L* = 95.52 a* = -1.25 b* = 1.11. With a positive b* value you might conclude that there is no brightener in the paper. Graphing the spectral measurements made with a Spectrolino with a D65 filter and with a UV Cut filter shows that there is brightener present.

Using the UV Micro-Light on this paper showed a definite blue color, corroborating the spectral measurements.

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Updated 26.1.2016

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