Baryta Matt Papers
First thoughts
It’s always a good day when you can spend a couple of hours evaluating new papers, at least new to us. That’s exactly what we did yesterday. Baryta matt fine art papers are relatively new in the inkjet world. Canson introduced the first one in 2021. Hahnemühle followed with their introduction of Hahnemühle Photo Rag Matt Baryta in 2023. Seems like yesterday as both of these papers have been on our to-do listsince they were introduced.
My guess as to who these papers were for turned out to be right in some ways and wrong in others. I guessed that both of these Baryta papers were for people who wanted a brighter paper than typical matt papers but without optical brightening agents.
Both of these papers are a hair “brighter” in appearance but quite neutral and not cold in appearance at all, unlike papers with OBAs. They both exhibit ultra-smoot printing surfaces. They are also both quite heavy weighing in at 308g/sm for the Hahnemühle and Canson at 310g/sm. The Hahnemühle is 100% cotton while the Canson has an alpha-cellulose base. Surprisingly, both feel softer in the hand than something like Moab Juniper Baryta which is stiff for a cotton rag paper. The bottom line is that both these baryta matt papers will be easy to handle when mounting.
I expected that they would not be truly matt in appearance. I expected some sheen or gloss differential. I was wrong, both are completely flat, exhibiting no glare or gloss differential at all no matter how much I tried to make them look different than our Moab Entrada Natural baseline. Both of these papers gave the impression of slightly higher dmax and snappier shadow renditions than our baseline Entrada. Using some of my shadow torture-test low-key images there was clearly better separation of shadow detail than the Entrada. The colors were a hair more saturated in appearance but nothing too dramatic if you’re a typical matt paper user.
Just for fun, I put the Baryta matt papers up against Moab Slickrock Pearl. Slickrock is a super smooth, glossy, metallic base paper with super-saturated color. As expected the very blackest black of the Slickrock is richer with better absolute dmax. The Slickrock has brighter highlights from its metallic base. And true to form the Slickrock has poppy color saturation.
That’s not the end of the story by far. The shadow separation of the Baryta matt papers held up extremely well against the Slickrock; Color me shocked. What’s more is that in most viewing conditions the Baryta matt papers gave the appearance of being smoother, richer, and snappier. The smooth surface also seems to enhance detail or the perception of detail making it similar in feel to a glossier paper.
If I had to choose one word for my first tests of these papers it would be elegant. Looking at our baseline paper lineup I’d be tempted to add one of these Baryta matt papers instead of another matte or glossy. In a way, it can be a substitute for either. Better stated it just might be the perfect paper that gets out of the way giving you some of the aspects of glossier papers but with that refined, glare-free, super smooth look that I cannot think of a better way to describe than elegant.
We would love to hear your opinion on these two papers if you’ve been using them, drop us a comment and discuss your findings and what work you’ve found to fit best with these somewhat hybrid papers.
Thank you for the interesting article. I have a sample book with the Canson Baryta Photographique II Matt, and I find it a very hard surface. This has its positive aspects, of course, but for a matte paper, I've been bowled over by Canson's Arches BFK Rives in either of its whites. I think it's silky soft texture adds significantly. There's no loss of detail, no optical brighteners, and deep, deep blacks. Just be careful of the surface. Do you know of a textured baryta that isn't so hard surfaced or is the baryta hard by definition? I found this paper during a "Paper Psychotherapy" session that Eric Joseph runs at Freestyle. (Do you know of it? Your image printed on 10 papers, with before and after discussion sessions for $100). Thank you
Curious if you used the manufacturer’s ICC profiles or made your own? Asking because I will be trying at least one of these as they seem to offer much of what I like in a paper.