Introducing Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Baryta

In our digital photographic long and winding road of fast moving technology has its milestone markers set by revolutionary and evolutionary products.
First come revolutions such as photo inkjet printers, then encapsulated pigment printers, then stable dye printers.
Following up, less spectacular announcements come but nonetheless permanently shape the way we make photographs.
Early inkjet papers were merely paper or plastic bases designed with ink compatibility ignoring all issues of permanence or image quality characteristics acceptable for gallery or museum repro.
Fine art reproduction was a solely a domain that a few pioneers ventured into hand treated fine art prints Iris printers with traditional FA media.
With photography moving on into digital production with inkjet printers a few of the traditional paper makers took on the task of developing fine art and quality photographic substrates with optimised coatings for inkjet dyes. With the revolution of encapsulated pigment inks again promoted need to further optimise coatings for these hybrid pigment inks.
Hahnemühle is one of the first to work on fine art media for digital reproduction with specific coatings for inkjet printers. Founded in 1584 they have been making great art papers ever since. In 1997 they released a Digital Fine Art collection destined for all types of inkjet printers, including the infamous Iris printers after garnering a lot of experience with the aforementioned pioneers.
Today the line is extensive with papers for serious printing in every type of surface, matte photo, now Baryta, being cotton or cellulose bases, even one of my favourite matte papers made from largely bamboo fibres.

HP 9180 front
polina

cefalu

The “just right” Photo Rag Baryta media.

Since 2006 we’ve seen and tested a lot of F type simulation papers for inkjet printers.
The first time the “ooohs and awwwwwwes” were so impressive that some glaring (pardon the pun) artifacts were overlooked and understated. Even now the Baryta surfaces are heading up the cream of the crop, there are still artifacts, less than perfect moments ignored in reviews, or in actual use.
That’s why I can truly say Hahnemühle PRB is “Just Right”.

Characteristics

The surface is a relatively shiny surface when printed becomes even more reflective. It has a very slight stipple, just enough to break up an overly glossy print. There is also a slight relief similar in fact to a true darkroom fibre base print.
When I first tried Innova Ultra, I really loved the glossiness, also the new Harman FA AL and Ilford Silk Glossy. All of these papers really shine. In the end it was a desire to have a fine art paper that is glossy without that RC plastic look that led me and many others to become so excited. Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Baryta isn’t as shiny as either of the former media but you grow to like it more when you see it on display. Put a couple of tungsten spots prints from all three and you will see that it depends on the light and reflections as to which is the right amount of glossiness. Read on to understand the drawbacks of too much glossiness.

Recently when visiting the Richard Avedon exposition at Jeu de Paume, I was taken away with the sublime quality of printing and presentation. All the prints were done on gallery fibre papers and the lighting equally well done to show the images on the print becoming transparent to the technique letting viewers really enter into what Avedon let's you become. Are the darkroom prints better than inkjets?
I don't know, frankly there isn't a doubt in my mind that most of us will be printing on inkjets regardless of the quality of these prints.
In a situation where the all the elements are optimised for darkroom fibre prints, you'd be surprised by the fact that your current favourite inkjet paper may not be ideal afterall. Too much gloss, too much surface texture, stipple, bronzing, gloss uniformity all would be serious visual set backs.

That's what got me comparing the results on HPR Baryta to darkroom prints. The goal is not to reproduce an exact copy of a darkroom print on an inkjet. The goal is to make the print as transparent as the darkroom prints , when presented they should let the image live and let you enter the world you want to show. It's not a simple task of printing on the actual darkroom papers. That we have already done by fixing unexposed fibre papers and or the new fibre papers that finally can be printed on Durst Lambda printers. Neither is an acceptable solution for inkjet prints.

The optimal media for inkjet printing has to be highly optimised, tailored to match the process of today's ink formulations. This is where you have to make some decisions where your priorities lay, your responsibility for the permanence of the prints, and more importantly the compatibility of your processes towards the end goal meeting your artistic vision at the same time. As the pigment inks have reached a decent point in permenance, the media component is now starting to match past photographic processes too.


Problem is high gloss printing is something that is only compatible with few pigment inkjet printers, notably the HP Z series with GE or Epson R1900. For all others the higher the gloss the more problems you’ll have avoiding disgraceful gloss uniformity and bronzing.
Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Baryta has enough gloss to make it perfectly balanced for high contrast prints with extended blacks and shadows, yet avoids the problems associated with too much gloss. It has much less gloss differential than all the other glossy Baryta or F type media I’ve tested. The surface relief is the deciding factor in breaking up the problematic reflections from spot lighting, and or other distracting reflections. It also is responsible for largely reducing gloss differential.
One other quality we don’t often see in reviews is the absorption of the coating. If the surface is not tolerant of the inks solvents, you end up with coalescence that looks like little volcanoes with the ink grouping in the centre. Absorption is also a quality that can reduce bronzing as the refraction of the light off the paper can change things like polarisation and interference of the ink and polymer granular qualities. This paper absorbs well, quite a bit more than other glossy media. By doing so sharpness is reduced and this media is on the soft side. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing as sometimes a little softness is more photographic akin to darkroom prints.
Bronzing is largely reduced up to the point of being a non-issue with this paper. It is also helped by the surface texture and stipple. In the end it’s the result that count, and in this case it all just works.
Hahnemühle Photo Rag , the cotton version of Fine Art Baryta, has a surface has everything it needs, not too glossy, not too plastic looking, not too flat,  just enough stipple to make it look like darkroom fibre base, in short it is all just right.

 

Technical Specifications and Packaging

For pricing and all other information please contact Hahnemuhle
For the PDF spec sheet click here

Paper White

This is a bit more complicated to describe as what is the best choice. Recently, there is a lot of discussion on whether or not Optical Brightener Agents (OBA) should be used, how much, and in what way. OBA’ are chemical compounds that are mixed into either the paper base or coating that reflect UV portions of light as visible light. This is what makes laundry detergents make greyish whites brighter than they really are. It also makes darker dull paper base whiter and brighter in appearance than it is in light without UV (tungsten) as long as there is UV in the spectrum of light on the object.
Hahnemühle employ OBA in some of the papers we use, as all others do to strongly brighten the paper base or coating.  Some papers adjust the paper brightness in manufacturing to match specs between mill runs for better consistency.
Wilhelm Imaging Research are now testing for affects of OBA aging. No one knows for sure in what way the deterioration will result in visually over many years. Most fine art printers are in the “none is best” crowd. Most of these same printers have always printed on cotton rag papers with no or little OBA to achieve with certitude the highest levels in permanence for gallery and museum grade printing. The quandary then is to use or not to use paper with OBA?

My opinion is the less the better as there is less risk of the paper white changing over time or worse yet, blotchy brown patches in irregular zones.
That is not the only reason though. I find even in more ephemeral printing too much OBA has a huge effect on illuminate metamerism or more correctly colour constancy and grey balance failure. Imagine someone who views your imaqes on a morning with overcast conditions, reflections being sodium and fluorescent hall lights plus some tungsten. LAter in the day the same person comes back to give a second look before purchasing, and there is now a sunny sky, and sun is coming in with no artificial lights now on other than the relatively weaker tungsten spots. Being confused by the change in appearnace, not looking as the person first thought decides to put off their purchase decision for until another time. The third time the person comes back at night where the tungsten spots are the only light source.

This is what OBA free papers give you , a more consistent and constant apperance that the eye can adapt for much more easily than any unpredictable viewing conditions effect on the amount of UV present in the display light and reflections.

The beauty of using media, in particular Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Baryta, is you can take a print into any light and it maintains constancy whereas others with high amounts of OBA fail. I do a lot of beauty pictures and skin tones on low OBA media will always be more consistent regardless of the viewing light.
Hahnemühle achieved a very bright white just the same with the base being quite bright and the Barium Sulphite coating helping to keep the white right up there with non permanent RC papers. The white is not too blue, nor too yellow, nor too magenta/red. If anything I’d say a cream colour would best describe it. I would love to have a little more brightness yet I know that is not going to happen without adding a ton of OBA.

According to Hahnemühle engineers, there is +/-0.5% OBA in Fine Art Baryta (please note this is Fine Art NOT PR Baryta) in the base of the paper. In contrast to some other media where the OBA is in the coating of the paper, the permanence of the paper is jeopardized. In any case Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Baryta doesn't have any which gives you the ultimate guarantee in permanence.

The below graphs show where the UV shows the rapid increase in reflection in comparison to the non OBA media being a flatter response which will make more sense if you look at this PDF at BabelColor.

HPRB vs Bamboo
HPR Baryta vs H Bamboo
HPRB vs HFAB
HPR Baryta vs HFA Baryta
HPRB vs Harman FA AL
HPR Baryta vs Harman FA AL
HPR Baryta vs HP AGP

 

Paper Weight and Feel


Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Baryta is a thick heavyweight media, as thick as traditional darkroom fibre base paper. The backing is a bright enough uncoated base that is easily signed or hinge mounted. The backing feels just a bit rough, as it is the sieve tray side.
It is however not as stiff as darkroom paper.  Not such a bad thing though as it is almost impossible to make a crescent dent with this paper. It maintains its flatness well in various humidity conditions. There is little edge curl to worry about, and so far head strikes which have happened on the other F type surfaces. Overall the sheet paper is not curled and maintains a nice flatness even when printing.
The surface has very good scratch resistance much more so than competing papers.
It holds an excellent stacking ability with no abrasion signs at all. You shouldn't abuse your prints as I do, but if you do you’ll be happy with the stacking ability and scratch and abrasion resistance.
You do have to be careful though for humid hands on the non printed areas. In Hahnemühle’s documentation they say to wear gloves for print handling. The other point to consider is this paper prefers an aspirated feed. Any printers with star traction wheels will probably leave some insignificant pizza cutter tracks. You may or may not see them, but with an HP 9180 they are there barely visible under hard spot lighting.

I have already mounted a few framed images. Hinging tape applies perfectly, and the media is easily flattened with the mat card. IF you were to use spray glue ( rather high in acid mind you) it adheres quickly and without problem. In fact it mounts as if it were a matte media. This is a joy to amount and frame compared to other media with plasticized backings, or any media that cannot release the memory of indents , and other deformations that are more or less permanently embedded.

The paper is opaque, but not totally. The coating reflects enough light that you wouldn't notice any backlighting in bounce back if you mounted in a floated plexi mount but there is some transparency just the same. You wouldn't want to put heavy marker signatures in white areas or non printed zones.

The fact is when you have such a nice paper in your hands you tend to become obsessed with it. I have a few trimmings off cut to size prints that keep finding their way back into my fingers everyday. You know when you have a really nice paper when you fondle the scraps!

Tone Reproduction

Wow, what a paper. The DMax on this paper beats all my records on all the media I have tested. It easily attains <L* 5 going down to pure blacks <L*4.5. Checking the same patches on Harman and Ilford showed an advantage for this paper. Not a great difference but on that will make a B&W print “live”.
Being free of OBA, the tonal range is without surprise smooth and neutral in the entire range. You won’t hit the high light saturated gamut of Harman, but you won’t be subject to the problems that accompany the OBA rich papers either. Skins tones stay neutral in any lighting conditions, and the prints take on a look of a photograph on traditional material no matter where they are displayed.
D-Max is so strong and the paper shows so little gloss differential that this is undoubtedly one of the best inkjet media I have ever tried for B&W printing with incredible deep blacks.

That is not all. I’ve actually noticed a very good separation of detail in the darks, beyond that of the OEM RC type glossy papers. Nice to see shadow repro with deep blacks. Often the 3/4 tones down are pushed together by the driver, but in the case of this paper, the surce holds an incredible amount of ink before loosing separation detail.

Colour gamut is right up there with all my other satin and glossy media. The gamut is well rounded and easy to control without jumps or holes. Harman FA AL produces a better light saturated gamut as the base is more reflective and there is a substantial amount of OBA as well that may be questionable in use in varying lighting conditions.
I find the skin tones neutral and realistic compared to most other media, and see it as a perfect paper for wedding display prints. All around it is one paper that handles both B&W and colour equally well making images for display with an ultimate quality for whatever destination it be; gallery, museum, home, or any collection.

2X black Pantone
2X black UV coated vs. HPR Baryta
Harman AL vs HPR B
Harman AL vs. HPR Baryta
HPR Baryta vs. HP AGP


Better, more neutral B&W+ colour printing on the HP 9180

Note: on Hahnemuhle's site in the ICC profiles section the 9180 profile suggests a Photo paper setting. This will reduce the haze on the print by inking less but will also greatly reduce gamut volume, perhaps Dmax too. I suggest using PRo Satin media setting, and the profile in the .zip below, or the profile for the 8850.

 

Printing on matte is pretty simple, there is little illuminant metamerism, and the grey balance stays neutral and or rather balanced in most any lighting condition. Thrid party papers in particular the Baryta base caotings, tend to print with different hues of grey, even when nusing grey inks only. This is why I suggest using ICC profiles on equal value rgb images.

I find the need for printing on Satin or glossy for the Dmax, on matte papers I often find the range less than what I like in B&W imagery.
The built in CLUTs for the 9180 are too green or too cyan. When you print with forced use grey inks only, the bronzing and gloss uniformity render the print useless other than in a controlled light. I have tried coating the grey ink only prints with success but that is something too laborious for everyday printing. So for printing on other than matte you should print your images as a colour image with equal rgb values, preferably in Adobe rgb as source, with Let Photoshop Determine Colors, apply the 9180 profile canned HP PS Pro B9100-Advanced Photo Satin.icc or custom profile HP9180HahnPR_BarytaProS.icc, later select application managed colour in the driver, use Perceptual Rendering Intent, and select the preferred print quality mode, and set the media type to Professional Satin. You print it as if it were a colour image. You don't need to select greyscale in the driver.
Here's the curve I made so you can experiment. I used my custom HP9180HahnPR_BarytaProS.icc profile on Pro Satin to iteratively edit the grey balance. It's always a good idea to calibrate an HP printer before important print runs.
I also have an action for B&W printing which adds the curve to an adjustment layer.

NOTE: To make the action load the curve (s) you must change the path of the folder to your folder in which you placed the curves. The action in the zip will have my home folder listed as the location, thus it will load a curve without adjustments as it cannot find the folder or curve at the recorded path.
You can either re-record this step, or just make a new action with the same steps as the one described in the enclosed folder.

Please note, on HP Vivera pigments other than those using Gloss Enhancer, you will need to polish off the haze left in the dark regions. When completely dry a soft cotton rag will do and polishing lightly will fetch a higher gloss and dMax.

For those interested, I made a profile for tungsten lighting /viewing conditions essentially for B&W but also should be fine for colour. If you are interested, email me.

Photoshop curve for B&W printing, ICC profile, and actions

I highly recommend Micheal Reichmann and Jeff Schewe's From Camera to Print here for an E-tutorial.
For recommended books on printing, there are many, you can find some at Uwe Steinmueller's Digital Outback site including his own book on printing here.

top of page

Conclusion

This is one sweet paper that you really must try. It's grows on you as you use it, always leaving that very satisfied feeling, delighted but not overwhelmed. You become aware of your prints being united with your goals quietly assuring deserved recognition for print excellence leaving imagery the most powerful statement in what you are showing. It is the first paper that covers it's bases for those wanting to make gallery prints both colour and B&W without reservation.
Verdict: until something else tops this in brightness without OBA there isn't a finer paper today. Highly recommended.

 

Pros

 

Cons

For other info on printing with HP printers see both my site here, or here.

top of page