In an effort to assist our customers in evaluating the enormous number of fine art papers, photo papers, and canvas used to make giclée prints, we’ve photographed over 70 substrates and built a massive database of these products. You can filter the database by type of substrate, manufacturer, blend, and texture, and then rapidly sort the resulting list by simply clicking the top of any column. A few points of interest:

• There is a tremendous variation in the weights and thicknesses of available substrates. The lightest paper we carry is Moab’s Japanese Washi Unryu translucent mulberry paper at 55 g/sm, while Hahnemühle’s Photo Rag 500 weighs in at, well, 500 g/sm — pretty much a heavy-duty cotton rag cardstock.
• The presence of (or lack thereof) of Optical Brightening Agents, or OBAs, is readily visible in each substrate’s swatch. “Natural” papers appear gray in the screen; those with OBAs appear to take on a purplish hue. The more purple the appearance of the swatch, the brighter-white the substrate and the higher the OBA content.

We’ll be continuing to add to and maintain this database, and enhance its capabilities to allow for even more powerful filtering and sorting. In the meantime, your feedback is appreciated.

– Jim and the team at Creekside Digital