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What is the difference between Hahnemühle Digital FineArt and Lumijet? | |
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Digital FineArt is the Hahnemühle premium brand and the result of high quality treatment of traditional Hahnemühle artist’s paper for the demanding and professional inkjet image. The special surface treatment facilitates unrivalled inkjet images with a unique color gamut and intensity. In brief, the Hahnemühle Digital FineArt collection offers highest-end media to meet the exacting requirements of artists, photographers, galleries and museums.
The Lumijet product line is particularly suitable for commercial photographic imaging and is therefore ideal for creating portfolios. The Lumijet qualities meet the highest standards set by photographers, photo artists and graphic designers, who demand broad media diversity paired with extraordinary detail precision, visual impact and faithful color reproduction. These papers are also Hahnemühle artist’s papers that have been treated but that display a standard surface coating. |
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Why use Hahnemühle papers? | |
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With the Hahnemühle Digital FineArt qualities you can rest assured that you will achieve the same high quality result every time. Our special inkjet print coatings have been developed over a number of years and are subject to continuous testing. The product range includes a large selection of textures, surfaces and colors with an array of sheet and roll sizes that appeal due to their unique feel, a superb surface structure and an outstanding color gamut. The Digital FineArt papers have been developed for artists who place extremely high demands on coated artist’s papers for inkjet printers. |
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How long do the prints last? | |
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There are basically two criteria for ageing: the paper and the print. All Hahnemühle papers are extremely resistant to ageing in compliance with DIN 6738 and offer the highest life expectancy of several hundred years. The permanence of the print, i.e. the color adherence is ink dependent and with UV resistant inks (pigmented inks) can last for more than 100 years. |
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Are all Hahnemuhle papers acid free? |
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Yes! All Hahnemuhle papers comply with DIN 6738, ISO 9706, ANSI Z 39.48-1992 and are:
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What are OBAs? |
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OBAs (Optical Brightening Agents) are additives that are often used to enhance the appearance of color paper, causing a "whitening" effect, making materials look less yellow by increasing the overall amount of light reflected to the eye. |
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Do OBAs affect the archivability of the paper? |
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As a basic principle, the papers included in the Hahnemuhle Digital FineArt Collection have been rated to last for hundreds of years according to the ISO Standard 9706 for archivability. The alpha cellulose used contains the lowest possible amount of lignin, so that the whiteness of the base papers will barely alter after hundreds of years. At the request of many customers Hahnemuhle offers bright white papers, where optical brighteners are needed in production. The whiteness of the base materials may alter slightly over a period of between 20 to 200 years. Therefore, Hahnemuhle offers both OBA and OBA-free papers. At Hahnemuhle FineArt, the highest quality optical brighteners are added directly to the pulp mixture during production and not to the inkjet coating as is the case with some other manufacturers. Over the course of time these sparsely used optical brighteners lose their ability to reflect UV light. It is this ability to reflect light that makes the paper appears brighter. Depending upon the print’s exposure to light (affected by whether the image is unprotected, exhibited behind glass or protected with Hahnemuhle Protective Spray), the effect of optical brighteners may decrease at a quicker or slower rate. |
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Should I use Protective Spray on my image? |
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Yes, the Hahnemuhle Protective Spray offers incredible protection for your valuable ink-based images. This odorless spray seals the printed surfaces and protects them from dirt, fingerprints and moisture. It increases the water-resistance of printouts and protects images from fading caused by UV rays. The protective spray is fast-drying and does not turn yellow. It is completely transparent and has no influence whatsoever on the original colors of the paper. |
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Which is the best file format to store my work? | |
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If you work with files produced by a scan then the most commonly used format is a TIFF file. This type of file is not as small as a JPEG file and so takes up more storage space. JPEGs are smaller files that are generally used to send pictures via email or to store digital prints. They can be used alongside the GIF format for the internet. The PDF format (Portable Document Format) is used for text and picture files and is a more universally employed format. The file endings EPS, PSD, etc. denote formats that refer to the application programs where they were created. This means: TIFF for the printed image, JPEGs and GIFs for email and internet. | |
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Does Hahnemühle recommend any specific printer? | |
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We do not recommend any specific printer but we do recommend printers with “lightfast” pigmented inks because the prints last significantly longer.
Of course, all other printers are suitable for printing Hahnemühle media but it should be borne in mind that you cannot expect the same high level of light stability! In the case of pigmented inks we are talking about light stability of more than 100 years, in compliance with Wilhelm Imaging Research. |
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Which grammages can conventional printers work with? | |
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The grammage is not necessarily the deciding factor; paramount to this is the volume, i.e. the strength as well as the flexibility of the paper. On some printers the paper is fed into and out of the printer at the front, which requires the paper to be rotated 180° over a roller within a very small radius. This can mean that “normal” paper with a grammage of approx. 220–250 gsm cannot cope with this process. However, there are differences with paper type. Where Canvas with 340gsm might print well, a Torchon paper with 285gsm might not. The reason being that the Canvas is more flexible and Torchon is firmer. Experience will dictate which papers are suitable |
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Why don’t the colors on my monitor look the same as those on the reproduction? | |
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The final reproduction is impacted by several factors: type of ink, the printer settings and the basic color of the paper. In general monitors and printers mix color in different ways. The monitor uses three primary colors (Red, Green, Blue – known as RGB). A monitor produces color by lighting up the required colors to be mixed and then mixing them. Reprographic color printing starts with a piece of white paper instead of the black screen of a cathode ray tube. The printer uses four basic colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK – known as CMYK) that are mixed with each other as required during the printing process to produce individual colors. Because the coverage of the color spectrum differs between the two, a color profiles is used to eliminate the differences. With some patience and repeated proofing it is possible to achieve similar good results with a desktop printer. |
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Do I have to calibrate specific settings on the printer prior to printing? When do I use a profile? | |
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To reproduce accurate color quality certain settings must be calibrated prior to printing. To achieve accurate color quality over longer periods you cannot avoid using profiles as these ensure color consistancy. For individual prints profiles are not necessary. For a more detailed explanation of profiling consult the handling instructions on the ICC download page. |
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What is an ICC Profile? |
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An ICC Profile describes the color attributes of a particular device by defining a mapping between the target color space and the profile. Since devices such as monitors, cameras and printers display color differently, they use ICC Profiles to communicate how to display color accurately and consistently. Hahnemuhle has created profiles for a variety of printers for use with our papers as a courtesy. They can be downloaded from our website: www.hahnemuhle.com |
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Why use an ICC profile? | |
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The ICC profile ensures that you achieve the consistently accurate color reproduction on your paper over a longer production period. This profile tells the printer which colors to mix in order to achieve a specific color or to correspond to a specific surface. Please remember: every paper has a slightly different base tone so that for every type of paper you use you should select a different profile. |
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Which profile for which printer … | |
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We provide profiles for printers that work with “lightfast” inks, so-called pigmented inks.
Currently we provide profiles for the following printers:
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Is the paper available as a roll? | |
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Generally speaking yes. To find out which papers are available in which roll sizes go to our online store and select the quality for which you require detailed information.
If you have any further queries our competent staff is willing to assist you. |
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What is a giclée print? | |
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The word Giclée comes from the French language and translates to “squirt,” which in this case refers to the process by which the ink is applied to the paper. The nozzles of an inkjet printer spray a pattern of very fine drops onto the paper that later form the picture. The term giclée connotes an artwork, a photograph or a digitally produced work reproduced on an inkjet printer. The image is generated onto coated, archival artist’s paper using pigmented inks (UV resistant). |
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