Company

The Hahnemühle paper mill has been making paper for 400 years.  The company is currently part of the Schleicher and Schuell group [site].

Hahnemühle's main English language web site appears to be run by their UK representative, Dia-Nielsen UK Ltd.

UK Contact

Products

Hahnemühle's most prominent products are a line of "Digital Fine Art" papers.  These are traditional art papers with an ink receptive coating suitable for both dye-based and pigment-based inkjet inks.  This means that they are among the few papers which work well with pigment-based archival colour and quadtone ink sets.  The coating gives a matte surface to the papers.

These papers are sold in Europe under the Hahnemühle name; in addition, some of the Lyson papers are made by Hahnemühle and are (to my eyes at least) identical to their Hahnemühle equivalents.  I have heard it claimed (by people who claim to have this from Lyson) that Lyson's version of the paper has a different coating: however, I have also heard it claimed (by people who claim to have talked to Hahnemühle) that this cannot be the case because Hahnemühle always ship this paper with their own coating.  I have never seen an definitive statement directly from either manufacturer on this subject.

In the USA, various dealers resell the Hahnemühle papers under their own names.  I have tried to indicate the correlations where I know them, but in many cases this is second-hand information so please ask for samples before you buy. The German Etching, Torchon and Albrecht Dürer seem to be the most commonly rebranded papers, so you can often guess which paper is which from the paper weight in grammes per square metre.

Be warned that the Hahnemühle inkjet coated papers are amongst the most expensive papers available: at up to twice the price of most other "premium" brands, you will probably ask yourself whether this price can possibly be justified.  My own opinion is that if you are printing for exhibition or sale, particularly if you are printing with pigment-based inks, you should definitely consider them.

If anyone can think of a sensible way of describing paper textures, I could really use it in the following descriptions.

Papers for Photographic Applications

I have rather arbitrarily broken the product line into papers which are obvious choices for photographic printing (white or off-white, relatively untextured) and those which are probably intended for other applications (stronger colours and textures).

• Hahnemühle Arkona 335gsm
  • An off-white, very heavyweight paper with a light linear texture.
• Hahnemühle German Etching 310gsm
  • A smooth, off-white, very heavyweight paper.
  • In German, this paper is "Kupferdruckkarton" (literally, "copper printing cardboard", according to the fish; "copper printing" presumably being "etching" in English).
  • also known as: Lyson 310gsm Standard Fine Art
  • also known as: MediaStreet Royal Plush
  • also known as: Luminos Lumijet Classic Velour
  • also known as: ConeTech Orwell
  • also known as: PhotoInkJet Frankfurt
• Hahnemühle William Turner 310gsm
  • A smooth, off-white, very heavyweight paper.
  • Very like German Etching 310gsm but with a slightly rougher surface texture.
  • also known as: ConeTech Wells River
  • a 190gsm version is also available
• Hahnemühle Torchon 285gsm
  • A heavyweight white paper with a soft undulating texture.
  • also known as: Lyson 285gsm Soft Fine Art
  • also known as: MediaStreet Royal Riviera
• Hahnemühle Albrecht Dürer 210gsm
  • An off-white paper with a light linear texture.
  • also known as: Lyson 210gsm Rough Fine Art
  • also known as: MediaStreet Royal Weave
• Hahnemühle Structure 150gsm
  • A very white paper with a smooth parchment-like texture.

Papers for Other Applications

You could print images or text on any of the following papers.  However, with these papers the paper would make itself felt fairly strongly behind most images.  There are obviously cases where this could be used to an image's advantage (for example, with the Bugra German Antique and say a sepia-toned "old time" image) but for general photographic printing these are probably not the right papers to choose.

• Hahnemühle 230gsm
  • An off-white paper with a strong linear texture.
• Hahnemühle Allegretto 160gsm Natural White
  • A creamy/yellowish paper with a light linear texture.
• Hahnemühle Bugra Natural White 140gsm
  • The Bugra range of papers all feel like high-class business papers.
  • There is a light texture in the paper.
  • The Natural White variant is an off-white (cream/yellow) colour.
• Hahnemühle Bugra Aquamarine 140gsm
  • This variant has a mild blue-green colour.
• Hahnemühle Bugra German Antique 140gsm
  • This variant has a light yellow/brown colour, and visible flecks of wood (or something) in it.
• Hahnemühle Bugra Mint 140gsm
  • This variant has a strong green colour.
• Hahnemühle Japan Fine Fibres 110gsm
  • This is a beautiful translucent white paper with very pronounced fibres.
  • It is very difficult to print either text or images on this paper without the image blurring heavily due to the texture of the fibres and the relatively high absorbency of the paper.
  • Results in a very soft image with muted colours.
  • Also known as: Flame Retardant Fleece

Dealers

UK Dealers

• Hahnemühle's English language web site contains a UK dealers map.
• Lawrence Art Supplies (T. N. Lawrence & Son Ltd.) [site]
• Marrutt Ltd. [site]:
  • Lyson equivalent papers.
• MWORDS Limited [site]:
  • A sample pack of 10 sheets of A4 available for £7.
• on-line.p@per.co.uk [site]:
  • This company sells all of the listed papers.
  • A sample pack including at least one sheet of all papers in the range is also available at £20.
• paperandinks.com [site]:
  • German Etching 310gsm
  • Photo Rag 308gsm and 188gsm
  • Photo Rag Duo 316gsm and 196gsm
  • Torchon 285gsm
  • William Turner 310gsm and 190gsm
• Paper Select [site]:
  • Albrecht Dürer 210gsm A3 and A4
  • Allegretto 160gsm Natural White A4
  • Bugra Natural White 140gsm A4
• Silverprint [site]:
  • Lyson equivalent papers.
  • Some other Hahnemühle papers under the Hahnemühle name.

The following tables give comparative pricing for some A3 and A4 papers when bought in the standard pack sizes of 20 and 50 sheets from different dealers.  Prices shown exclude VAT and shipping.  These price tables were last updated on 26-February-2002; note that these are manually updated so they may be out of date as you read them: always check with the vendor before ordering.

US Dealers

The Hahnemühle papers are distributed in the USA by Dia-Nielsen USA.

• Digital Art Supplies [site]
• InkJetArt.com [site]
• PhotoInkJet.com [site]
  • Frankfurt Art (same as German Etching 310gsm)