Printing on to metallic paper?

Karel Bata

Hi,

I'm interested in printing on to metallic paper. I've seen prints done on to metal and metallic surfaces at exhibitions and been impressed by the increased dynamic range.

I have a range of questions on this, but first - to avoid me asking stuff that might be obvious to folks here - can anyone point me to a resource I could learn from?

Cheers!

pathfinder

Prints on paper with a metal type surface have nothing to do with prints printed into an Aluminum surface of a piece of aluminum metal. The metal prints on aluminum have a nice depth to the image that paper cannot match even if they call it "metallic paper".

For me one of the real advantages of true metal plate prints is way they are mounted about a 1/2 out from the wall surface and do not require a frame or a cover glass - hence no reflections from a glass cover. I have several metal prints of images of mine that I had fabricated by Bay Labs. I am not aware of a way for an individual to print on metal plates at home but I haven't looked for any recently either.

If you want to print on metallic surface paper, just order a box and start printing and see what you think about the image - Red River paper offers two varieties of metallic paper here - https://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/metallic-paper.html

I have used Red River paper for many years and I really like their satin finish papers. I have printed on Red River metallic paper several years ago, but they did not match prints on aluminum surfaces - they are less expensive than on aluminum plate and you can print on your own fine art printer with metallic paper.

Red River has a listing of the paper profiles here - https://www.redrivercatalog.com/infocenter/PDFpage.htm

To get the best results with their paper you will want to use their profiles unless you routinely make your own printer profiles for each paper you use. If you don't understand what I am talking about, you will want to use the Red River profile for specific version or paper you're using.

A quick search didn't turn up any metallic surface paper by Epson, but Hahnemuhle does make a metallic cotton canvas paper, but I know nothing about it. - https://www.lexjet.com/canvas-metallic-350-g

Moab makes a paper called Slickrock that they say has a metallic surface that is very reflective and close to metal plate images - https://www.moabpaper.com/slickrock-metallic in two different weights at about ~ $1.25 a sheet for 8x11 inches Moab offers profiles for the paper as well

I am certain there are others if one looks diligently too