Innova Fabriano Art papers review

Fabriano Printmaking Rag 310gsm IFA 107
Fabriano Artistico Watercolour Rag 310gsm IFA 108

During recent testing of a Canon PRO-2000 printer, Innova asked Keith if we’d like to have a look at their new Fabriano rag papers. These two heavy rag type papers are archival and OBA free.

Although these were included in Keith’s PRO-2000 review, at the time the papers hadn’t been formally launched, so the technical details for the papers were not included.

Article Index

• About the paper
• Using ICC profiles
• Print Quality
• Summary

They are part of Innova’s new Editions Range of papers

We've reviews of many Innova products. See the Innova Category in the dropdown menu at the top of the right column.

Our samples were kindly supplied by Fine Art FOTO in the UK. Innova papers are available from many outlets internationally.

About the Fabriano papers

The two papers are both made by the Fabriano paper works in Italy, a company with a long history of paper making.

This from Innova:

IFA 107 Soft Grain – Mould Made 100% Cotton Rag Natural White OBA Free Acid – Lignin Free – Archival

IFA 108 Artistico Watercolour – Mould Made 100% Cotton Rag Natural White OBA Free Acid – Lignin Free – Archival

More details at Innova: IFA 107 | IFA 108

The surface textures are not too pronounced, and it took oblique lighting to show it clearly in these two profiling targets I printed, for creating icc profiles for the papers on the PRO-2000

The papers are available in a variety of sizes:

I was testing a 24″ width roll of the paper.

Specifications

IFA-107

IFA-108

Both papers are quite stiff, with almost the feel of thin card

The print below, on IFA-107 (of the 2020 NASA Mars rover) gives a nice feel for the richness of colour possible on this matte finish paper.

A black and white print, along with a photographic grey card shows (under halogen lighting again) that for an OBA free paper, the whiteness is very good, with none of the yellow ‘warmth’ that some art papers exhibit.

ICC profiles and media settings

The Innova site has a good collection of profiling and media settings information available, but I ran some basic profiling and tests with the PRO-2000 printer.First up I created a custom media setting for the papers.

The photo below shows calibration and ink density tests. There is much more about this in the PRO-2000 review.

As part of my testing I also checked the black and white print linearity for the papers.

This chart shows the density achievable with the PRO-2000.

The curve is pretty much identical for the IFA 108 – this paper is more heavily textured and feels a little stiffer than the IFA 107.

Print Quality

The photo at the top of the article is of a large black and white print I made of the harbour at Staithes in Yorkshire, using the IFA 107 310gsm Printmaking Rag.

I used the Printmaking Rag rather than the Artistico Watercolour Rag, since whilst a fine texture works well for an image like this, the more obvious IFA 108 surface pattern would be slightly too intrusive.

A detail of the print (under halogen lighting)

There is an article (Making a large B&W print) describing the whole process of making this print, from looking at the view, through to the final print.

Summary

These two heavy art papers have an excellent feel to them, with a stiffness making large prints easy to handle and resistant to any creasing.

I liked the clear bright whiteness, which was quite noticeable for OBA free papers, which often have a distinct warmth to them.

This isn’t a problem, but some images work better with a brighter white – potentially an issue if optical brighteners are a problem for archival reasons.

The smoother paper suits more of my photographic images, but as with any paper, the choice is as much a creative one as a technical one.

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More print related information

For information about other printers, paper reviews and profiling (colour management) see the Printing section of the main Articles and Reviews page, or use the search box at the top of any page. There are also specific index pages for any articles connected with the following topics:

• Digital Black and White
• Tutorials and 'How to' articles
• Colour Management
• Printer test images
• Why do your prints look wrong?

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