MATERIALS

 Below you will find an exhaustive list of the materials we use with information on their properties and specifications.

Founded in 1584, we are the oldest German papermakers manufacturing papers for traditional and digital working artists and industrial papers. Today, Hahnemühle is one of the last paper mills which produced high-quality artist’s papers and high purity filter papers for various purposes. As a result, Hahnemühle’s Digital FineArt Collection is the world market leader in the high-quality inkjet paper segment.

Sustainability is a living tradition at Hahnemühle and has defined the company’s history for more than four centuries. Hahnemühle is the oldest German paper manufacturer with an uninterrupted manufacturing tradition at the same site. The company has recently been certified for its sustainability measures and environmentally sensitive actions according to the ISO 14001 guideline for environmental management. This is part of Hahnemühle’s journey to becoming the first climate-neutral paper mill by 2030.

• Hahnemühle has been using pure spring water since 1584

  At the foot of the Solling, Hahnemühle has been producing the finest artist‘s papers with pure spring water for more than four centuries. The sole production site in Germany is located in a landscape conservation area. Accordingly, paper production must be environmentally friendly, sustainable and is strictly controlled. The pure spring water Hahnemühle is using since it´s founding days is fed into the nearby river Ilme – free from chemical cleaning agents, biocides or preservatives.

• Hahnemühle´s raw materials

  As trees grow and continue to age, the more CO2 they absorb from the atmosphere. Hahnemühle only uses paper pulp that comes from sustainable and FSC- or PEFC wood plantations as primary fibres. No tropical rainforest in South America is destroyed either. The cellulose from eucalyptus is planted and extracted in certified plantations. The cotton rag fibres (linters) used by Hahnemühle are fine fibres that cling to the seed of the cotton plant and occur as a by-product of the textile and oil industries.

• Hahnemühle’s “green” papers continue to grow

  Hahnemühle has been producing high quality artists’ papers from innovative, rapidly renewable fibres since 2008. The Hahnemühle Bamboo paper was and is the pioneer. In addition, there are now papers made from hemp and agave fibres for painting and drawing as well as digital fineart printing. Digital printable hemp paper for books and brochures also comes from Hahnemühle. All these fibres grow quickly, require no pesticides and little water for cultivation.

• Hahnemühle papers are highly resistant to ageing according to ISO standard 16245

  All Hahnemühle papers meet the high requirements of ISO standard 16245 for ageing resistance of paper and extreme light fastness. In combination with museum conditions and highly lightfast and acid free artist materials, artworks will last for hundreds of years, without loss of colour.

• All Hahnemühle papers are vegan

  As early as 1965, Hahnemühle was the first paper manufacturer to produce exclusively vegan artists’ papers and does not use animal glues or other animal substrates in its papers or manufacture.

• Energy used for manufacturing comes exclusively from 100% renewable sources

  Hahnemühle covers its entire electricity requirements through wind, water and solar energy. In a certified system to improve energy efficiency, all energy data is recorded, evaluated and continuously reduced in a professional, traceable and proper manner. Currently, the small fleet of company vehicles is being converted to alternative drives.

• As a paper manufacturer ISO14001 certified for environmental management

  Hahnemühle has recently been certified for all its sustainability measures and its environmentally sensitive actions according to the ISO 14001 guideline for environmental management. This is part of Hahnemühle’s journey to becoming the first climate-neutral paper mill by 2030.

• Recycling in the production cycle

  The paper mill returns production waste and offcuts to the production cycle or, where this is not possible, passes them on to other processors. Hahnemühle always gives preference to recycled material when this can be implemented without compromising the quality of the premium papers, for example cardboard tubes for the papers in reels and packaging cartons.

• Hahnemühle uses environmentally friendly packaging

  For example, the filling material for our transport boxes is made of recycled paper or corn chips from 100% compostable corn starch. Adhesive tapes and delivery note envelopes made of paper are also used helping to reduce plastic.

• Environmentally friendly paper production increases quality

  New, innovative raw materials and resource-saving processes are characteristic for Hahnemühle papers. This sometimes makes the raw materials more expensive and thus also the end product. Hahnemühle suppliers follow stringent quality and compliance guidelines to ensure that no artificial or environmentally harmful substances are used to produce and supply our raw materials.

• Hahnemühle papers are available in more than 130 countries around the world

  Hahnemühle´s central logistics location is in Göttingen in southern Lower Saxony. The logistics provider has been awarded a sustainability prize and supports our climate protection efforts. We bundle our shipments for transport in order to make the best use of our means of transport and – where possible – rely on climate-neutral shipping. The majority of our products are transported by ship or rail.

• Hahnemühle Green Rooster initiative supports sustainability projects worldwide

  The red rooster is Hahnemühle’s well-known trademark, and with the Green Rooster initiative the company supports regional and international environmental protection and sustainable projects. With reforestation, wildlife protection and education programmes, Hahnemühle is actively protecting the environment and the climate. Hahnemühle is guided by the 17 sustainability goals of the United Nations and the Gold Standard for environmental protection projects.

Founded in 1557 by the Montgolfier family and based in Annonay, France for centuries, Canson® perpetuates an unrivaled spirit of invention and excellence, combining the know-how of master papermakers with innovative technologies. A world leader in the fine arts market, Canson® supports artists, designers, architects, cartoonists, enthusiasts, students and schoolchildren by producing a wide assortment of high quality papers, and since its origins has also defended the creation and place of art in society.

From the famous hot-air balloon with its paper envelope rising into the air for the first time in 1782, to white or coloured drawing paper, tracing paper, paper for oil or acrylic and the exceptional paper of Canson® Héritage Watercolour or paper for digital photography, Canson® is constantly making the creative adventure accessible to everyone.

Over the generations, the greatest artists and creators used Canson® papers: Delacroix, Van Gogh, Degas, Matisse, Picasso, Dali, Warhol, Jean-Michel Alberola , Barthélémy Toguo, Philippe Starck, Yan Pei-Ming.

• Canson carefully monitors their resource usage

  This begins with monitoring how they use raw materials, their consumption of energy and water and their emissions, as well as keeping a close eye on how they dispose of their waste and energy efficiency. They have built their factories far away from protected locations and sites with high levels of biodiversity, and they have implemented systems and processes that protect the environment, the local area and the ecosystem. 

  Their production plants mainly employ electric energy, steam and natural gas for cooling processes and heating and they are continuously looking at ways of reducing their consumption. Today, one third of the energy needed to power their factories comes from biomass. 

  They constantly monitor their water consumption using automated systems that can limit its use to the absolute minimum.

• Sustainable Forest Management

  Canson® is FSC® certified which ensures the traceability of our products throughout the processing and marketing chain from the forest to the consumer.

• Combating Climate Change

  The Canson® paper mills are certified for their low emissions of fossil CO2 into the atmosphere.

• Health and Protection of the Environment

  Canson® paper contains no environmentally toxic substance.

• Water Filtration

  Canson moves treated water through a high-performance, eco-friendly purification station.

• Waste Reduction

  Canson® paper mills are certified for their low waste production. Much of the paper waste from their transformation site is recycled at our production site.

EPSON Printers and Archival Pigment Inks

We print with the 24-inch Epson SureColor® P6000 and 44-inch SureColor P8000 printers for all our Archival and Canvas Prints.

PrecisionCore TFP Print Head

• One-inch wide print head with 8-channels of 360 nozzles each

• Capable of printing up to 2,880 x 1,440 dpi

• Supports variable sized droplet technology as small as 3.5 picoliter

• Ink repellant surface coating for reduced nozzle clogging

• Low vibration meniscus control for highly accurate dot shape and placement

UltraChrome® HD Inks

• Next Generation Pigment Ink Technology — Introducing all new pigments for outstanding color performance and Improved Resin Encapsulation Technology for superior gloss uniformity.

• Improved Black Density — Photo Black pigment 1.5 times denser than the previous generation ink set, along with significant improvement to overall contrast ratio and optical clarity.

• Significant Print Permanence Improvements — Featuring completely reformulated pigment technology for improved print permanence, and up to twice the overall print permanence versus the previous generation Epson ink set.

Hahnemühle Protective Spray protects digital Fine Art prints from external influences. The aerosol spray lays like a fine film on the paper without changing the paper structure. It fixes the colors of our pigment ink and preserves the intensity and the high brilliance of the colors.

The coating increases the abrasion resistance of Fine Art papers, reducing the risk of fingerprint marks and scratches. Hahnemühle Protective Spray contains a UV absorber and thus offers additional protection against UV light. The improved formulation is fast drying. Any yellowing of the print due to the spray is not possible.

Advantages of the formula:
• No yellowing
• Easy to apply
• Preserves the intensity and high brilliance of the colors
• Fast-drying
• Protects and seals the print
• Made in Germany

Rising Museum Board

Rising Museum Board is the first choice of framers, museums and conservators for the mounting, matting and preservation of fine prints and precious documents. Rising Museum Boards are manufactured with 100% cotton. The boards are acid-free, Neutral pH and buffered with calcium carbonate. The result is a board that provides matchless quality and extraordinary preservation characteristics.

This line of 100% cotton fiber boards began its first production in 1970. Over the past 4+ decades, Rising has become synonymous with quality, archival framing. The range exceeds the standards established by the Library of Congress, Library Service Institutions and Conservation Laboratories and has become the cotton board of choice by the most prestigious museums, galleries & framers worldwide.

• Acid Free Rising Board is made with a minimum pH of 7 and is acid-free. No alum is used in the entire paper making process. The single ply sheets are laminated together using an inert adhesive that is 100% acid-free and archival.

• All Rising boards are buffered with a minimum 3% calcium carbonate as required by the U.S. Library of Congress to protect the board from hostile environmental factors.

Eco-Friendly

The cotton used to manufacture Rising Museum Boards is not from the puffy white flower that we all recognize as cotton, but rather the linters, or byproduct, from the textile industry. Textiles are made using the longest, highest-quality fibers – the rest is discarded. This wasted cotton is salvaged and used to manufacture Rising Museum Boards. Nothing could be more eco-friendly than reusing a product that is considered waste – otherwise this would all end up in the trash.

Rigid Quality Control

Rising Museum Board is continuously tested during the manufacturing process by both computer and manual controls to ensure conformance to the TAPPI and ASTM specifications required by the archival community.

Specifications

• Made in USA

• 100% Cotton

• Neutral pH

• Acid Free

• Lignin Free

• Chlorine Free

• 2-, 4- & 8-ply

• Buffered with calcium carbonate

• Specialty Paper

For print mounting, we use a 3mm thick closed-cell PVC board, which is often referred to by the brand name Sintra. The PVC board is very rigid, durable and solid, yet it is very light.

Sintra is acid free and has minimal out gassing for Archival use. We know a lot of photographers mount to a substrate referred to as Styrene and we see our board as an upgrade to that.  To adhere your fine art print to the PVC board, we use a double sided archival mounting adhesive that is acid free. Our mounting process is done through a cold press technique. We don’t use any heat to mount our prints.

Hahnemühle Cézanne Canvas

430 gsm · 100% Cotton · natural white

Hahnemühle Cézanne Canvas is a heavy inkjet canvas made of pure cotton, with an elegant, finely woven surface texture. The natural white canvas contains no optical brighteners and boasts a beautiful, natural shade of white. Together with the premium matte inkjet coating, it produces outstanding print results with excellent reproduction of color and detail, deep black and exceptional contrasts. Cézanne Canvas is acid- and lignin-free and meets the most exacting requirements in terms of age resistance. This heavyweight canvas impresses with radiant colors and deep blacks, down to the smallest detail which bestows Fine Art prints an exceptional brilliance. Despite its heaviness, the canvas is extremely elastic and is highly compatible with canvas stretcher frames.

• 430 gsm, 100% cotton

• Natural white, without optical brighteners

• Elegant, finely woven surface texture

• Matt premium inkjet coating for outstanding print results

• Acid and lignin-free

• ISO 9706 conform / museum quality for highest age resistance

Custom Basswood Stretcher Bars

All our Canvases are hand stretched onto Basswood Stretcher Bars that are custom made exclusively to our specifications. Basswood is wonderful for using as canvas stretching bars because it relatively free of sap when dried and very dimensionally stable. It doesn’t warp or bend the way typical spruce, pine or fir stretcher bars do. Also, since we get our bars custom made, we have designed the profile of our bars to provide maximum strength to reduce the chance of the bars bowing over time.

Hahnemühle Matte Varnish

Hahnemühle Matte Varnish adds a protective finish to the surface of our canvas inkjet prints. This varnish increases the lightfastness of our canvas and makes the surface water-resistant.

Hahnemühle Matte Varnish is water-based and leaves a soft matte finish. It adds richness to the blacks and color gamut of pigment and UltraChrome inks. It also preserves your colors from fading. Additionally, the varnish will protect your canvases from cracking and guards against fungals caused by environments with high humidity. The varnish leaves nothing but a clear coating after application.

All of our Hardwood Frames are 100% Real Wood and produced here in the US!

There are no veneers used with our Hardwood Frames! This means our walnut frames require a real walnut tree to be harvested, milled, sanded, and stained.

Trees are a Renewable Resource

As long as you have sun and rain, trees will grow. This makes wood the best raw material from an environmental viewpoint. Wood is renewable, recyclable, biodegradable, and usually organically grown. The growing acres, both before and after harvesting, support wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, clean air and water, and jobs for American families. Wood from well-managed forests provides the greatest benefits to people, wildlife, and the ecosystem and is proven to use less energy and creates less pollution than any other natural resource.

Most of the Eastern US forests have re-grown from abandoned pastureland creating more forested acres in the U.S. today than 50 to 100 years ago. Harvesting in every state is below the growth rate, so there is more timber in today’s forest than last year or the year before. Harvesting is currently less than 50% of growth, which means that harvest levels could double and still be sustainable.

Sustainable Wood

Contrary to popular belief, wood is a sustainable and environmentally friendly resource.  Wood products reduce greenhouse gas emissions because unharvested wood rots, which releases the carbon dioxide it stored up during its lifetime. We source all of our wood from North American regulated forests, which have been increasing in size due to proper management of forest stewards.

Reducing Chemicals

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are harmful when introduced into the atmosphere. Traditional stains, paints, and washes thin enough to apply by brushing or spraying contain VOCs that evaporate as the product dries.

Our Hardwood Frame manufacturer decided to offer some of the New Traditions finishes once the technology of water-based lacquers suitable for wood finishing was fairly mature by the early- to mid-2000s. All of our painted and stained finishes are water-based, which is good not only for the environment but for their employees as well.

The tung oils that they use penetrate the wood pores deeply and quickly, creating a remarkably durable luster in minutes. Applying by hand will allow for a more controlled application, reducing the VOCs released as compared to brushing and especially spraying.

Their facilities are cleaned a couple of times a week using Norwex products which have eliminated 99% of chemicals typically found in cleaning products creating a much healthier work environment.

Responsibility

Our Hardwood Frame manufacturer takes protecting and leaving the smallest possible footprint on the environment seriously. Rippings, edgings, and cutoffs are sold for kindling. They recycle all paper, cardboard, cans, bottles, and batteries and also work with a local environmental company to dispose of waste, such as oil and coolant, from manufacturing.

They have installed energy-efficient lighting throughout their facility including a number of solar tubes which provide natural illumination as well as motion sensor lights in their warehouse that turn off when not in use. Their road sign is solar-powered during the early morning and evening hours.

Sawdust and chips are blown into a trailer and trucked to a wood processing center that turns them into pellets, some of which they then purchase back as a supplemental heating source for their business. Air from their dust collection system is recirculated back into the building, reducing energy consumption year-round. They also burn waste oil from our forklift, saws, and vehicles in our waste oil furnace.

Acrylic comes in several different levels of quality. MUSEA offers the two best acrylics on the market.

Labs know the exact properties of the acrylic they put in their frames. They know the thickness, the various coatings or lack of coatings, and how much UV the acrylic blocks.

The top killer of prints is UV light. Heat is the 2nd killer.

We offer the two best acrylics on the market. Both our acrylics are 3mm thick and block 99% UV light. If we offer just one tier down (3rd best acrylic on the market), the UV protection drops all the way down to around 66% UV blocking, which is not considered archival quality.

If you drop another tier you are quickly headed to almost no UV protection. It will have some but it’s pretty much pointless at that point.

If you find labs that can’t name the exact % of UV protection, we would consider that a red flag for quality. The lack of UV protection means the print will fade much faster and your client won’t have the heirloom piece that they may be wanting. It’ll fade within 20-40 years and they can’t pass it down to the next generation without restoration work.

Also, the thinner the acrylic the more warp and waves you’ll see in it. It’ll feel cheap. Our acrylic is 3mm thick, which makes it very glass-like in appearance.

Standard Acrylic
99% UV Protection
3mm Thick
Reflection 8%
Light Transmission (how clear) - 92%
Shatter-resistant

Museum Acrylic
99% UV Protection
Double-Sided Anti-Reflective Coating
Abrasion Resistant Coating
3mm Thick
Reflection < 1.6%
Light Transmission (how clear) - 98%
Shatter-resistant

Museum Acrylic has fewer reflections and is almost crystal clear, so the print looks its absolute best.

Bainbridge Artcare Archival Foamboard

Artcare Archival Foamboard from Bainbridge® is the only one that’s truly archival. Other foamboards offer an archival surface, while the foam itself gives off gases that can fade, damage, and deteriorate your customers’ artwork. But Artcare, with its MicroChamber® technology, absorbs and neutralizes those harmful gases and protects the art well into the future.

Dr. Peter Sparks Preservation Consultant Former Director for Preservation Library of Congress:

“It is important that you know other acid-free foamboards claiming to be “archival” and “good enough” don’t protect against the harmful effects of outgassing. ArtcareTM Archival Foamboard is the only foamboard I would recommend for conservation framing.”

How the Hoffman Dovetail System Works

We don’t use V-Nails to join our frames or canvases. We use the Hoffman Dovetail System.

Triangular slots are routed into the ends on the back of each frame/canvas rail which forms a butterfly shape, or dovetail when joined.

Depending on the moulding profile, 1−4 slots are made at each joint. To join the frame, the edges are glued and a butterfly-shaped plastic piece, called a key, is inserted into each slot. The insertion of the keys provides the correct clamping pressure for the glue, and the end result is a tight, perfectly aligned joint with no markings on the face or sides.

Keys

The keys are made of high-strength plastic and made to very high tolerances to ensure a perfect fit in a properly routed slot.

Benefit

Plastic keys retain their shape and size no matter what the humidity, keeping your frame strong and properly aligned

We use Tyvek for our dust covers on all our frames and canvases.

• Resistant to mold, mildew, water, and dust particles.

• Tear-resistant, nonabrasive spun-bonded olefin.

• Acid-free and contains no damaging chemicals that can affect framed artwork

• Is puncture and moisture resistant and won’t attract insects