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PRINTING 101 – With Hahnemühle Photo Cards (A Great Christmas Idea)

PRINTING 101 – With Hahnemühle Photo Cards

As a landscape photographer, I love to print out my own images on canvas or art paper and share them with family and friends. This year I decided to make my own Christmas cards with the beautiful Hahnemühle photo cards. These 4”x6” cards come in an elegant metal tin and there are four popular Hahnemühle Fine Art paper types to choose from in the photo card selection: Photo Rag® 308, Museum Etching, FineArt Pearl and Photo Rag® Baryta. They were gorgeous on the first print out and I was very impressed.

Ps – Bonus, according to Hahnemühle these photo cards can be text printed on the back and they mail very well. Postcard templates are available online for free.

Hahnemühle these photo cards

Photo Rag Baryta Photo Cards

The Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Baryta is a pure 100% cotton rag, 315 gsm, white high-gloss paper with an inkjet coating that has been perfectly optimised for Fine Art printing. The natural white paper comes in a nice warm shade of white and contains no optical brighteners, therefore I know the archival properties are excellent. This paper has been a favorite of mine for years as I used the 24” rolls for my fine art wall prints. Its so nice to have a complimentary set of photo cards to go along with the large format prints.

Photo Rag 308 Photo Cards

The Hahnemühle Photo Rag® is one of the world’s most popular papers and has been a favorite of mine for years with my large format printer. Its so nice to have a complimentary set of photo cards to go along with my large format roll media. The photo cards are a 308 gsm, 100% cotton rag white artist’s paper. Combined with the matt premium inkjet coating, this paper produces outstanding prints that feature brilliant colours, deep blacks, striking contrasts and perfect reproduction of detail. Each elegant metal tin contains 30 inkjet photo cards.

Hahnemühle Museum Photo Cards

The nicely textured surface and 350gsm matte finish of these cards adds depth and a three-dimensional effect to my cards. The cards are made from 100% cotton and contain no optical brighteners. Love it!

FineArt Pearl Photo Cards

These elegant card is one of my favorites. It has an elegant finish and a subtle, pearl-gloss effect to the finish. The bright white cards are made from 100% cellulose and have a delicately textured surface which is well suited to colour and monochrome printing.

These 4”x6” photo cards in elegant metal tin would make a great gift for someone or perhaps given as a gift with a whole collection of images.

How to Print Your Photo Cards

How to Print Your Photo Cards

Printing on these photo cards is as simple as 1-2-3!

STEP 1 – Load the photo cards into the printer. Open the front cover of your printer and move the paper guide to the edges of the paper with its printable side down. Since photo paper has one printable side, you need to insert it properly to avoid wasting paper and ink. The Hahnemühle photo cards come with the printable side face up in the metal box. Ensure that the photo card is pushed all the way into the printer.

STEP 2 – Set up the printer with the correct print settings. I allow the printer to manage its own colours or download the Hahnemuhle ICC profiles. The rendering intent that I like to use is perceptual. Under the driver settings I chose 4 x 6” borderless printing on a photo media type with quality set to best. Make sure the image size is correct according to the 4 x 6” output size set in the driver. Also check and see if you need to print your image in landscape or portrait mode.

STEP 3 – The preview in the driver setting should show you when you have it correct. Hit “Print” and voila – the magic happens!

Happy Printing!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Dulis

Peter Dulis is a Canadian photographer and visual storyteller living in Toronto, Ontario. His work has been published in a number of magazines such as Graphic Arts Magazine, Visual Wilderness,  Luminous Landscape, Photo News and has been recognized for photography excellence. Peter offers photo workshops in southern Ontario and can be reached at info@photographyAdventures.ca

Peter shares many of his tips and techniques in his monthly newsletter – PhotographyAdventures.ca and PeterDulisPhotography.com

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4 Comments

  1. Thank you for doing an article to explain how to print onto these cards. I have been wanting to do this for a while but not sure how. I need to purchase a new printer which one would you suggest?

    Thank you

  2. Hello
    Can anyone suggest a quality photo printer for black and white photography?

    Thank you
    Leah