Where the art meets the surface.
Every printing application deserves the right surface. For our fine art prints and special-edition cards, we chose papers from a mill whose history stretches back over five centuries — to 1492, when master papermakers in the village of Arches in the Vosges region of France first began making paper by hand.
The ARCHES® mill is the last in France to manufacture all its fine art papers using the traditional cylinder mould process, a method introduced there in 1895 and preserved ever since. In 1826, when the rest of the industry switched to cheaper rosin sizing, the Arches mill made the deliberate choice to keep its traditional gelatin sizing — a decision that proved pivotal. Papers sized with rosin deteriorated within decades. ARCHES® papers endured, and the mill became the reference for artists and printers worldwide.
The same mill that provided paper for Dürer, Voltaire, and Napoleon now provides the surface for every fine art print we make.
Over the centuries, ARCHES® paper has carried some of history’s most significant printed works. In 1493, just a year after the mill’s founding, it supplied the paper for the Nuremberg Chronicle — one of the earliest and most ambitious illustrated books, with woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer. In 1775, the playwright Beaumarchais purchased the mill outright and spent seven years printing the complete works of Voltaire on ARCHES® paper, requiring seventy tonnes of it. In 1807, Napoleon commissioned the mill to produce two million sheets for the Description de l’Égypte, in sizes so large they had to be invented for the project.
Today, every sheet of ARCHES® paper is still made from 100% cotton, still free of optical brightening agents, and still produced on the same cylinder moulds in the same village in the Vosges. The Canson Infinity line adapts these legendary base papers for digital fine art printing with a proprietary inkjet receiving layer — bringing five centuries of papermaking tradition into the giclée process.
Arches Aquarelle Rag
Textured · Canson Infinity · Fine Art
Aquarelle Rag begins with what may be the most revered watercolour paper in history. The original ARCHES® Aquarelle has been the paper of choice for watercolourists for centuries — its natural grain, felt-marked finish, and warm white tone have been trusted by artists from Matisse to Chagall to Picasso. It is, quite simply, the standard against which all other watercolour papers are measured.
Canson Infinity took this legendary base and developed a proprietary inkjet receiving layer that preserves every quality of the original — the gentle, tactile texture, the natural warmth, the way light falls across its surface — while enabling museum-quality digital printing. The result is a paper that gives every print the presence of an original work. Colours land with depth and subtlety, tones feel organic rather than manufactured, and the surface itself invites touch.
We reach for Aquarelle Rag when a print wants to feel like a painting — when the texture of the paper should become part of the experience.
- Weight: 310 gsm
- Fiber: 100% cotton
- Finish: Textured / felt-marked
- Tone: Natural white
- OBA-free
- Acid-free
- Archival
Arches 88
Matte · Canson Infinity · Fine Art
ARCHES® 88 takes its name from the printmaking paper that has been a staple of fine art studios for decades — a matte surface prized for its pure, unadorned clarity. Where Aquarelle Rag brings texture and warmth, Arches 88 brings stillness. Its ultra-smooth surface lets the image speak without any interference from the paper itself.
The Canson Infinity adaptation preserves the paper’s defining qualities: a pure white tone, a soft and supple hand feel, and a matte surface that produces superb colour rendition with deep blacks and natural whites. The result is a print with quiet authority — no sheen, no distraction, just the image rendered with exceptional tonal range and detail in both highlights and mid-tones.
We choose Arches 88 when we want the paper to disappear — when the art should feel like it was always there, resting on the surface without announcement.
- Weight: 310 gsm
- Fiber: 100% cotton
- Finish: Ultra-smooth matte
- Tone: Pure white
- OBA-free
- Acid-free
- Archival
Platine Fibre Rag
Satin · Canson Infinity · Photographic
Platine Fibre Rag traces its lineage to the golden age of darkroom printing. Canson, founded in 1557 and appointed Manufacture Royale by Louis XVI in 1784, supplied premium cotton-based papers to the platinum and platine photographic market for generations. In 1992, the ARCHES® mill developed the first paper in the world dedicated specifically to the platinum printing technique — ARCHES® Platine.
Canson Infinity’s Platine Fibre Rag brings that heritage into the digital era. It recreates the aesthetic and feel of the original F-Type baryta fibre papers that defined fine photographic printing — a satin surface with luminous grey tones, exceptional Dmax (the deepest achievable black), and a smooth, fibre-based feel that recalls the finest silver gelatin prints. All without the optical brightening agents that compromise longevity.
We turn to Platine Fibre Rag when a print demands quiet brilliance — particularly for photographic work, high-contrast imagery, and any piece where depth of tone is everything.
- Weight: 310 gsm
- Fiber: 100% cotton
- Finish: Satin
- Tone: Ultra white
- OBA-free
- Acid-free
- Archival