Illustrated Glossary: Paper Fibers

Paper supports are made of intertwined fibers. If a paper is uncoated, these fibers will be clearly visible under magnification, especially with raking light. Polyethylene laminates, surface sizings, baryta layers and other coatings can obscure the fibers either partially or wholly. Note that while the paper fibers can have a big impact on the paper’s surface texture, this is not always the case. Many paper coatings impart their own textures while obscuring all evidence of underlying paper fibers. The image on the top left below shows the paper’s fibers well because there is no coating to fill in the spaces between the fibers and smooth out the surface. The image on the top right shows less texture, but paper fibers can still be seen through the thin baryta and ink receiver layers.

Uncoated fine art paper	Baryta-coated paper

Both papers below have coatings thick enough to completely obscure the fibers. The image on the left is from a porous-coated fine art paper. Its unique texture is formed by the shapes and sizes of the mineral particles used to make the ink receiver layer. The image on the right shows a resin-coated chromogenic print. This paper has a white pigmented layer of plastic laminated to its surface, so no fibers can be seen.

Porous-coated fine art paper	Chromogenic RC paper