Introducing Moab Entrada Natural Coldpress 300
A brief introduction to Moab’s new textured matte paper
Before I discuss any of this paper’s characteristics or where it may fit in your work or even where it fits in the universe of matte papers, I want to summarize a long, winding story of its genesis. The story is from my perspective and may be very different if Moab told a more accurate version. The story starts a long, long time ago before the age of Covid, a couple of years before to be precise.
The Genesis Of Entrada Coldpress 300
Occasionally Moab and other paper manufacturers send Les papers in plain brown wrappers to test and see what we think. On one such occasion, Moab sent us two papers. They called one of those ”hot press”, and the other ”cold press”. Were these secret code names? Turns out they were not secret code names; so much for any intrigue. The names merely represented part of the paper manufacturing process. These terms come up all the time if you’re a watercolor artist. I’m not, so take a look at a watercolor painter’s explanation for a full discussion on why you may want one or the other.
Les and I immediately went about producing a few prints on each. Who can resist making prints when presented with a couple of new papers? Even at first glance, we were both enamored with the very visible texture of the cold press paper. We loved the way it felt in the hand. We loved that Moab seemed to be significantly expanding the range of surface textures it provides. They had a paper named Entrada Textured which we liked and used frequently but it wasn’t that much more textured than Entrada Natural. If we wanted more surface texture we had to turn to Hahnemühle, etc. The hot press seemed very similar to existing Entrada Natural or Textured.
Imagine our disappointment when we discovered the cold press had a fatal flaw. Areas of dense shadows and blacks seemed to puddle and block up detail. Worse when those areas of “puddling” started to dry they had visible differences in D-max appearing grayish but still no detail or contrast in deep shadow. We dutifully reported our findings and expected another batch…
Years and years went by before another plain brown wrapper showed up from Moab. This time only one new paper type was to be evaluated. This seemed to me to be the same as the cold press we’d seen previously. In reality, it was quite different; not in visual appearance, but in performance. This time we found no issues and something else that surprised us. I didn’t believe Les’s first glance description, I thought he may have meant something different than the word he used — sharp!
Coldpress 300 Characteristics
Let’s start with that word Les used, ”sharp”. Entrada Natural Coldpress 300 looks very sharp. There’s no other word that works well to describe this impression. I’m going to have to analyze what goes into that impression a bit more to land on exactly why the paper gives an extra-sharp impression. Lacking a better analogy, if you’ve ever used a Zeiss or Leica prime lens that many describe as having “3D pop”, imagine a paper that has that property.
The second impression one gets is that it mirrors the look and the feel of all of the high-end watercolor cold press papers. One couldn’t tell the difference between looking or handling at two blank sheets. This is a fantastic paper for prints in a portfolio, book, or album as long as it suits the work being presented. Compare the photo at the top to paper samples of revered cold press watercolor papers to see for yourself.
While taking a look at the side-lit illustration at the top, also note how the surface texture interacts with two very different sample photos used on Moab’s official product sample. In this case of extreme side lighting from 90° you should see that almost impossible sharpness relative to the highly textured surface. Under less extreme lighting conditions, such as our GTI viewing booth, the texture is still apparent but its interaction with image detail is only noticeable in areas of the picture without detail. The texture very much takes a back seat in detail areas. I think that might be part of the reason for its impression of sharpness and 3D pop.
In our testing, we made a very large print of three lions in the grassy African tundra that was much lower than the typical 300 DPI optimal resolution one might shoot for in terms of up-close detail rendition. The image looked great and that sharp, 3D pop impression worked well to maintain an impression of a ton of detail both from far away and close examination. This would suggest the paper is suited for highly detailed (grass, etc) that don’t have extreme resolution (IE shot at lower pixel density than optimal) and printed large where viewing distances will be close.
In the past, we tended towards canvas for those situations where we’ve had to produce large prints for audiences at varying viewing distances. The new Coldpress 300 seems to suit that requirement even better in our first impressions. We’ll certainly be keeping that in mind as Les and I prefer a textured matte paper to canvas generally.
For those not familiar with cold press watercolor papers (I certainly wasn’t) I’d say that Coldpress 300 lands in between Hahnemühle William Turner or German Etching (less textured) and Hahnemühle Torchon or Awagami Bizan (more textured). That’s not the entire story depending on how one defines textured. This relative placement refers only to the size of the texture, the depth and shape of the texture is a different story. It’s deeper and denser than the Torchon. The shape or characteristic shape is different than any of the above-mentioned paper, making it a unique choice in textured matte paper for digital printing.
I don’t have enough experience with it yet to claim expertise in what images will be a perfect match. Stay tuned as we intend to have a lot more to say about paper and image selection for all of the papers we use.
I have used Hahneumhle Museum Etching and Ilford Textured Cotton Rag. I have a liking for Ilford's Rag. I would try this Moab's Coldpress as well.
Other than Hahnemühle's William Turner, I have generally been disappointed by other textured papers. I had small box of Moab Entrada Textured but after about three unsatisfactory prints, gave up on it. You have piqued my interest to give this one a shot to see how it performs. Thanks!!!!