Paper & Print Quality, Explained

Two prints of the same image can look completely different depending on the paper and the ink. The terms on product pages - 275gsm, giclee, archival pigment - are not marketing decoration; each one describes something you can see and feel. Here is what they mean.

What 275gsm FSC fine-art paper means

GSM is grams per square metre, the standard measure of paper weight. Office paper is around 80gsm. At 275gsm, our fine-art stock is roughly three times heavier, so it feels substantial, lies flat in a frame and does not buckle or curl over time. The weight also means colour sits on the surface rather than soaking through, which keeps blacks deep and edges sharp.

FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council. An FSC-certified paper comes from responsibly managed forests, so the print is something you can hang without an environmental footnote.

The surface itself is a smooth matte fine-art texture. Matte avoids the glare you get from glossy photo paper, so the artwork stays readable from any angle and under most lighting.

What giclee printing is

Giclee (pronounced zhee-clay) is high-resolution inkjet printing onto fine-art paper, using many fine droplets to build smooth gradients and accurate colour. Compared with mass commercial printing, giclee reproduces subtle tonal shifts - the fade of a sky in a travel poster, the gradients in a Japanese woodblock-style print - without visible banding or a coarse dot pattern.

Why archival pigment inks matter

There are two broad families of ink: dye and pigment. Dye inks are cheaper and can look vivid at first, but they fade faster and shift colour with light and humidity. Pigment inks use solid colour particles that are far more stable, which is why they are the standard for gallery and museum reproduction. In practice this means a print that holds its colour for decades of normal indoor display rather than fading within a few years.

Why it matters for what you hang

Paper weight, surface and ink together decide whether a poster reads as a cheap copy or as a piece of art. Heavier paper sits better in a frame and resists damage. A matte fine-art surface removes glare and flatters detail. Pigment inks keep the colours you bought looking the way they did on day one. None of this is visible in a thumbnail, which is exactly why it is worth knowing before you choose where to buy.

See it across the range

Every print we sell uses the same paper and inks, whether you choose an Art Deco poster, a vintage travel poster or a Japanese poster. Browse the full catalogue in all posters.

Printed in our Paris studio on 275gsm FSC fine-art paper with archival pigment inks. Free shipping over 49 EUR, 30-day free returns, and a 4.93/5 rating from 3,887 verified reviews.