As the name implies, Artisan Craftsman Books specializes in hand-crafted fine-art photo books. Owner Larry Crandall is also a veteran photographer of 30-plus years who knows how photography can be maximized in a photo book.
As a fine-art photo book maker, Crandall typically uses matte paper, and most often LexJet Premium Archival Matte Paper, for the photo pages within the book. “We specialize in matte, giclee-printed books; we don’t do photographic or press-printed books,” adds Crandall.
With the introduction of Sunset Photo Canvas Paper 230g, Crandall may have found a new staple for his photo books, not as a replacement, but as an excellent textured option. He tried the new paper for the first time on a wedding photography book that was also printed on Premium Archival Matte.
“I’m not laminating the Sunset Photo Canvas in order to let the texture show through. Instead, I spray it with a protective spray and I think it’s durable enough. It’s pretty neat looking; it has a matte, fine-art finish and I really like it,” says Crandall.
The pages are printed on an Epson 7890 as a full-page spread. Crandall uses the auto-cut feature on the printer to make it easy to stack up the sheets in order, then trims the edges and scores the middle of the spread so that the pages are ready for binding. This particular wedding book is about 50 pages, or 25 full-page spreads, all printed on Sunset Photo Canvas Paper.
“I was concerned that the texture might take away from the detail, where it runs over someone’s eye or other facial feature. That’s not the case. It still prints beautifully,” says Crandall. “You get a little better continuous tone from Premium Archival Matte in certain areas. What I like is the texture itself, which has a nice feel. A large part of these books is the touch and feel, which doesn’t apply as much when you hang it on a wall.”
