8 Reviews
Palo Duro Smooth Rag 310
You asked for a smooth, top performing fine art paper and we listened! Following on the heels of the award winning Palo Duro Etching, Palo Duro Smooth Rag 310 is everything you could ask for in a heavy smooth cotton paper.
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Reviews for Palo Duro Smooth Rag 310
New favorite fine art paper
Ron Sprunger
06/08/2020
Verified Buyer
I was looking for a paper comparable to Epson's Ultrasmooth Fine Art (USFA), but without the OBAs for more natural color. Smooth 310 fits the bill and then some. Color prints positively glow (where meant to glow) with rich colors, great detail, and a wonderful texture similar to Epson's Hot Press Natural. Couldn't be happier with the color.
But what I really wanted was a smooth surface, no-OBA paper for black and white using ABW on my P800. This paper was terrible when paper type was set to USFA as recommended by Red River. Specifically, the blacks blocked so badly that there was no shadow detail at all in zone 1, coming up darkly in zone 2. On a whim, I tried setting it to Hot Press Natural, 1440 dpi, Dark, and suddenly I have the B&W paper of my dreams. The luminance linearity is the best of any matte paper I've tested, DMax is a very good 1.610, and most importantly the prints are gorgeous. A print of Keith Cooper's (Northlight Images) test print shows detail at both the brightest and darkest ends of his printer torture test.
Definitely the best matte fine art paper I've ever used, and I highly recommend it.
3 of 3 customers found this helpful.
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WOW! What a beautiful product!
Steve Orr
03/04/2020
Kudos to RRP for their customer support and Palo Duro. I am a RRP regular, but this time I was in search of a paper that would best show prints that I carefully digitally painted. As usual, your support team answered my call quickly, and the helpful person recommended Palo Duro Rag 310. I was told to make certain I had the proper drivers and settings and to set my printer for heavier paper.
The order was received quickly, and I was anxious to try my first print. I followed all directions including loading paper from a different tray on my Epson P800. The very first print out was gorgeous, and it is going to the framer today! Frankly, I did not find printing with this paper to be more difficult than any others; just follow directions.
I like the tone and texture of the paper for fine art/"painted" images. I really like how substantial it is.
Good job RRP folks!
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Takes some work but worth the effort
AJB
01/24/2020
I have not found this paper prints to easily, I would not recommend it for quick prints. But if you put in a bit of extra effort in it, it is worth the effort.
2 of 3 customers found this helpful.
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Excellent B&W
TJV
06/19/2019
One other review suggested using this paper for color and not a lot of black... Not true! I do a lot of B&W printing, tried a number of different papers and this is hands down my favorite.
5 of 5 customers found this helpful.
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Amazing Results
Joe G.
12/27/2018
This paper gave me fantastic results printing on a Epson P800. Colors were very vibrant to the point that it looks life like. I would recommend this paper for an image that has a warm white point, very colorful (the more colors the better), and minimal blacks (only because I feel black pop better on Semi Gloss). It does not wash out the colors at all like some even very high end matt papers tend to do. Regarding the flat hot press surface, I love it because it keeps my lines SHARP as a razor compared to something with a surface texture. This paper can hold a ton of ink on the surface of the paper so beautifully. Good job on this one Red River!
3 of 3 customers found this helpful.
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Amazing
Darrell Nece
12/20/2018
I was depressed and basically on the verge of giving up on printing at home until I printed with this paper. I T I S T H A T G O O D. Trust me. It is amazing. Fine art printing with matte black without banding and splotches is a somewhat difficult process, but this paper handled my fine art prints with my Epson Sure Color 800 with ease. The profile they have works great! I did print using red river profile from Photoshop. Fantastic. Thank you!
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One of Two RR Papers That I Use
Jack B.
12/02/2018
Disclaimer: I'm a relative novice at printing, having acquired an Epson P800 about a year ago. Secondly, in my on-line print ordering experience, I have always favored fine art matte papers. Palo Duro Smooth is such a paper. I like Palo Durio Etching too, but smoothness usually wins over texture for me. The weight, texture, color rendition, and black depths of PD Smooth are all excellent. It's not an OBA paper and is therefore slightly warmer; however, that has not been an issue. I highly recommend it.
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An excellent addition to the RR paper line up
Dr. Elliot Puritz
10/17/2018
The new Palo Duro Smooth is an excellent paper. Ordinarily I will eschew papers that are "too smooth" because I like the added character and drama that textures papers can add to certain prints. However, when used with the ICC profiles from RR, prints with this new paper have an excellent Dmax and color gamut and thus have depth and dimensionality without the need for a textured paper surface. I suggest that the PDSR and PDEtching might suffice for virtually all matte prints that one considers.
2 of 2 customers found this helpful.
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One of Two RR Papers That I Use
Disclaimer: I'm a relative novice at printing, having acquired an Epson P800 about a year ago. Secondly, in my on-line print ordering experience, I have always favored fine art matte papers. Palo Duro Smooth is such a paper. I like Palo Durio Etching too, but smoothness usually wins over texture for me. The weight, texture, color rendition, and black depths of PD Smooth are all excellent. It's not an OBA paper and is therefore slightly warmer; however, that has not been an issue. I highly recommend it.
Jack B. - 12/02/2018
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