Machine Coated Paper

A sheet is made smooth by a blade running over it during the manufacturing process.

Coated papers are available in glossy, dull and embossed finish and are widely used for bookbinding, printing, presentations, mock-ups, architectural models, and other graphic art purposes. Accepts most inks, markers, and colored pencil, but pigment ink must be embossed. They make halftones and color images look richer. Coated papers are associated with corporate capability brouchers and annual reports.

Hot Pressed Paper

Hot pressed paper has smooth, glazed surfaces produced by pressing the paper through hot rollers after formation of the sheet. Hot pressed paper is surface treated by calendaring it in a mangle. That means that it is burnished under pressure. This makes the paper surface very smooth. With machine made papers, the continuous web or ribbon of paper passes between to rollers that move at a slightly different rate under great pressure. The sandwich of metal plates and paper is fed between two rollers called a mangle under pressure. The plates slip under that pressure and burnish the paper surface. Hot pressed papers are also called calendared and plated.

These sheets show a high degree of brush detail and tend to show pigment color brightly. A plethora of hot pressed handmade papers are used for drawing or opaque painting techniques. It is ideal for delicate brushwork and illustration as this is the smoothest surface available. It is excellent for pen and washes work. The paper is specially suited to painting styles that want to accent the watery irregularities of the paint, or the styles where precise pen and ink outlines or drawings or fine brush textures are essential to the desired effect. The drawback of the hot pressed paper is that the lack of absorption tends to produce uneven and blotchy washes and amplify minor variations in pigment granularity or flocculation.