Two papers are most commonly chosen for black & white work, and the file preparation differs from colour printing.
Recommended papers
- Hahnemühle Pearl — smooth orange-peel texture, bright neutral white base. Creates natural-looking black & white images.
- Hahnemühle Photo Rag — super matte finish, muted blacks with even tonal reproduction and excellent detail. Particularly favoured for fine-art monochrome.
Colour profile setup
- Use Adobe RGB 1998 as your workspace for neutral results.
- If you're starting from a colour image, convert to greyscale via Image → Mode → Grayscale, then convert back to Adobe RGB 1998 via Edit → Convert to Profile. This strips colour data while keeping the file in a print-ready RGB space.
Important
Do not apply theprintspace ICC profiles when printing in black & white. Profile conversion that's correct for colour will introduce colour casts in monochrome output. Stay in Adobe RGB 1998 for the entire B&W workflow.
Soft proofing
Soft proof using the paper's profile to evaluate contrast and brightness before sending to print. Set rendering intent to Perceptual and enable Black Point Compensation.