1. Regarding fitting panoramas into an album...
I was looking for a solution for over a year and I came up with springback binders. You can put, take out or reshuffle print in an album at any time. To see how they work, go to:
- Permajet Snapshut albums - costly but the largest of all (up to A3+), I believe they offer 12x12in option as well, I read they were available on Amazon from time to time some time ago
- fairklemmt.de - sizes up to A3, lovely, wow and 50% of Permajet price for A3 (A4s available on Etsy, from the website they will ship to Germany and maybe Austria only so I had to use some middlemen services located in Germany to get it here
- some others in UK and Germany, usually up to A4
In most cases horizontal binders make more sense than vertical ones.
I bought a bookbinding bone to crease the paper. It works great on most Awagami papers as they are thin but very strong (e.g. Inbe Thin, Kozo papers, double-sided Inbe Thick was not the cleanest fold). With that I can fit 21cm-by-anything panorama into A4 horizontal binder. You need something to cut the paper (trimmer or a knife-and-metal-ruler solution).
2. Regarding printing on Awagami
I only started using the papers a few months ago so not much experience.
First, I did not have problems to print A4 cut sheets from Awagami sample pack using the upper feed on my Epson p900.
Then I bought 17in roll of Inbe Thin to make an album (Awagami rolls are cost effective). My home-cut sheets were less than perfect. Too curled. Out of the first 5 sheets 3 went to hell (were torn inside the printer). Later my process improved but I still got 1-in-10 clearly uneven feeds into the printer. The culprit is Inbe Thin is very thin and A4 sheets are very light.
Slanting paper feed advice: put the paper horizontally i.e long-edge down into the upper printer feed. For example: if you want to print A4 vertical (horizontal) picture:
- define the paper as A3 size horizontal (vertical)
- set margins so that the A4 image is placed on the left (upper) half of the A3-defined paper
- put A4 paper into the printer horizontally (long edge down into printer’s upper feed)
- if settings seem complicated, use "Print preview" option in (Epson) driver. The option lets you see, before printing starts, the paper and the image exactly as they are/should be placed in the printer feed. In case of error, you can cancel printing and make corrections.
This solves uneven feed problems for Awagami papers. In fact it works for all papers, especially for small sizes and panoramas. The bonus is that it also solves problems with curled paper sheets cut from rolls. It appears that paper curled downwards from left to right side (in printer's upper feed) is less prone to ink smudges, paper folding inside the printer and possibly head strikes
Be careful on which side you print. My sample pack had an error on Kozo Thick White (if I remember). I could not believe it until I printed on the other (correct) side.
3. Putting into the album:
Paper grain: Grain is important for album / book storage. Awagami specifies grain for almost all their paper sizes (unlike many other manufacturers). It is always long for Awagami rolls. You want the direction of paper grain to be horizontal when the print is in an album.
Fragility of papers:
First, Awagami papers are very strong. Even the semi-transparent ones are hard to tear. Check on YouTube what they want you to do with Kozo and Mitsumata Double-Layered. However, like most matte papers, Awagami are delicate and should not be touched frequently. I sprayed my first two albums with Hahnemuhle spray. It clearly helped Inbe Thin but the thin sheets swallowed the chemicals and warped a bit. Not perfect. Maybe my error. I think glassine does not suit the thin papers. Even so I might put glassine between the folded panorama sheets to guard against side-to-side friction.
It is a bit early for me to assess with confidence susceptibility to wear from frequent hand holding or touching. My guess is:
- strong: Inbe Thin White, Kozo Murakumo Select (42gsm!), Kozo and Mitsumata Double-Layered (both semi-transparent, to be peeled away, effectively 30gsm)
- medium: Kozo Thin/Thick, Bamboo 170/250
- delicate: Inbe Thick (double sided), Bamboo 110
For albums the strong papers are optimal. Saying that I just bought Bamboo 110. I could not resist.
4. Final thoughts:
I have not written about print quality. The quality is fine. It is different. None of the papers is bright white but white versions should be white enough. Low contrast with subtle color transitions, some papers are great for BW, sharpness may be lacking for some. The papers are not good for architecutre, I read somewhere. They should be great for landscapes with greens and yellows and portraits.
Compared side by side with European / American papers... they are meh. No DMax. Yellowish. On their own you may find them very impressive depending on the subject.
When you hold them in your hand, you can feel and smell the real paper. This works great for albums.
Last advice: buy an inexpensive sample pack or two.
. Total cost? A 24in roll of the Hahnemuhle paper will set me back for around 200EUR. Anyway, I was going to buy some warm, high DMax paper in big format so the incremental cost is, again, zero
