I’m simplifying, Moab’s Entrada Rag is actually a collection of 6 different variations of a cotton rag paper. Two of those, Natural 290 and Bright 290 are sold only as rolls, while the remaining 4 are sheet stocks. Since I don’t have a printer that supports rolls, my primary interest is in the sheet stocks, thus that’s what I’m going to focus on here.

Entrada comes in 2 variations, bright and natural, and 2 weights, 190 gsm and 300 gsm. The bright versions are 103 brightness b right-white papers with optical brightening agents (OBAs). Conversely, the natural papers are 84 brightness natural white, which to my eye is more of a cream color.

In some respects, the biggest question between the two, at least from a technical standpoint, is whether or not OBAs are “good” or “acceptable”. In my readings, I’ve found a number of photographers who don’t like OBAs in their papers.

In theory, I agree with the sentiment of avoiding OBAs. OBAs generally work by converting incident UV light into visible blue light. As a result, the paper looks brighter. Paradoxically, UV light is bad for inks, especially dye one, archival mounting does everything it can to block UV light from reaching the print at all. No UV light, and the OBAs aren’t going to be doing all that much.

That said, with the natural and bright papers in my hands, I vastly prefer the bight version for its crisper whites and slightly wider color gamut.

The second question is about weight. Obviously if you’re buying rolls, you don’t have much choice, in sheets however it’s a different story. To be honest, I still like the 300 gsm paper for something like a portfolio box. However, for framed prints the heavy weight paper doesn’t seem to matter as much.

The one big potential problem with cotton paper is that it lacks the surface coatings that gloss papers have. In many cases, these coatings serve not only to add the gloss effect but also to protect the ink—the ink is actually absorbed into a layer below the top layer of the paper. As a result, cotton papers are more susceptible to scratching and exposing the ink to contaminants in the air. Moab offers their “Desert Varnish” (a matte lacquer spray on coating) that protects the ink from UV light, scratches, and airborne contaminants.

I haven’t tried out the Desert Varnish yet, so I can’t really comment on either its effectiveness or the effect it has on the prints (see here).

Moab Lasal Matte
Moab Entrada Rag Bright
Moab Entrada Rag Natural
sRGB color space

Truth be told, there’s a some what darker and more convoluted story to all of this. As I noted in my first article where I talked about the Moab review box I got, I was a little surprised to find sheets of paper that were crushed, as well as others with spots on them. As I noted in the update to that article I was contacted by Mark S

Where I’m going with Entrada

Truth be told, I had a feeling I was going to like the Entrada papers before I even went into this. I don’t know why and maybe all of this is a product of the placebo effect—it’s supposed to be high end paper, I should like it more, right?—but at the same time there’s a certain intangible that I keep coming back to. In terms of dynamic range, the Lasal photo matte is better, but the paper just doesn’t feel “high-end”.

Out of all the papers I tested, the Entrata rag Bright, in either 190 or 300 gsm, has been my favorite paper in this little experiment. Unsurprisingly, it’s also been the paper that most of the people I’ve shown samples to have liked the best as well.

Simply put, I like this paper.