Our claim #protectwhatmatters truly reflects how your art on Hahnemühle paper is safeguarded in the best and most versatile ways. Our papers boast top-tier longevity certifications, ensuring your creations stand the test of time. Crafted from resource-saving raw materials through sustainable production processes, they embody our commitment to both quality and environmental responsibility.
Discover how our connection to nature influences every sheet: we produce a natural product from pure spring water and sustainable fibers, emphasizing our dedication to eco-friendly craftsmanship. Since 1584, Hahnemühle has been a pioneer in high-quality paper manufacturing, maintaining an unbroken tradition at the same location today nestled within a landscape conservation area.
By choosing Hahnemühle paper your art is enhanced by centuries of expertise and a deep respect for nature.
Why should you opt for Hahnemühle’s tree-free paper?
Hahnemühle´s Natural Line plant-based papers are innovations in the art, photography, printmaking and commercial publishing sectors for more sustainable papers in a circular economy. Plant-based fibres have been in our manufacturing DNA for centuries, as papermaking at Hahnemühle started in 1584 with textile waste, the so-called rags from old clothing has been recycled.
Today applies, all plants produce considerable biomass (with a quicker turnaround time than trees), which binds a lot of CO2 and make them carbon neutral. They grow quickly, require no pesticides and little water for cultivation. For all feedstock no additional cultivable land is used.
Facts on Hahnemühle´s Cotton Rag Fibres
So-called rags from old clothing of hemp, linen and cotton has been collected, milled and recycled for papermaking at Hahnemühle until the invention of cellulose from trees for papermaking end of the 18th century. Today we offer 100% cotton papers or papers partially made of cotton rag fibres. Nowadays the raw material are cotton linters, a by-product of the textile and food oil industry. We are utilizing the fine and valuable fibres which cling to the cotton seeds for a second life while the well-known long fibres from the cotton blossom are used for textiles. The seeds then go either into the food oil industry or into re-seeding the plants.
The seeds in the cotton blossom (you can feel them when squeezing a cotton blossom) are shaved to get the precious, soft and short linters fibres for the best papers. As cotton linters are white, soft fibres, they are ready to use after purification – no chemical bleaching is needed, nor is lignin removal required as for tree-based fibres.
Hahnemühle´s benchmark cotton linters based papers refer in their name to the raw material: Photo Rag® which comprises a whole product family. Other famous cotton papers are Hahnemühle´s Watercolour papers or printmaking papers. Natural Line papers like Hahnemühle Hemp, Hahnemühle Bamboo, Hahnemühle Bamboo Gloss Baryta, Hahnemühle Agave or Hahnemühle Sugar Cane partially contain cotton linters to make the paper smooth and usable for painting, drawing or classical and digital printing.
Facts on Hahnemühle´s Natural Line Hemp Fibres
Hahnemühle re-invented Hemp for artist paper as the long-known fibres had been widely used for paper in former times. The plants grow annually and deliver twice to four times more the amount of cellulose than trees. Compared to wood pulp, hemp pulp offers a four to five times longer fibre, a significantly lower lignin fraction as well as a higher tear resistance and tensile strength. Hemp paper can be recycled up to 8 times, compared to just 3 to 4 times for paper made from wood pulp.
It’s a fast-growing undemanding plant and grows almost everywhere without needing a special climate or soil (reaches up to 4 m within 3 months). It requires considerably less water compared to other plants and doesn’t need any pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. Hemp fibres are used in a variety of industries, and all types of fibres – from long to short – are cascaded. For our paper, we use the shorter fibres.
Facts on Hahnemühle´s Natural Line Bamboo and Bamboo Gloss Baryta Fibres
Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on earth with up to 1m growth per day. Man-made watering is not required and these plants don’t need fertiliser or pesticides to grow. By dropping leaves throughout the year, it creates natural compost and improves degraded soil. Due to its strong root system, bamboo prevents earth erosions. Bamboo reduces greenhouse gases significantly better than wood as it can absorb 5 times more CO2 than a forest with trees, especially in the first years of growth. It can be harvested every 5 years without damaging the plant as the stumps sprout and grow again. Bamboo is an undemanding plant and can thrive on depleted soil.
Facts on Hahnemühle´s Natural Line Agave Fibres
Agave is an undemanding plant which prefers to grow in dry areas of the world. It needs about four years to grow before it’s ready for harvest. In this growing phase, other plants like corn or beans are cultivated between the agaves which counteract monocultures and improve the soil quality due to humification of harvest residues.
It needs less water than crop plants and doesn’t need any fertilizers or pesticides. The leaves of the agave can be harvested several times a year over a period of up to 15 years. The nature of its photosynthesis is particularly interesting: at night it absorbs CO2, during the day, the plant can use the CO2 necessary for photosynthesis.
As with other Natural Line papers, agave is also used in other industries – from textiles and food to cosmetics.
Facts on Hahnemühle´s Natural Line Sugar Cane Fibres
Hahnemühle gives the fibrous plant residues from Sugar Cane a creative secondary life to that previously wasted material. It’s the largest crop by production quantity worldwide for the food and beverage industry with a versatile residue. After processing the plants so-called bagasse consisting of 40-60% cellulose is a agricultural leftover. One ton of Sugar Cane delivers about 150-250 kg of bagasse fibres. In a cascade manner the already defibrated Bagasse need less energy to process the fibres for paper production than for tree fibres. Due to its perennial cultivation, it strengthens the soil and prevents erosion during tropical heavy rains.
And what else characterises your most sustainable paper by Hahnemühle?
That it stands the test of time! To achieve this, all fibres for Hahnemühle papers must be guaranteed to last for generations and meet the high requirements of the ISO 9706 standard for ageing resistance of paper and extreme lightfastness. In combination with archival and acid-free artist materials such as ink and colours, your artwork will last for hundreds of years.
Learn more about how Hahnemühle combines more than 440 years of expertise in paper manufacturing in harmony with nature in our Environmental Manifesto.
