The 7 Best Smooth Cotton rag Papers (2023 reviews)

We consider a smooth cotton rag paper to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your purposes from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Arches Smooth Cotton rag Paper READ REVIEW

Best With Acrylic Paint: Buy: Lear Village Smooth Cotton rag Paper READ REVIEW

Best With envelope: Buy: Wanderings Smooth Cotton rag Paper READ REVIEW

Best With gouache: Buy: Nomadcraftsco Smooth Cotton rag Paper READ REVIEW

Best For inkjet printing: Buy: PROMASTER Smooth Cotton rag Paper READ REVIEW

Best For pen: Buy: Nomadcraftsco vintage Paper READ REVIEW

Best For oil Painting: Buy: Artway Smooth Cotton rag Paper READ REVIEW

Best Overall: Arches Smooth Cotton rag Paper

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This 140 lb, hot-pressed, Arches paper is exactly what it is supposed to be. It's good sturdy paper, has a nice smooth surface, and should work well for thin lines and tiny details. Because of the smoother surface this paper is great for "cleaner" more detailed paintings or times when you might want to layer colored pencil on top. It handles color washes very nicely and allows for great color blending.

This paper is excellent for watercolour and coloured pencil. The colors blended beautifully on it and the smooth paper is a nice change of pace. This also comes in a pad, which means you have to stretch your paper first to prevent buckling.

• All arches hot and cold pressed are acid free and fully archivable
• Very good for certain watercolor paintings such as flowers or other botanicals
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best With Acrylic Paint: Lear Village Smooth Cotton rag Paper

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The lear village smooth cotton rag paper should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. Acid free sheets in these watercolor mix media sketchbook help keep your art work vibrant and long lasting. It is great for pastel, especially blending. It is perfect for recording ideas, anecdotes, lessons learned, daily events of fond memories. If you like dry brush painting, or charcoal work, this paper is unbeatable.

This 100% cotton watercolor paper has neutra ph to keep your artwork safe for centuries. It can be used for dry and wet medium and unlike other sketchbook they are suitable for watercolor, oil pastel, pencil color, charcoal, pen and ink drawings. Some scrubbing and it holds up wonderfully for such a lightweight paper.

• Ph neutral so your work will last for centuries
• Holds up well with ink pens and magic markers
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best With envelope: Wanderings Smooth Cotton rag Paper

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This is nice paper if you like the look and feel of loose sheets that look like torn edges. On the plus side, it is quite a tough paper with a fabric feel. It completely sucks up paint and water and takes a really long, l-o-n-g time to dry. It's not stiff at all.

The quality of the paper is amazing. It is pretty good handmade paper, however, it is quite thin. The paper is absorbent and works well with the ink that is in the jane davenport ink brushes.

• Beautiful deckle edge and clean white
• Supports most media including watercolor, acrylic, gouache, ink, gel pen, marker, pencil and charcoal
• Lovely, luxurious texture and deckled edges

Best With gouache: Nomadcraftsco Smooth Cotton rag Paper

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Nomadcraftsco offers a variety of paper for personal choice and yet maintaining quality in all the variants. These papers are made from 100% recycled and acid-free materials, with 150 gsm thick, strong, slick-smooth & durable features. It comes in 8x5 inches to add to that it is great for making small leather journals. The paper is a little thicker than printer paper. The clean and straight cut copies are wonderful post-printing and roll into scrolls nicely, there is no bleeding on the printed pages, and students love the aesthetic. It's a beautiful color and texture also thick. It's very loosely made. It is easy to use like gouache or watercolor.

• Lovely antiqued paper with deckeled edge
• Lot of satisfied buyers

Best For inkjet printing: PROMASTER Smooth Cotton rag Paper

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Next on the list, we've got yet another paper that manages to win our hearts. It's the promaster smooth cotton rag paper and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient paper you can buy. Promaster's fine art inkjet paper is a favorite of photographers and artists alike offering a unique museum quality feel from your inkjet printer at home. It makes rich looking prints that are not muddled. It's like fancy cardstock. The ink sets in the cotton fibers to give a watercolor effect with printing. It has a nice, heavy, soft cotton feel with a warm white. The colors are vibrant and the texture is velvety. It's perfect for fine art prints at home.

• 100 percent cotton rag with an inkjet coating on both sides
• Wonderful paper for fine art printing
• Good investment for long term

Best For pen: Nomadcraftsco vintage Paper

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This paper has the authentic look and feel of handmade paper. These handmade ancient-looking rustic papers are made from environment-friendly raw materials, pressed to make the desired thickness, and sundried. It's a rough and dry texture like a cold pressed water color paper. It can be used also in making antique items like hidden treasure maps, ancient scrolls, and wall paintings.

These blank sheets of excellent quality handmade vintage papers work best with watercolor, ink, colored pencil, marker, or other mediums. It is slick-smooth, thick, strong, luxurious, and durable which is suitable for any kind of mixed media art. The paper is 100 % free from any artificial materials that can degrade its quality. It is ideal for pen, pencil, crayons, and even charcoal.

• Full sheets make an excellent full size cover
• Very durable and easily torn to various sizes
• Very durable and also use them for framed collage works

Best For oil Painting: Artway Smooth Cotton rag Paper

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If you are searching for a satisfactory paper for your daily usage, you cannot go wrong with the artway smooth cotton rag paper. This pack of a4 cotton rag paper contains 30 sheets. Containing 100% cotton rag this paper is naturally tough providing durability and support for many different applications. It is individually handmade and features a fully deckled edge with natural variations in texture, size and shape between each sheet due to the handmade nature of the product. It is 100% acid-free with a neutral ph.

The surface of the paper has been smoothed flat having been cold pressed a number of times through rollers. It can be created entirely by local artisans in northern india using traditional paper-making methods. This reduction in surface texture lends itself to rendering more detailed and precise marks often required when producing botanic paintings and illustrations. It is suitable for watercolour and other painting techniques as well as a range of dry and soft media.

• New and hot release
• One of the new comers and featured product