The 10 Best Smooth Hot Press Papers (2023 reviews)

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

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Arches Hot Press READ REVIEW

Best For Really responsive Paper: Buy: Strathmore Smooth Hot Press Paper READ REVIEW

Best With Acrylic Paint: Buy: Meeden Smooth Hot Press Paper READ REVIEW

Best For portrait: Buy: Speedball Smooth Hot Press Paper READ REVIEW

Best For Fine detail: Buy: Paul Rubens Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For Acrylic: Buy: Fabriano Great And inexpensive Pad READ REVIEW

Best For All purpose Use: Buy: Arches Smooth Hot Press Paper READ REVIEW

Best With envelope: Buy: Fabriano Smooth Hot Press Paper READ REVIEW

Best For Wet On Wet Watercolors: Buy: Paul Rubens Smooth Hot Press Paper READ REVIEW

Best For frame: Buy: Leda Art supply Smooth Hot Press Paper READ REVIEW

Best Overall: Arches Hot Press

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The arches hot press is capable of outshining several other paper featured in this list in overall features. This item is "hot press" which means it is smooth. The hot press is smooth, the cold press has a nice texture, and rough more texture for special projects. The paint sets to the paper well. This paper is glued on its four sides and accepts a good amount of water and layers. It has a nice texture, and rough more texture for special projects.

This "paper" contains some cotton, which helps prevent the surface of the paper from disintegrating when it gets wet and you try to erase a mistake. They are packaged well, and handled quickly.

• Great flat surface paper, due to the hot press
• Very good for certain watercolor paintings such as flowers or other botanicals
• Water flows nicely for watercolor paint

Best For Really responsive Paper: Strathmore Smooth Hot Press Paper

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Next on the list, we've got yet another paper that manages to win our hearts. It's the strathmore smooth hot press paper and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient paper you can buy. This hot press paper has a much smoother texture and prints really nicely. The high quality of the material inspires more intense and beautiful paintings, and the paintings start to take on a more integrated look. The paper withstands multiple layers of wax from pencil, holds up to erasures, and of course watercolor applications. The 100% cotton paper absorbs water well.

These precut sheets are very handy to pass out during a workshop, use for practice, or even to complete a small painting. This is a great product for painting with water colors. The paper holds up well to masking fluid applications and common watercolor techniques.

• Works great with marker, gouache, and color pencils
• Great for making water color cards and economical for teaching
• Color blends beautifully, looks sharp (not dull at all) on the paper
• Cute size cotton paper, easy to handlebudget friendly for beginners

Best With Acrylic Paint: Meeden Smooth Hot Press Paper

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This watercolor paper is the baohong 10"x7" smooth finish (hot press) paper. It is great paper for beginners and professionals alike. It is made from 100% pure cotton, 140lb/300gsm heavyweight watercolor papers, acid-free and chlorine-free, ph-neutral and archival, durable and strong enough for wet, dry, or mixed media painting, and less likely to curl or warp.

These are cold-pressed watercolor papers made from cotton that hold more color and with perfect water absorption. It dries flat if you let the paper dry while it's still bonded to the block. The paper is slightly off-white, so it is not blinding when you hang a piece. It comes with a nice plastic leaf shaped wedge to separate the paper from the block. This paper is awesome quality for multiple layer projects.

• Best cold-pressed 100% cotton paper value
• Nice paper, especially for students upgrading to 100% cotton paper
• Color retains brightness as it dries
• Doesn't pill or tear, even with several washes

Best For portrait: Speedball Smooth Hot Press Paper

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The speedball smooth hot press paper is suitable and reliable and fits well with your daily purpose. Watercolor artists love these watercolor paper block pads that are bound on 2 sides for easy removal of one sheet at a time. It is great for your special projects. It can take wet in wet, just not much saturation.

This is used for just colored pencils, just pastel pencils and mixed. It’s cold press so there is some texture and it is not smooth. It's smooth, similar in feel to hot press, so factor in how that will affect blending and flow. It is great with watercolor, gouache, and pencil. The paint moves so well and the flow is absolutely lovely. It’s smooth, similar in feel to hot press, so factor in how that will affect blending and flow.

• Plenty of tooth for pencil paintings
• Great smooth paper for pen and wash watercolor painting
• Smooth, no texture, but absorbing enough to keep the running in control
• High quality paper that holds up very well to several settings without buckling badly

Best For Fine detail: Paul Rubens Watercolor Paper

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Paul Rubens makes beautiful and great paper with classic and smartly choosen materials. This is the coolest smaller sized art journal with fabulous paper inside to do watercolor, acrylics or dry mediums. It works just as well as any other cotton hot press paper block. It is great for beginner-intermediate level watercolour artists.

This hot press has some texture to it, you can also use the original hit press block for card making. It is 100% cotton but the surface will not stand up to artists tape, masking fluid, or heavy washes. The paper doesn’t budge and stays straight after the heavy washes the watercolour goes on smoothly. Love this pink book, the paper is super high quality and doesn't bleed into the other sheets.

• Cotton but ineffective to use eradicator and difficult to soften some edges
• Works ok for light botanicals or light water use
• Beautiful to look at and use and inexpensive

Best For Acrylic: Fabriano Great And inexpensive Pad

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You can’t beat fabriano papers and this pad is no exception. This paper is good for softer watercolor pencils, and it's terrific for drawing on with softer graphite pencils. It holds up to multiple erasures without breaking down. It's smoother than the Arches hot press.

This is hot pressed paper and each pad has 50 sheets. It's smooth and a nice white. If you're looking for watercolor paper that lets you control wet on wet, this could be good for you, too. This paper is great for small watercolor works and mixed media.

• Held up very well for ink, light water color and light acrylics
• Heavy weight and color is perfect
• Hot pressed, so it is pretty smooth
• Beautiful velvety smooth and absorbent art paper

Best For All purpose Use: Arches Smooth Hot Press Paper

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Arches is known for creating pragmatic and minimalist paper for people on the go, and its line of arches smooth hot press paper definitely falls in line with that reputation. It is a dream to work on with watercolors. It is made with natural cotton fibers on a cylinder-mold machine. It is smooth paper so details will be easy to sketch. This is fine quality watercolor paper. It won't pill up easily, it doesn't keep everything floating on top, and it gives plenty of time for wet-in-wet techniques.

This paper holds up well to all commonly used eraser types. It is best for not only watercolors but mixed media as well. It is a great surface for watercolor painting.

• Recommended for serious hobbyist and artists for final projects due to the cost
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best With envelope: Fabriano Smooth Hot Press Paper

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The hot press paper is smooth, so it behaves very differently from cold press, which has a lot of texture. It can erase carefully without ripping the paper. The paper is so thick it barely bends when wet and if taped down can hold it in shape perfectly. It is great as white card stock and oil pastel paper.

The hot press is a creamy white, smooth and works well. The paints will behave differently and the paper absorbs water differently. It's smooth like bristle.

• Very smooth texture and solid weight to work with oil-based colored pencils
• Works beautifully with a wide variety of art mediums
• , handles ink and wash beautifully

Best For Wet On Wet Watercolors: Paul Rubens Smooth Hot Press Paper

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The production of these quality watercolor paper draws on the strengths of traditional hand-crafting while incorporating modern industrial techniques, providing a great user experience for you. This paper is not only beautiful to work on, being 100% cotton, but with the very hint of added shimmer it is a joy to use. The watercolor paper processes a good water absorbency, and color blends are more smooth. It adds sparkle to your paintings.

This watercolor paper is different from other ordinary paper, they shine due to the added sparkling materials, adding chic beauty to your artworks, perfect for a lot of painting scenes such as starry skies and sea, beach, etc. This handles it with no problems. The paper is easy to paint on. The paper has a fine-grained, smooth surface which is ideal for you to work delicately and render the subjects in precise brush detail, the pigments colors are more vivid in this paper.

• Perfect for a variety of water-coloring techniques
• Love the embedded sparkle for holiday cards
• Good brand reputation

Best For frame: Leda Art supply Smooth Hot Press Paper

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It's the best value paper around, but it really is a pleasure to paint on using all sorts of techniques, and everything looks good when the pictures are finished. It is set up for stiffer paper than regular copy paper. It works well for gouache, acrylic, and ink too. It is a twin pack with 2 watercolor pads for a total of 48 pages. It does not wrinkle as much as if it were on a pad.

The watercolor paper is 140 pounds and it is great. It can handle a good amount of water on it without damage to the paper. It is a good value paper around, but it really is a pleasure to paint on using all sorts of techniques, and everything looks good when the pictures are finished. The quality of the paper is very nice.

• Smoother than a cold press and not a lot of tooth
• Cold pressed to offer softer texture to help diffuse color
• Smooth finish works well with many media
• Pilling, no warping, no need for a stack of books to flatten it