Black & White Photo Printing

When it comes to professional black & white printing, Metro is the only professional lab in the UK to produce silver gelatin prints from digital files. Our B&W prints are ‘true’ black and white, without the colour cast you would usually find in C Types and Giclées, due to their colour printing process.

Our genuine B&W Silver Gelatin papers can be printed up to 2.7mx1.22m / 108 x 48 inches

Please contact us if you would like more information.

  • Genuine Black & White papers.
  • Bespoke or Self Service.
  • Order online or in person.
  • Over 40 year’s experience.

Our range of Black and White Photographic Papers

Fibre-based Gloss

HARMAN GDS Fibre-based Baryta paper has a double-weight semi-gloss finish and slight texture. The panchromatic emulsion is based upon traditional B&W silver halide technology, has excellent D-Max, sharpness and surface finish delivering superb continuous tone. Our FB paper is also great for pairing with Giclée Fine Art Baryta prints.

Fibre-based Matt

HARMAN GDS Fibre-based paper has a double-weight Baryta matt finish. It is a silver gelatin, premium quality, panchromatic photographic paper. This paper has been designed using the very latest black & white silver halide emulsion technology optimised for digital exposure, and presents a neutral image tone.

Resin-coated

HARMAN GDS Resin-coated paper is a premium quality paper with a bright base tint. Along with the Fibre-based paper, RC prints are genuine B&W prints with no colour cast, and are the perfect paper for cooler toned images. It has a semi-matt finish, and contains fine tonal benefits of subtle highlight detail and strong blacks.

Black and White resin print pricing illustration

Bespoke – our premium service
      Exc Vat Inc Vat
10x8 254x204 A5 39.40 47.28
12x10 304x254 A4 44.90 53.88
16x12 407x304 A3 63.20 75.84
24x20 610x508 A2 106.00 127.20
Self-Service – our great value service
      Exc Vat Inc Vat
10x8 254x204 A5 17.60 21.12
12x10 304x254 A4 22.10 26.52
16x12 407x304 A3 32.60 39.12
24x20 610x508 A2 76.00 91.20

Black and White fibre print pricing illustration

Bespoke – our premium service
      Exc Vat Inc Vat
10x8 254x204 A5 53.00 63.60
12x10 304x254 A4 59.80 71.76
16x12 407x304 A3 89.70 107.64
24x20 610x508 A2 195.80 234.96
Self-Service – our great value service
      Exc Vat Inc Vat
10x8 254x204 A5 32.50 39.00
12x10 304x254 A4 45.10 54.12
16x12 407x304 A3 67.10 80.52
24x20 610x508 A2 144.60 173.52

For more information about our services, or for help ordering, please get in touch

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For more information about our services, or for help ordering, please get in touch

Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.
Fill out this field
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Sample Pack

Can’t decide which paper is right for you? Then why not order one of our sample packs! – Each pack contains a range of our most popular papers including:

Ctype Gloss, Matt, Velvet and Metallic

B&W Fibre based Gloss and Matt and Resin Coated Lustre

Giclee Hanemuhle Photo Rag, German Etching and Fine Art Baryta; Somerset Photo satin and Velvet Enhanced; Canson Photo Satin and Gloss

Packs cost £6 including postage and VAT. Enter your details below to place your order. Orders placed before 4 pm on weekdays are normally dispatched the same day. Just remember to tick the Free Sample pack postage option on checkout.

Samples of our printing, mounting and framing, can also be seen at our front of house in our London lab.

Turnaround times

Printing

C-type Matt & Gloss up to 100 x 76cm:  within 24 hours.
C-type Matt & Gloss above 100 x 76cm:  within 48 hours.
C-type Velvet up to 100 x 76cm:  within 72 hours.
C-type Metallic, Supergloss & Duratrans: within 5 working days.

Black & White Digital Prints: within 5 working days.

Giclée Fine Art Prints: within 3 working days.
Unstretched Giclée Canvas: within 5 working days.
Stretched Giclée Canvas: within 10 working days.

Direct to Media: within 10 working days.
Vinyl Printing: within 10 working days.

Mounting and Framing

Foamex, Foamboard, Kapamount & Card: within 5 working days.
Aluminium & Dibond: within 10 Working days.
MDF: within 15 Working days.
Reverse Perspex Mounting: within 15 Working days.
Framing (includes mounting): within 15 Working days.

Frequently asked questions

Traditionally a darkroom printing process, Ilford Imaging (now HARMAN Technology), together with Metro’s own Steve Macleod, developed their B&W papers in order to be exposed via digital output printers such as our Durst Lambda and Océ Lightjet and Metro Imaging are the only UK lab to offer this service. This development meant that silver gelatin prints could quickly and easily be produced at a much larger scale. Producing B&W prints digitally allows for incredibly consistent results, especially for large format editions and print runs. Both FB & RC papers produce prints up to 108 x 48 inches at their maximum size.
Digital B&W silver gelatin prints are a Premier Service only on both Bespoke and Self-service. Our Bespoke printing can include (as part of the print cost) a one to one appointment with an expert technician, a test print and archiving the file for future editions.

Both of our C Type (Chromogenic) and Digital B&W prints are produced with archival photographic, light-sensitive papers exposed digitally. When printing a B&W image using a colour paper there will always be a colour cast of some degree, usually green or magenta. Whilst the C Type process uses colour papers and chemistry, our HARMAN GDS B&W papers contain no colour dyes and are exposed with B&W chemistry, resulting in ‘true’ blacks with no colour cast.

For digital B&W prints, the turnaround time is within three working days for a test print, and a further three working days for the finals (pending test approval).

The turnaround time for traditional darkroom silver gelatin Hand Prints from negatives is five working days.

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Bespoke Service

Bespoke is our classic service, you sit back and we do the work. Work Online or come in and work with our expert technicians to get exactly the results you want!

 The original Metro premium service
 We do all the work for you
 Work with our expert technicians
 Come in or work remotely

Self Service

Our great value solution, Self Service is the go-to-service if you feel confident in preparing your own files for print, adding mounting and framing as required.

 Great value online solution
 Easy to use DIY service
 Prepare your own files for printing
 Rated ‘Excellent’ by Trustpilot