Arches paper is currently one of the most popular watercolor papers in the world. Arches is the product of five centuries of papermaking experience. It is gelatin sized, air dried and hand inspected as part of the mill's stringent quality control. It's "cold press" surface is also has the roughest texture of their papers -- which helps to hide and smooth dot dithering patterns at any resolution, while still retaining good sharpness and detail.