The past couple of weeks, I’ve been experimenting with cyanotype as a way to get people to look more closely at plants. This post is some notes to myself about cyanotype resources. (Updated 30 May 2025 with additional links and more info. Further updated 12 July 2025 with more info.)
Cyanotype in the classroom
Lawrence Hall of Science sells “Sunprint Kits” with 12 pieces of 4 inch square cyanotype paper and a clear acrylic overlay sheet. Cost buying direct from them is US$5.99 per kit (do not buy from Amazon where the price is higher). This cyanotype paper develops quickly and requires little water to develop — perfect for classroom use.
Lawrence Hall of Science also sells refill packs of 12 sheets of cyanotype paper for US$3.99. The kits and refills are ideal for class use — inexpensive enough to allow people to experiment. You can also purchase kits and refills with 8-1/2 by 11 inch cyanotype paper from them. The larger sheets are more expensive (about US$1 per sheet), but if your class gets serious about cyanotypes the larger size allows for more possibilities.
Cyanotype supplies
Chemistry
Jacquard Products sells cyanotype sets — two plastic bottles with cyanotype chemicals that you fill with water, then mix the resulting solutions 1 to 1 when you’re ready to coat your paper. (I bought mine at an independent art supply store, and it was super easy to use.) I also bought a Jacquard kit which included the chemicals, a hake brush, glass plate, and 4 sheets of Hahnemuhle Platinum rag — the brush works well; the glass is easier to clean and doesn’t scratch like Plexiglas does; and the paper is allegedly the best you can get.
Other sources for cyanotype chemistry include Photographer’s Formulary and several European suppliers.
The Cyanotype Store sells a cyanotype kit which includes chemicals as well as a light-safe bag, which could be useful. But this kit doesn’t seem as high quality as the Jacquard kit (see above).
Fotospeed sells a kit for an alternative cyanotype process. This is a different chemistry, and supposed to be a superior process.
Paper
Finding paper that’s good for cyanotype can be a challenge, since not only must the paper stand up well to repeated wetting, but the pH of the paper is also important. Christina’s Anderson’s 2018 article on paper choices is dated by now (some of the papers are no longer made, as paper companies change things over time), but still worth reading.
One of the paper Anderson recommends highly is Canson Bristol Recycled. This appears to be the same as what is now sold under the name Canson XL Bristol Recycled. This paper is inexpensive and readily available from stores like Michael’s and Dick Blick.
Although I haven’t used Canson XL Bristol, I have used Canson XL Watercolor paper with good results — I’d recommend it for a relatively inexpensive paper. Widely available at places like Michael’s and Dick Blick.
I’ve also used Yasutomo “Sketch,” another inexpensive paper, with good results. This is an unsized Hosho-type paper. It’s inexpensive and produces lovely results. However, it’s fragile in water and tears easily during the developing process. It also soaks up a lot of the emulsion, and it requires longer developing times. If you’re patient, this could be fun to try.
Both Anderson and Annette Golaz (see below) mention Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag as one of the best heavy papers for cyanotype. You can special order it through the Art Mart in Portland, Maine; that’s where I got some. Or if you don’t live near Portland, Freestyle Photography sells Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag online.
Both Anderson and Golaz say Hahnemuhle Sumi-e is an excellent lightweight paper to use in cyanotype. I got mine at the Art Mart in Portland, Maine, which stocks it. Or, Dick Blick sells Hahnemuhle Sumi-e online.
My top choice for paper: At a week-long summer art workshop, three of us decided that Fabriano Medievalis paper gave the best results. Plus the paper is slightly cream-colored, which nicely sets off the Prussian blue of the cyanotype.
Cyanotype books
Be warned: many of the books on cyanotype available online are self-published; I doubt whether they’re worth buying. The following two books come from reputable publishers.
Cyanotype Toning: Using Botanicals To Tone Blueprints Naturally by Annette Golaz (Routledge, 2021), part of Routledge’s Contemporary Practices in Alternative Process Photography series, is an excellent introduction to toning cyanotype. It also an excellent chapter detailing the basic cyanotype process. It’s expensive — US$66.99 — but for me it was worth the price.
I haven’t yet seen Cyanotype: The Blueprint in Contemporary Practice by Christina Anderson (Focal Press, 2019), but Annette Golaz refers to it repeatedly in her book.
Cyanotype websites
Many of the cyanotype websites appear to be “AI”-generated slime. Others are too basic (“Expose the cyanotype paper, put it water, look at the result!”). But I found the following websites to be well worth a look.
Cyanotypes with plants
Cyanotype by Angela Chalmers, a PDF, gives instructions on making cyanotype photograms using plants. Great ideas, and the author’s photograms are gorgeous.
“How To Make Cyanotypes of Flowers” on the Nature TTL website includes very useful instructions on a specific form of wet cyanotype process.
A digitized version of Anna Atkins’s book of botanical cyanotypes is online at London’s Natural History Museum website. A scholarly article with an analysis of Atkins’s book from the point of view literary analysis can be found here.
Atlas Obscura has samples of a 12 year old’s botanical cyanotypes here. Interesting for educators to look at.
Cyanotype techniques
Toning can alter the bright blue color of cyanotypes. Jacquard has a guide to toning cyanotypes to produce various colors.
Vinegar-developed cyanotypes on the Alternative Photography website describes how to develop in vinegar so that your cyanotypes are less contrast-y. (N. B.: I haven’t gotten useful results using the vinegar process with Lawrence Hall of Science “Sunprint” paper.)
Using artificial light to expose cyanotypes should lead to more consistent and predictable results. Photographer Steph Coffman has a page on her website detailing how she made cyanotypes indoors using a UV light box. She uses the Everbeam 50W 365nm wavelength UV flood light for a light source, and reports exposure times of 30-60 minutes. (Everbeam also makes the same light in a 100W version, which should result in shortened exposure times.) However, people on the cyanotype subreddit have gotten much shorter exposure times — one difference might be distance of light source from the paper (inverse square law), which also affects the size of paper you can use.
A photography teacher on Youtube shows how to make an even cheaper UV light box. She wound up with exposure times of about 12 minutes. She found one on eBay for $30, but the cheapest ones I could find on eBay are significantly more expensive (as of May, 2025). Her video is still worth watching, just to see how she does it.
The “Koraks Tinkers” blog has a post pointing out the difference between collimated vs. diffuse light when exposing cyanotypes. The post points out that direct sunlight provides collimated light, while an overcast day provides diffuse light. When exposing with artificial light, there will be a different between a point source and a bank of lights. This difference is less important when making contact prints from a negative, but will produce quite different results with 3-D objects.