Michel and Raymond Montgolfier – the sons of the Beaujeu papermaker – arrived in Vidalon where the Chelles papermaking family of Auvergne was involved in paper sizing. They fell in love with the master's daughters and, two weeks later, married Françoise and Marguerite, a union which rooted the Montgolfier family in Vivarais.

Importations of white paper from Holland offset the kingdom's trade balance. This worried the Languedoc authorities who decided to encourage the papermaking firm most likely to be able to process rags according to the Dutch method. The Montgolfier firm was chosen.

On 19 March, the Montgolfier paper mills were hoisted to the rank of Manufacture Royale, a highly coveted title by all of the kingdom's papermakers. It was bestowed on those whose innovation potential ranked them at the top of the profession.
A few years later, the Bastille fell. The king's favour would no longer be seen as desirable.
In 1794, the company's logo took on a motto and a coat of arms: the red and gold check of Annonay, the hot-air balloon invented by the Montgolfier brothers and the motto Ite per orbem (Go around the world) which evokes the already international spread of papers.

The Canson family continued to focus on innovation like the Montgolfier before them. In the greatest secrecy, they invented tracing paper, this transparent medium which avoided the need for architects to redraw the same plan again and again. Then, they started colouring paper in the pulp, giving the sheets a lasting, uniform colour.

With the paper machine, it became urgent to modernise sizing. How could such long sheets be manually be dipped in a gelatine bath? Barthélémy and Etienne de Canson develop a sticky wax-based product which is mixed into the paper pulp.

Finding quality rag paper for the printing of artwork was becoming increasingly difficult. Artistide Maillol asked his nephew Gaspard to make him some nice sheets of paper for his woodcuts. He set to work in Montval, near Marly-le-Roy, but the war interrupted his efforts. On his return, he settled on the bank of the Deûme to produce the famous Montval^® paper with its bather imprint.

Art teachers weighed down by piles of notebooks to mark, drawings that cannot be exhibited… The Canson paper mills find the solution: a paper pack to sell sheets by the dozen and preserve them. The famous pack was born, withstanding the passage of time and fashions.

For Canson, computer aided drawing and the conservation of archives are the subject of the same concern: developing and marketing products which meet current needs. Computer aided design (CAD) and the High Quality Conservation (HQC) label appear in the catalogues.

Canson joins the Hamelin Group, a family business which is European leader in school and office products and holder of the spearhead brands Oxford and Elba. The brand continues to adapt to new requirements. With Canson Infinity, paper is now available to photographers and artists wishing to print their works on an outstanding paper.

Canson is embracing a new level of innovation and identity with a new, strong and recognizable logo, composed of easy-to-read capital letters. Clear and modern, the logo includes the symbol of the hot-air balloon which replaces the letter O in Canson, bringing classic, historical look to the refreshing touch.
The new logo also includes the slogan “Manufacture depuis 1557”, underlining both the French origin and the year of the brand’s creation.