Choosing Paper: Weight, Brightness and Finish

Paper is bought by price and used by specification. Three numbers on the wrapper tell you what a ream will actually do.

Weight (gsm)

Grams per square metre. The most useful single figure.

• 70–75 gsm: economy copy paper. Thin, prone to show-through, and more likely to jam a printer in humid conditions.
• 80 gsm: the standard office weight. The right default for almost everything.
• 90–100 gsm: noticeably more substantial. Good for documents going to clients and for double-sided printing without show-through.
• 120–160 gsm: light card. Covers, certificates, menus.
• 200 gsm and above: card. Check your printer’s maximum weight before buying.

Printers have a stated maximum media weight and a straight-through paper path handles heavy stock better than one with tight turns.

Brightness and whiteness

Brightness is measured on a scale where higher numbers are brighter. Higher brightness gives more contrast, so black text looks sharper and colours look more saturated.

For internal documents it makes little difference. For anything presented, a brighter sheet visibly improves the result.

Note that brightness and whiteness are different measures — a paper can be bright and slightly warm in tone. For colour-critical work the tone matters as much as the brightness.

Finish

Uncoated

Standard office paper. Absorbs ink, takes pen well, no glare. The right choice for anything written on.

Coated (matt or gloss)

A surface layer that holds ink on top rather than absorbing it, giving sharper images and stronger colour. Gloss for photographs; matt for text-heavy documents that still need good images.

Coated paper generally cannot be written on with normal pen, and it must be used in a printer rated for it — inkjet-coated and laser-coated papers are different products, and using inkjet-coated stock in a laser can leave residue on the fuser.

Opacity

How much shows through from the other side. Related to weight but not identical — some 80 gsm papers are more opaque than others because of the filler used.

If you print double-sided routinely, opacity is worth more than brightness.

Grain direction

Fibres in paper align during manufacture. Paper folds cleanly along the grain and cracks across it.

This matters for anything folded — leaflets, cards, booklets. If a fold is cracking, the grain is running the wrong way for that fold. For heavy card, scoring before folding solves it regardless of grain.

Storage

Paper absorbs moisture, and damp paper is the leading cause of printer misfeeds and poor toner fusing.

• Keep reams wrapped until use.
• Store flat, not on edge.
• Somewhere dry and at a stable temperature — not a garage.
• Let paper acclimatise for a few hours if it has come from somewhere cold.

Choosing quickly

• Everyday printing: 80 gsm uncoated.
• Double-sided reports: 90–100 gsm, higher opacity.
• Client documents: 100 gsm, high brightness.
• Covers and certificates: 160–200 gsm card, within your printer’s rating.
• Photographs: coated paper matched to your printer type.

See our Notebooks & Writing Paper range, or ask us about the weights and finishes we hold at the counter.