Custom Printing For Newbies - Paper Weight Basics
by Alex Plachta
This week we are going to cover paper weights! There are many articles out there that will explain exactly how paper weights are determined but for now, we won’t deep dive into that. It is more relevant to a paper mill’s production process than it is to real life uses. So here we go!
A few quick-hitting notes:
Basic Copy Paper for your printer is #20 Bond Paper.
Text and Cover paper are the most basic categories (Cover is thicker and if you are creating a booklet, it would be common to have cover stock for the outsides and text stock for the insides).
Some text and cover stocks have the same “weight” but that does not mean they are the same – for example #80 Cover is thicker than #80 Text.
Here is a graphic for reference:
As you can see, the bond and text paper are lighter than all the common cover papers. As shown in the graphic, bond and text paper are separated but they are basically the same thing and typically we will use #60 or #70 text as an upgrade over regular #20 bond copy paper. The G/M2 numbers on the bottom of the graphic are often called GSM numbers. Other countries that use the metric system use this weight measurement. Their system goes upward linearly and doesn’t have the repeats like those of the US system.
So there you have it, a quick high level overview of paper weight basics!
Thank you for reading!! As always reach out to print@oexusa.com with any of your printing questions or needs!