Graphic designers are obsessed with paper. I am not one to deny it. Whether this obsession is healthy or not, I cannot say, but it is a joyous, wonderful, and incredibly fun obsession to have. (Much like the “name that typeface” game I play when I go grocery shopping.) There is nothing quite like flipping through all the swatch books, trying to find “that” paper–the paper that will your work sing.

Some weeks ago, my class had Kristi Samuels from Xpedx paper (a west MI paper merchant) visit our class, and although I missed the class due to a most unfortunate bought of the seasonal flu, I was caught up shortly after with a good old-fashioned review on all the different properties of paper that was covered in our junior classes. And, in the sprit of sharing…

PAPER PROPERTIES
Each type of paper has different properties that determine how it is used and what it is best suited for.

Formation: the distribution of fibers in a sheet of paper. The better the formation of the paper, the higher the quality and the less mottle there will be.

Brightness: measures the reflectance of paper, not how white it is.

Whiteness: refers to the shade of the paper–Bright white, cool white, and warm white.

Grain Direction: how the fibers align. Long grain is the alignment of fibers on the long direction of the paper, and short grain direction is alignment to the short side of the paper. Grain direction is useful when figuring out folds and, oddly, the stiffness of business cards.

Opacity: show though, sometimes it is good, but most of the time we want our paper as opaque as possible.

Basis Weight: the weight of 500 sheets of paper in its “basis size”

Thickness/Caliper/bulk: the thickness of the paper!

CATAGORIES OF PAPER
All the different categories, with all the different colors, and finishes are why we obsess over paper. It can’t be helped, with so many options, who wouldn’t want to play in the paper pile?

Types

• Offset
• Bond/Writing
• Text
• Cover
• Newsprint
• Safety
• Parchment
• Index
• Vellum Bristol
• Pressure Sensitive
• Carbon
• Duplex
• Synthetic
• Office
• Hand Made
• Dull Coated
• Gloss Coated
• Matte Coated
• Cast Coated
  …Just to name a few.

SPECIAL BONUS: The Environment

In the past the paper industry has been notorious for harming the environment. But, in recent years the industry has been changing, implementing conservation, reforestation, and other policies that have greatly reduced the footprint left by the paper makers of the world. Of particular importance is the trend towards using recycled paper and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification.

Recycled paper is made from either pre or post consumer waste and is becoming increasingly higher in quality and lower in price as advances in paper processing methods change. The advantage to using recycled paper is that no trees need to be cut down in order to produce recycled paper. Recycled paper can be identified by the recycled symbol and a percentage indicating how much recycled paper is used.

Fun Fact: most recycled paper is made from pre consumer waste, because the printers use a lot of paper during the calibration process on offset machines.

The FSC is an international organization that promotes responsible management of the world’s forests.