What you need to look out for when deciding what paper to use for your work.

Despite the increasing technologically dependent world, the use of paper is still critical for many industries. Whether you’re a medical centre needing to print scripts for patients, or a school needing paper for… well just about everything! As there are so many to choose from, identifying the right type of paper you require for the work you need to do, is actually more important than you think.

There are a few different factors you can consider when assessing paper options, and only you will be able to determine which are more relevant in your decision-making.

Thickness/Weight

The first thing to consider is how thick you need your paper to be. Thickness is closely intertwined with paper weight which is measured by grams per square metre, or gsm for short. The most traditional paper weight ranges from your standard 80gsm, to around 200 gsm for your heavy weight coated paper. For your everyday printing, you wouldn’t need anything more than 80gsm, but if you are needing to print particular posters, business cards, creative booklets and so on, the thicker the better.

Whiteness

Whiteness is another factor you might be interested in as this has an impact on the overall look of what you’re printing. Paper whiteness is internationally measured using the CIE index (European) and it expresses in number how much light is reflected off the paper on the visible light spectrum. This also includes whether the shade of light is more yellow or blue. The higher the number, the whiter (blue light) the paper is, and the more bright and vivid your document colours will be.

Coated vs Uncoated

If you are needing to print documents with a polished finish, then you may want to look into getting some coated paper. Coated paper tends to work best with inkjet printers as it has a smoother surface which stops the printer ink from bleeding into gaps found in uncoated, rougher paper. Matte coated paper only has a light coating and is great for sharp black and white documents. Glossy coated paper, on the other hand, has a thicker coating with a shiny surface which enhances the vividness of colours in images. If you are not needing to produce high quality, sharp documents, or you don’t have an inkjet printer, then uncoated paper will work just fine for you.

Sustainability

Something you should really be looking out for is whether the paper is recyclable or has any sustainability certifications. These certifications ensure that the paper comes from sustainably managed forests, which basically means when a tree is taken out to make paper, another is planted in its place. This sustainable management flows on from the forest throughout the whole process of producing paper to having it available for purchase. Major international certification bodies for paper sold in Australia include the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). There are also the international environmental standards that the paper should adhere to (ISO 14001), so be on the look out for that as well.

Your printer

A final thing you may not have thought to consider, is the type and condition of your printer. Certain printers are designed to work best with certain kinds of paper, that is why you might sometimes find your printing is better from the office printer compared to the one you have at home or vice versa. Do a little research to find out what your printer was designed to do and it just might help make your documents look top notch.

If you find you get a lot of paper jams, believe it or not, it might be the result of the paper you are using as well. Low quality paper, stored in musky conditions produce a lot of paper dust. This paper dust collects onto the paper rollers in your printer and makes it harder for them to grip your paper. If you have an old faithful printer, show it some love and give it some good quality paper for it to feed on. If you're still getting paper jams, grab an alcohol wipe and wipe the rollers to remove the dust, or if the rollers are falling apart, maybe just get some new ones.

When you know what you need, finding the right paper is easy, so hopefully we’ve been able to arm you with the right ammo to conquer your paper choosing!

If you have any questions or would like to know about paper options for your industry, feel free to contact our team and we'd be happy to help.