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Designing your own publications

Choosing a platform
Fonts
Selecting software
Images
Ink
Paper
Rules for ordering printing
Writing specifications for print bids
Preparing files for a commercial printer
Additional resources

Selecting paper

When selecting paper, you'll need to know

  • what kinds of paper are available
  • how to find samples of paper you may wish to choose
  • which papers are best for the job

What kinds of paper are available?

There are six basic types or grades of paper

  • Book or Text: used as text paper for offset printing; most commonly the paper inside a brochure
  • Bond: often a lighter paper than text; often used as stationary
  • Cover: heavier paper, most commonly used on the cover of brochures
  • Bristol
  • Index
  • Newsprint: also referred to as "tag"

Paper is specified by weight

When you select a paper, you specify the grade and the weight.

Example: You could easily have a brochure in which the cover is 80# cover stock and the inside paper is 80# text.

Obviously, the cover is heavier than the inside paper, so why do they have the same number? Because the "basis weight" of each type of paper is measured by weighing 500 sheets (in pounds) for that grade's basis size.

The common basis weights for each grade of paper are

  • Book/Text- 40#, 50#, 60#, 70#, 80#, 100#, 120#
  • Bond - 16#, 20#, 24#, 28#, 32#
  • Cover - 50#, 60#, 65#, 80#, 90#, 100#, 120#
  • Bristol - 67#, 80#, 100#, 120#, 140#
  • Index - 90#, 110#, 140#
  • Newsprint/Tag - 100#, 125#, 150#, 175#

Note: Not all papers come in all of the basis weights, and not all papers are measured in pounds. Some coated cover stocks are measured in thickness, or points.

Basis size

Luckily, you don't need to specify the size the paper comes in from the paper mill.

However, if you're designing an odd-shaped or oversized publication, you'll want to review this chart and make sure you don't design a publication that requires the mill to make a paper just for you!

The basis size for each grade of paper is

  • Book - 25 x 38
  • Bond - 17 x 22
  • Cover - 20 x 26
  • Bristol - 22½ x 28½
  • Index - 25½ x 30½
  • Tag - 24 x 36

Papers come in different finishes

When telling the printer which paper you'd like to use, you will need to specify the finish— a property of paper related to its smoothness or texture. Some of the more common finishes are

  • Dull-coated
  • Matte-coated
  • Gloss-coated
  • Antique
  • Vellum
  • Wove
  • Smooth
  • Felt
  • Linen
  • Fiber-added
  • Laid
  • Parchment

Quality classifications

Paper quality is classified by the characteristics of brightness, opacity, finish, and ppi (pounds per inch).

Brightness affects the contrast, brilliance, or snap of the printed subject.  

Opacity relates to the "show-through" of the printed image from the opposite side of the sheet or the sheet under it.  

Finish affects the printed image depending upon its varying degrees of smoothness. As smoothness decreases, solids and halftones get sandy and rough in appearance, but type is hardly affected at all.

Ppi refers to the number of pages per inch, or the thickness of the sheet.

Note: this is pages per inch, not sheets per inch. 500 sheets = 1,000 pages.

Envelope styles

  • Announcement
  • Bankers Flap/Wallet Flap
  • Baronial
  • Booklet, Open-Side
  • Clasp/String & Button
  • Commercial
  • Expansion
  • Open-End
  • Self-Sealing
  • Window

How to find samples of paper

Paper companies distribute

  • swatchbooks
  • paper promotions
  • sample sheets

Swatchbooks and promotional pieces are costly to produce and therefore harder to obtain than sample sheets of paper. So what do you do?

  • Look at your printer's swatchbooks
    Paper companies provide swatchbooks to printers at no charge. Ask your printer to recommend a paper appropriate for your publication and ask to see their swatchbooks.
  • Buy the swatchbooks
    Some paper companies will sell you swatchbooks
  • Order sample sheets
    After you've looked at a few books, you may have your choices narrowed down to a few favorites. You can ask the paper companies to send you a few complimentary sheets to help you make your decision.
  • Read Mohawk Paper's print production basics

Which paper is right for the job?

 

Answering these questions should help you narrow it down

  • What method of printing will you be choosing? Offset? Web? Digital laser copy?
  • How much will the publication be handled?
  • How much ink coverage will there be on the paper? Will there be heavy solids?
  • What is the shelf life of the publication? Will it be read and discarded? Or will it be used as a reference tool to be used and put away for another day?
  • How will the publication be distributed? Are there mailing requirements that need to be considered? Do you need matching envelopes?
  • Is this publication a collateral piece? Is the piece a part of a larger campaign?
  • Who is the audience? Is this an instruction manual? Or are you soliciting donations?
  • How will the publication be bound?

The answers to these questions should help to determine which paper you select for your publication.

Method of Printing

Offset

Nearly all types of paper can be printed on an offset press with wet ink.

Web

Web printing is cost-effective when the quantity of the job is very large (over 50,000) such as a high-circulation magazine or a telephone book. Web papers (such as newsprint) come on a continuous roll and are typically very thin, lightweight, and smooth in order to offset the cost of printing and shipping such a large quantity. Web papers are generally not offered in many varieties of color or texture.

Digital

Jobs that are produced on a digital laser copier are printed in dry ink, or toner. This type of ink requires a paper that it can adhere to well, and is resistant to heavily textured (felt, heavy linen, column) and modulated papers (parchment). However, unlike web papers, laser papers come in many colors and laser-compatible textures.

Heavy Handling

Publications that are intended for continuous use, such as instruction cards or manuals, call for heavier papers. A 20# copy bond will not hold up to much handling. A better choice would be an 80# or 100# text or offset. Also, a gloss or matte-coated paper will last longer than an uncoated paper.

Heavy Coverage

Uncoated papers allow wet ink to absorb and spread into the substrate of the paper. For printing screens and halftones, coated papers will present a cleaner and crisper picture because the ink sits on top of the coating. Also, wet ink is very tacky. Printing heavy solids of ink on uncoated and textured papers, in which the paper fiber is loose, will cause the fibers to pull away and produce little white "doughnuts" in the solid. Printing heavy solids, on uncoated papers in particular, will slow the print run and cut the press-run speed in half.

Shelf Life

Regular book papers are often acid-based, which means that within two years they will yellow and curl. If you are publishing a document that is intended to have a long life, choose a paper that is archival or pH balanced.

Distribution

The United States Postal Service has a number of regulations for mailing various types of literature. Self-mailers, such as brochures and postcards, have a minimum thickness requirement of 9 points and 7 points, respectively. Panel brochures should be wafer-sealed with either one or two wafers, depending upon the placement of the return address, in order to realize quantity discounts of postage. Should you decide that you want to mail your brochure in a matching envelope, research the availability of the envelope first to determine your paper choice. Very few papers have matching envelopes readily available.

Note: Contact the Facilities & Services Printing Department for Postal Service mailing constraints.

Collateral Publications

If you are creating a marketing campaign that includes multiple printed pieces, you might want to research paper families. Many paper mills have families of papers that have bond, text, and cover grades in compatible colors and textures.

Audience

When selecting a paper for your publication, choose a paper that is audience appropriate. Paper costs range widely depending on the type and classification of the paper. If you are creating a high-profile piece intended to solicit funding, a premium #1 high-gloss sheet would be a more suitable design element than a commodity #4 offset. Conversely, the same premium #1 sheet would be excessive for a widget parts catalog.

Binding and finishing

The finishing done on your publication will also help to guide your choice of paper and weight.

Examples

  • To be useful, pocket folders require a degree of stiffness. Heavily textured cover stocks are a good choice for pocket folders, where the same weight coated cover stocks are not.
  • If you are preparing for a three-panel self-mailing brochure and you would like it to be a little more rigid, consider using a 100# text instead of an 80# cover. As a general rule, a folding machine can make a clean fold of 100# text and save you the cost of scoring a cover stock.
  • If you want a shiny glossy surface for the cover of your book, you may want to choose a more cost-effective coated cover, finish with a high-gloss laminate, and save the extra expense of a premium #1 high-gloss paper cover stock.

If your publication has folds, especially if those folds have ink on them, we highly recommend scoring the folds (a process that creases the paper mechanically to make folding easier). Whenever possible, scoring should be run with the grain of the stock, particularly when there are heavy ink solids. Scoring and folding against the grain will cause the paper to tear on the fold, which will show up as a white line against a solid of ink.

Note: Coated papers get much of their weight from the coating, as opposed to the substrate. Consequently, even though a coated stock may have the same weight as an uncoated stock, the coated stock will be thinner and flimsier.

 

Don’t see your question answered? Let us know.

 

Thanks to Kelly Woodward from Facilities & Services Printing Department for providing this information.