Choosing paper Quality for Creative Print out

Choosing the right paper for your printed media is not a big deal but it should be tricky. Before you start your work on computer, you have to ask yourself that what will be your final product, it can be a Business card, Flyer, Brochure or a Book and how it would be use, should it be a fancy type, cheap, traditional etc.., once you got the answer, and then you have to understand different functions of papers. So we have to think about some issues before we start our project.

Coated paper and Uncoated

Coated or uncoated paper in the creative works brings the overall feeling on your product. There are different choices like glossy, silk, matt and semi-mate etc..,

Coated paper comes with smooth and shiny effect, it is best for photographs print out and other these type of art, it doesn’t absorbed by ink. Coated type paper will get attractive effect on appearance and usefulness of the product, and it will get more resistant to dirty. Due to its shiny look, it is generally using glossy photos, magazines, art book and creative book covers.

Uncoated paper is more absorbent of ink, comparing to coated paper types and it not generally smooth like coated papers. This type of papers are using for envelops, letter head etc.., which we can write easily. Schools and college booklets, hotel menus are also using uncoated papers to get prestigious feel.

Thickness and Weight

Understanding the thickness of paper is not common sense it is a bit tricky to write about. There are many methods to understand paper weights and thickness. grams per square meter (GSM) or G/m2 is generally using in advertising or print companies in UAE. Below we are going to discuss about the most common methods to understand paper thickness to help distinguish among the various print types.

10 – 35 GSM is the suitable for news paper, this paper is thin and low cost. This paper is low lasting.

90GSM paper is perfect for inner pages of magazines.

130 -170 is long last and typically using for quality posters.

170-300 GSM paper is perfect for Brochures Print if you don’t have more pages in your Brochure.

350 – 400GSM is almost better for thin Business card if you want too flimsy.

Opacity and Brightness

Opacity of a paper is the amount of light which passes through the paper. Opacity is important when printing booklets. As a paper sheet in the booklets with good opacity will mix the line on both pages when printed on both sides.

The brightness on the paper counts the percentages of the wavelength of light that reflects on the page. It is typically scale 0 to 100 with 100 being the optimum level. Most of the printing papers are usually reflects around 60 to 90 of the light. The higher brightness on the paper can bring difficult the readability.

Conclusion

Always think before start your work by defining your final paper product. Is there something special that we should think or consider about in terms of print or post production? And the next step is, choose the function you want your printed paper to have and mind the quality. Take necessary steps to think through if we want coated paper product or uncoated paper product, and what weight, brightness and opacity we need to use.