Well if you’re anything like me before I learned about all the different types of paper, I drove the customer service team nuts. I would call in my order and ask for the shiny flier paper or the heavy paper, not knowing what was what. They would ask me 60lb or 110lb, so in my head you want to know if my paper should be the same weight as my English Bulldog or my Dogue de Bordeaux? What? That’s crazy!
Let me help explain it a bit. Turns out all the weights have a reason and a purpose! Paper is measured by the ream, which is 500 sheets of paper, before it’s cut into the size needed. So that makes more sense! And points are in regard to the thickness of the paper. The higher the points value, the thicker the paper, so a 10 point paper is 10/1000ths of an inch. While that doesn’t seem like much, the difference in thickness can make a big difference in the size of your final product based on how many pages.
Then to confuse you a bit more, there is Text Weight, Cover Weight and Cardstock Weight. Text Weight paper is thinner and lighter than Cover Weight. And Text Weight can easily be folded, where Cover Weight and Cardstock needs to be scored to be folded properly, both papers come in coated and uncoated and then there are all the colors. So many options.
Below are some examples of both and their common uses:
Common Text Paper Weights:
- 20-pound text: It’s one of the lightest available, standard copy or printer paper.
- 80-pound text: Commonly used for booklets, magazines and smaller catalogs in addition to text pages in hardcover books.
- 100-pound text: This versatile weight can be either text or cover. It’s good for the text pages in brochures. It’s light enough for saddle-stitching and heavy enough to provide a cover quality.
Common Cover Paper Weights:
- 10-point cover or 100# cover: One of the lightest cover stocks available, good for catalog covers or smaller perfect-bound projects like handbooks.
- 12-point cover or 110# cover: Commonly used for paperback manual covers and other larger perfect-bound covers.
- 16-point cover or 130# cover: A very heavy cover stock, good for projects that require a lot of handling, such as catalogs and oversized perfect-bound products.
Common Card Stock Weights:
- 60-pound card stock: A light card stock, good for light business cards, mass mailing postcards, greeting cards, posters and tickets.
- 80-pound card stock: Traditional card stock for business cards, dividers, postcards, folders, invitations, posters, menus, table tents, and single panel cards.
Don’t fret if you are more confused now than before. One of the best parts about working with Camelot Print & Copy Centers is our amazing Customer Service Team. They will take their time to go through your project to better understand your needs and make the proper recommendations on the best paper needed. You can even see and feel samples. We don’t just sell Print & Copy, We sell Service and Quality.