How to choose office paper?

Do you pay attention to choosing paper for your printer, or do you leave it to chance and print on whatever paper first catches your eye at the shopping center? Maybe you should change it. By choosing the right paper, you can influence not only the print quality, but also the printing costs and the overall lifespan of the printer. So let's take a look together at how to choose office paper correctly.

  

In general, you should choose the paper according to the printing technology used by your printer. Paper for an inkjet printer should have different parameters than paper for a laser printer. Basis weight, brightness, opacity, and even the texture of the paper will ultimately determine, for example, whether the paper is suitable for color or black-and-white printing, as well as whether it is suitable for high-volume, sheet-fed, single-sided, and double-sided printing.

Paper weight

Weight (paper basis weight in g/m²) expresses the weight of paper with an area of 1 m². It is abbreviated as gsm.

• Paper with a weight of 70 - 80 g/m² – is the most commonly used office paper suitable for standard, single-sided, black-and-white printing. In the case of color printing, its quality will be somewhat lower.
• Paper with a weight of 90 g/m² – allows double-sided printing suitable for printing color presentations, graphs, tables, or manuals.
• Paper with a weight of 90 to 120 g/m² – the higher weight makes this paper suitable for color printing. The paper has high opacity, preventing printed data from showing through to the other side of the sheet.
• Paper with a weight of 120 to 190 g/m² – more suitable for printing flyers and posters.

Paper brightness

Paper can have different shades of white, which depend on the amount and type of optical brightener used in its production. By using different paper whiteness levels, it is possible to achieve diametrically different visual effects in printing. Printing on paper with high whiteness can enhance its colorfulness, but reading longer black-and-white text documents printed on such paper would be too tiring for the eyes. How to choose office paper according to this parameter?Generally, a value of 113 is considered the optimal paper whiteness (whiteness measured according to ISO standards, with a higher UV radiation content).

Opacity

The opacity of paper indicates its suitability for double-sided printing. The higher the opacity of the paper, the less the printed text or image shows through to the other side of the sheet.

How to choose office paper according to paper quality?

With office papers, in connection with their quality, you may encounter the designation of specific types of paper by letters.

Paper marked A – offers the highest quality

As its designation suggests, this paper meets the most demanding criteria. It has an appropriate weight and an evenly smoothed surface on both sides of the sheet, so when using this type of paper, you will not encounter ink bleeding or it jamming in the printer. It is suitable for any high-quality printing and is especially recommended for inkjet printers. The only thing that speaks against it is the higher purchase price.

Paper labeled B – offers more than just the standard

The parameters of office paper marked in this way are ideal for double-sided printing of both color and black-and-white documents, and it is also suitable for high-volume printing.

You can safely use this kind of paper not only in laser printers, but also in high-quality inkjet printers. By using this type of paper in your printers, you will prevent their premature wear. In this case, the price corresponds to the quality of the paper. A certain disadvantage may be the unsuitability of such paper for high-speed printing.  

Paper labeled C – represents standard quality

Paper with this label is among the cheapest and most commonly used alternatives for office paper. Paper with such parameters is suitable for low-volume single-sided printing. It is more suitable for use in laser printers, because with inkjet printing, smudging could occur.

Choose office paper carefully, don’t print on just anything

Provided that you choose paper according to the printing technology and paper quality, answering the question of how to choose office paper does not have to be that difficult. Therefore, pay attention to the basic parameters of the paper, or check the information on its packaging, which states what type of printer the given office paper is intended for. Remember that by choosing the right paper, you can achieve higher print quality and reduce printer wear.