The Design of your document is the most important part of creating a printed piece, but choosing the appropriate paper comes next. Good quality paper always makes a good impression, but good design on an inexpensive paper can be very effective too.

Knowing which type of paper is best for a certain type of printing projects is the only way to get the best paper for the job. The choices for both cover material and paper for inner pages are are wide ranging, but basic knowledge of paper will narrow down those choices.

You have to consider price vs. impact required: with a very expensive paper but a low quantity print run, the price of paper is not really a cost factor in the printing price. On the other hand, with a large print run the paper can be a significant cost factor.

Types of Paper

In on-demand book production the most common choice for cover is either uncoated stock of approximately 225 g/m² or similar weight carton which is coated on one side only (the outside). The inner pages are usually 80 or 100 g/m² copy paper or offset paper, depending on the printer used.

Coated Papers are a good choice for the cover material of higher-quality jobs. . They may be gloss-coated, dull-coated (a clay or chemical coating), machine-coated (a sheet is made smooth by a blade running over it during the manufacturing process), or cast-coated (a high-gloss coating used for the highest-quality premium papers) on one or both sides. For cover production a one sided coating is needed. Printing ink does not soak into a coated sheet as much as it does with an uncoated paper, so coated papers can make halftones and color images look richer. Coated papers are often used in brochures and annual reports etc.

When using coated stock for covers you have to be sure that the paper does not crack when folded. Important issues here are the right grain direction, thickness of the paper and the coating used. The thicker the paper, the easier it cracks - especially if it's not creased before folding. Some papers have such tough coating that it causes more cracking than others. The grain direction should always be along the spine.

Uncoated Papers can be used for both the cover and the inner pages. Good quality uncoated papers are so smooth that it's hard to tell that they're not coated. Uncoated papers are manufactured in many textures and colors.

However, most uncoated papers are not suitable for use in laser or ink-jet printers. In some papers that you can get in regular A4 or letter formats the paper surface is designed for printer's ink. The paper is ok also for handwriting or typewriting, but maybe not for laser printing. It might accept laser toner or ink-jet ink but maybe not particularly well. Some of these papers also have irregular edges and your printer cannot grab an edge unless it is straight.

Some of these papers are also textured or heavily embossed (have raised or depressed paper surfaces). If you run these through your laser printer, the pressure rollers would crush the embossing and in an ink-jet the head might leave marks on the raised areas.

Acid free paper. In archiving you might need papers that are produced acid free. These products usually contain an excess of 2% buffers and are considered archival in relation to the effects of natural aging. The pH of this process is normally between 7.5 and 9.

Offset papers are similar to the coated and uncoated sheets, except that they have
sizing added to resist the moisture that occurs in offset printing. The paper is also more moist than a paper designed for photocopying. Only use it for a blank cover or if it's pre-printed in a printing house - usually the result is not very good used in laser or ink-jet printing.

Copy Paper is dryer than an offset paper as it is intended for laser- or photocopying which actually uses heat to attach the color into the paper. Offset paper with more moisture may start to roll if used in a copier or laser printer. You can use copy paper for covers if it doesn't feel too thin for the purpose.

Index papers are used for cards or tabs and are sometimes used in place of the more
expensive cover stocks. They are available in a smooth or vellum finish. If you intend to print it with your office printer, make sure that it is possible according to your printers specifications.

For the best results we recommend:

• For the back cover: 180-300g/m² cardboard, max 320 g/m²
• For the front cover: anything your printer can handle, we recommend approximately 225g/m²
• Card with the fibers across the spine
• For a transparent front cover: PVC 0, 15-0, 20