Paper Types in Print Design: A Quick Comparison

Paper usually gets picked at the end of a project, when the printer asks for a stock and someone names whatever sounds right. It deserves more attention than that, because the sheet controls how ink sits, how colors read and whether a fold cracks.

Print designers sort paper by coating, weight, surface finish and fiber content. They work with it for business cards, brochures, books, packaging and fine art prints, while printers match each job to a reference sheet defined under ISO 12647-2.

For offset, Fogra’s June 2024 characterisation data set out references for glossy coated, matt coated, lightweight coated, uncoated white and uncoated yellowish sheets.

What Are the Main Paper Types in Print Design?

Coating splits the field first, because it decides how a sheet takes ink. Weight, finish and fiber come after that.

Under ISO 12647-2, Fogra’s characterisation data give the offset reference sheets as PT1 through PT5.

• PT1 (glossy coated, 115 g/m2)
• PT2 (matt coated, 115 g/m2)
• PT3 (lightweight coated web offset, 65 g/m2)
• PT4 (uncoated white offset, 115 g/m2)
• PT5 (uncoated yellowish offset, 115 g/m2)

The stocks you actually order map loosely onto those references. The table below shows where the common ones land.

Fiber content is the quieter variable. Wood-free sheets use chemical pulp only, while groundwood sheets such as newsprint contain mechanical pulp.

Cotton sheets swap the wood pulp for cotton fiber. Letterpress and fine art printers favor them for the soft, deep-impression surface. They cost more, so I’d only reach for cotton when the impression is the whole point.

In practice, the print design brief names the project first. The paper type follows from that, and weight and finish come after.

How Do Coated and Uncoated Paper Behave Under Ink?

Ink stays on top of coated paper, which keeps dots sharp and colors saturated. On uncoated sheets it sinks into the fibers. Dots spread, and color softens.

Deciding between coated and uncoated paper stock mostly comes down to color punch versus natural feel.

Coated paper

On FOGRA39, the coated reference, a 50% cyan tint gains 15.0 points of tone value and black gains 17.2, according to the ICC characterisation registry.

What you get from coated stock:

• Sharp halftones and fine detail
• Strong saturation for photography
• Gloss, silk and matte versions, all of which accept spot UV and lamination

The downsides are mostly practical. Gloss throws glare and collects fingerprints, and ink pens don’t write well on it. It also feels less tactile than a natural sheet.

Uncoated paper

The same 50% tint on FOGRA47 (uncoated white, paper type 4) gains 18.9 points for cyan and 22.3 for black (ICC registry). That is about 4 points more for cyan and 5 more for black than on coated stock.

A file built for coated paper therefore prints heavier on uncoated unless the printer applies the right profile. FOGRA39 is the coated profile and FOGRA47 the uncoated white one. FOGRA52 is for uncoated sheets with optical brighteners (Fogra’s June 2024 data set).

Spot colors shift too. A Pantone ink keeps one formula across sheets, and X-Rite attributes most of its different look on uncoated paper to how the ink reacts to the stock.

Which Finish and Texture Fits the Design?

It depends on what the piece has to do. Photography wants gloss or silk. Anything people will read for a while does better on matte, and a textured uncoated sheet makes sense when the paper itself is supposed to carry the design.

Finishes on coated paper

Gloss gives the highest sheen and the strongest saturation, fingerprints included. Silk, sometimes called satin, has less shine than gloss and more than matte. Matte is flat, with very little sheen, and reads best under bright light.

Dull coatings sit between matte and gloss, and where exactly depends on the manufacturer, according to the University of Florida Health creative services paper guidelines. Compare physical samples before you commit.

The trade-off between matte and glossy paper comes down to glare against punch. For anything with a lot of text, matte is the safe default.

Textures on uncoated paper

Texture changes how fine type and halftones render, so a rough sheet suits bold layouts better than small text.

• Smooth (wove) sheets are even and give the best detail among uncoated stocks
• Vellum has a light tooth
• Laid shows visible parallel lines
• Linen carries a crosshatch pattern
• Felt leaves soft, wool-like marks

Surface also limits what post-press can do. Spot UV needs a sealed base, so 4OVER4 states it cannot go on uncoated stock, where the coating soaks in.

Clear gloss foil stamping is the usual substitute on uncoated sheets (After Hours Creative Studio). Printers such as Mixam do not laminate uncoated and recycled stocks.

Anyone planning a glossy accent should read how spot UV coating works before choosing the sheet.

How Is Paper Weight Measured and Converted?

Metric specs quote weight in grams per square meter (gsm). US specs use pounds per 500 sheets of a grade’s basic size, and those basic sizes differ by grade. That’s why 80 lb text and 80 lb cover are two different sheets.

Why 80 lb text and 80 lb cover differ

Every grade weighs its ream at its own sheet size. Bond uses 17 x 22 in and text uses 25 x 38 in, cover is 20 x 26 in, and index is 25.5 x 30.5 in.

Sylvamo’s basis weight calculator converts any of them by multiplying the pound figure by 1406.5 and dividing by the basic size area in square inches.

Applied to 80 lb, text works out to about 118 gsm and cover to about 216 gsm. The cover sheet is about 1.8 times heavier.

Key conversion values

Run through Sylvamo’s formula, the common ones come out like this.

• 20 lb bond (17 x 22 in): about 75 gsm
• 50 lb text (25 x 38 in): about 74 gsm
• 80 lb text: about 118 gsm
• 80 lb cover (20 x 26 in): about 216 gsm
• 300 gsm: about 111 lb cover

The first two rows show why printers treat 20 lb bond and 50 lb text as the same weight.

Where the conversion breaks down

Coated cover is the trap. Sylvamo’s table lists more than one basic size for it (24 x 36 in and 20 x 26 in), so a pound figure on a coated cover sheet needs its grade confirmed.

Text stock also stops near 100 lb, according to 4OVER4. A 300 gsm sheet is a cover weight, not a heavy text weight. So write both the gsm and the grade on every spec, and ask for a physical sample on anything critical.

Weight also says little about feel. Put a bulky uncoated sheet next to a calendered coated one at the same gsm and the gap in paper weight and thickness is obvious.

What Do Caliper and Grain Direction Change?

Both affect how stiff a sheet feels and whether a fold cracks, though printers specify them separately.

Caliper

Caliper, the thickness of a single sheet, is quoted in points on US specs, where 1 point equals 0.001 inch. Metric specs use microns, with 1,000 microns to the millimeter (Lamitech).

Printers quote paper thickness as caliper because gsm alone does not predict it.

The industry tolerance is plus or minus 5%, so a 20 pt board can measure 0.019 to 0.021 in.

Method matters too. TAPPI T 411 measures a single sheet under pressure, and the soft platen method (T 551) always returns smaller values, so two caliper figures compare only when the method matches.

Grain direction

Grain long means the fibers run along the sheet’s long edge, and grain short is the other way round. You can find it by hand.

1. Take a blank sheet from the stock.
2. Bend it gently both ways.
3. The direction with less resistance is the grain.

Fold with the grain and the creases come out smooth and crisp. Against it, the surface cracks, especially on coated and heavier stocks (4OVER4).

CreativePro’s paper guide points out that scoring first greatly reduces cracking, and that a sheet folded against the grain resists tearing better.

Put the fold direction on the spec sheet before the run, not after.

How Do Brightness and Opacity Affect Print Results?

Brightness is about how much light the sheet reflects, and that feeds straight into contrast and color. Opacity decides whether the print on the back shows through.

TAPPI T 452 measures brightness as the reflectance of blue light at 457 nm. The standard also states that brightness and whiteness are different measurements with no known mathematical relationship.

Scales differ by region. Sappi’s brightness guide lists TAPPI/GE, ISO 2470-1 and D65 under ISO 2470-2, so compare brightness numbers only on the same scale.

For opacity, TAPPI T 425 (paper backing method) compares reflectance over a black backing with reflectance over a thick stack of the same paper. A perfectly opaque sheet scores 100%.

IngramSpark’s paper specifications (revised August 2023) list brightness 91 for both its 50 lb and 70 lb white interior sheets, with opacity rising from 90 to 94 at the heavier weight. The 50 lb cream sheet drops to brightness 72 at the same opacity of 90.

That spread is why a bright white sheet gives photographs more contrast and stronger color saturation than cream under the same ink. Cream mutes both and reads warmer.

Show-through is an opacity problem first and a weight problem second.

Holywell Press notes that opacity depends on weight, ingredients and absorbency, so a heavier sheet is not automatically a more opaque one.

When both sides carry heavy ink, ask the mill for the opacity figure before comparing gsm.

Which Paper Type Suits Each Print Project?

Think about how the piece will be handled. Cards need cover weight, and flyers and brochures get by on text weight or a light cover. Book interiors go on uncoated text. Specialty work is where cotton or heavy board comes in.

Marketing print: cards, brochures, flyers and posters

• Business cards usually go on cover stock, 14 pt or 16 pt
• Brochures use coated or silk text with a heavier cover
• Flyers run on text weight or a light cover
• Posters do well on gloss or silk coated stock when photography leads

Printers disagree on how card thickness maps to weight. Overnight Prints lists its 14 pt white stock at about 270 gsm, while 4OVER4’s thickness chart gives about 350 gsm, because bulk differs from stock to stock.

Specify both the point size and the gsm, and trust the printer’s own sheet data over a generic chart.

Flyers sit at the light end of the range, in one of the standard flyer sizes.

Multi-page brochures can mix coated and uncoated sheets for textural contrast, according to the UF Health guidelines.

Books and booklets

IngramSpark’s print options page covers these interior stocks.

• Groundwood 38 lb (56 gsm), for black and white and select small trim sizes
• Creme 50 lb (74 gsm), black and white only
• White 50 lb (74 gsm), which handles black and white as well as standard color
• White 70 lb (104 gsm), used for Standard 70 and Premium color

Image-heavy books belong on the 70 lb white. Text-only titles run fine on cream.

Packaging and fine art prints

Cartons and boxes start from board caliper. Coated board gives sharp print, while kraft leans on its natural brown surface, which tints every ink.

For fine art inkjet, Hahnemuhle Photo Rag comes in 188, 308 and 500 gsm, in 100% cotton with a matt premium inkjet coating. Cotton fiber and a coated surface are not opposites.

On the letterpress side, Crane’s Lettra is 100% cotton, uncalendered and made without surface sizing, which is how it takes a deep impression. Its weights include 110 lb cover and a 220 lb double thick cover.

Standard sizes that fit each project

ISO 216 builds the A series on A0, a sheet of exactly one square meter (841 x 1189 mm). Every size keeps a 1:square root of 2 ratio, so folding a sheet in half gives the next size down.

The B series sizes are the geometric mean of neighboring A sizes, and C series envelopes follow ISO 269. An A4 sheet folded in half fits a C5 envelope, according to Blake Envelopes.

The wider set of international paper sizes shares that ratio, and ISO 217 adds untrimmed RA and SRA sheets that leave room for bleed and trim marks.

Letter is close to A4 but has a different aspect ratio. A file built for one gets trimmed or rescaled for the other.

Does Recycled or Certified Paper Change Print Quality?

Not by itself. Recycled content and forest certification are separate claims, and print quality comes from the individual sheet. Brightness, opacity and surface vary from sheet to sheet, not from label to label.

These are the labels you will run into.

• FSC 100% means all the fiber is virgin and comes from FSC-certified forests
• FSC Mix covers FSC virgin fiber and/or recycled material, plus controlled wood
• FSC Recycled is 100% recycled fiber
• PEFC Certified requires at least 70% PEFC-certified material
• PEFC Recycled applies only to products made from recycled material

Those definitions follow FSC’s Canadian label page and PEFC’s logo-use rules.

Older guidance differs on the PEFC recycled label. A 2017 NEPCon guide to the earlier trademark rules gave a 70% minimum for recycled content, while PEFC’s current page limits the label to products made only from recycled material.

Certification also does not guarantee recycled content. Avery Products’ FSC guide makes the point from both directions. FSC paper may be virgin pulp, and recycled paper without certification offers no assurance about any fresh fiber in it.

Only chain-of-custody certified organizations can put the PEFC label on a product, so ask the printer for its certificate before promising a logo on the piece.

Print quality depends on the individual grade. Xerox Recycled (100% post-consumer, no optical brightening agents) lists an ISO brightness of 70, while Neenah rates its 100% post-consumer Environment sheet at 95 on the US scale. The scales differ, so read it as a spread, not a gap.

Mohawk Loop shows what the range can look like in practice. It pairs high post-consumer content and FSC certification with smooth, antique vellum, feltmark, linen and laid textures, in weights up to 130 lb cover (352 gsm).

Chain of custody makes the origin verifiable, and each FSC label carries a code that traces the fiber. A full texture range is available too.

The catches are that brightness varies widely across recycled sheets, and that a logo on the finished piece needs a certified printer.

How to Specify Paper With the Printer

Put the stock in writing. Grade, gsm, coating, finish and brand all go in the spec, and the whole thing gets confirmed on a physical sample and a proof before the run.

1. Name the press method (offset or digital) so the printer checks the stock against it.
2. Write the stock as one line: grade, weight in gsm, coating, finish, brand and certification.
3. Request the mill’s swatch book or printed samples (Mohawk’s Loop swatchbook is one example).
4. Compare each spot color on a printed sample. Pantone’s Color Bridge guide shows spot colors beside their CMYK builds on coated and uncoated stock.
5. Build the file with the printer’s profile in Adobe InDesign and run preflight in Adobe Acrobat before exporting the PDF.
6. Approve a press proof on the actual sheet and keep the signed spec.

One example spec line reads coated silk text, 135 gsm, grain long, FSC Mix.

Mohawk’s own product pages say screens cannot simulate paper and ink color accurately. It recommends matching a paper sample to ink drawdowns or CMYK tint builds from the printer. I’d take a swatch book over a monitor every time.

Once the stock is locked, the next job is a print-ready file with bleed and trim set and the fonts embedded.

When Does a Paper Choice Fail?

Most failures come from a limit nobody wrote into the spec.

Press limits

The HP Indigo 12000 runs uncoated stock from 70 to 400 gsm, coated stock from 90 to 400 gsm, and thickness from 75 to 450 microns, according to HP’s specification sheet.

A 32 pt card measures about 813 microns, far outside that window. 4OVER4 builds it by bonding two thinner cores.

Offset and other digital presses have their own ranges, so ask before designing around a heavy sheet.

Ink coverage

Total ink limits fall as the sheet gets more absorbent. ECI profile data listed by proof.de show the drop.

A design built around heavy ink coverage in CMYK printing needs reworking before it moves to a more absorbent sheet.

Heavy coverage also works against soft touch stock, according to 4OVER4’s finish FAQ.

Fine detail on rough stock

Textured and cotton stocks trade detail for character. Small type can plug and close up, and type knocked out of solid ink can become unreadable.

The FPO archive at UnderConsideration advises requesting recently printed samples with small type from any letterpress printer before committing.

Paper Types in Print Design FAQ

Is cardstock a paper type or a paper weight?

A weight class. Cardstock means cover weight stock, and the sheet can be coated or uncoated, according to FedEx’s printing paper guide.

Printers rate it by caliper in points and by weight in lb or gsm.

What do C1S and C2S mean?

Coated one side for C1S, coated on both sides for C2S. The coated face is typically glossy.

Greeting cards often use C1S so the uncoated side stays easy to write on, according to Holywell Press.

What is bond paper used for?

Mostly letterheads, forms and internal documents. It’s an uncoated stock, also sold as writing or offset paper, and some printers run it for book interiors too.

What is newsprint, and when does it make sense?

Newspapers and inserts, basically. The sheet is lightweight uncoated groundwood made for newspaper runs. Fogra’s FOGRA42 data set treats standard newsprint as its own heatset web offset condition because the sheet absorbs ink heavily.

That makes it a poor fit for photo-led marketing pieces.

Which paper works best for invitations?

Cover-weight cardstock, in most cases. Uncoated or cotton sheets give a formal, tactile look, while coated sheets suit designs led by photography.

Order a sample first to judge the feel in hand.

Can you write on a coated printed piece?

Yes, on matte coated stock more easily than on gloss. Printivity recommends uncoated paper wherever people will write, and matte coated when the design still needs a coated finish.

Which Paper Upgrade Shows Most in the Finished Print?

Across paper types in print design, the upgrade that shows most is coating, because it decides how ink behaves, which press profile the file needs and which finishes the sheet accepts.

If the budget only stretches so far, spend it on coating first, weight second and texture last. Coating sets the surface and the press profile. Weight handles feel and opacity within that surface, and texture adds character on top.

The order follows dependency. Each later choice only works inside the limits the earlier one sets.

Weight carries the price, since heavier basis weights typically cost more, according to WCP Solutions.

With the sheet settled, the last call is protection, and you’ll need to choose between varnish and lamination.

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Bogdan Sandu

Bogdan Sandu is a seasoned designer who has been designing websites since 2008.

Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients.

His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8.

He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.

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