If you are one of those who is closely related to printers, or who worry about printing the projects you carry out, it is possible that a basic concept such as weight it sure does not escape you. But can we help you to know more about this topic?
If you have not worried about weight before when making business cards, brochures, books or a catalog, surely when you finish reading what we have prepared for you things will change. And this concept is much more important than you think.
What is grammage
The grammage can be defined as the weight of paper per square meter (or by unit area, since there are several sizes of paper). This is not only used in stationery, but it is also a concept that is handled in another sector such as textiles.
In general, it is said that the higher the grammage, the thicker and stronger that paper will be. Therefore, depending on the objective (if it is a business card, a newspaper, a poster, etc., a more or less large one is chosen.
Grammage vs thickness
There are many who confuse and unify these two concepts, saying that grammage and thickness are two equal things, that we refer to the same thing. And, although it has to do with paper, each one "measures" a different thing.
While the weight measures the weight of the paper in hand, the thickness is responsible for measuring the length, that is, how many millimeters the sheet measures based on its width.
As we have told you before, the grammage is the weight per square meter of the paper. And following this definition we could say that the thickness is the length per square meter of the paper. In other words, it is the distance that will exist between one side of the paper and the other.
Types of paper weight for printing
There are many types of weights that you can use, but it is true that the most common for design projects are only a few. We talk about the following:
- 70-90 grams. It is a common paper for printing texts, documents, etc. It is characterized by being light and with a good finish for texts, hence you usually see it on the folios you use to print, in books, etc.
- 90-120 grams. It is a somewhat thicker paper than the previous one and it can be matte or glossy. In this case, the goal is to give a higher quality color print. Therefore, it is used mainly in images, illustrations, designs, etc. that require the colors to be rendered as well as possible.
- 120-170 grams. They are considered to be light card stock, and are used for very high quality color images, but also with texts, which gives them a feeling like the ink is embedded inside.
- 170-260 grams. This paper is said to be heavyweight and is used in signage jobs or when higher quality photos need to be printed.
- 350 grams. This grammage is said to be a semi-rigid cardboard. It has a great thickness and also hardness and resistance.
- 380 grams. With an even greater resistance than the previous one, it is a cardboard whose function is to serve as packaging.
How to choose the best one to print
As there are so many types of grammage, and that each of them can be the right one for the project you have in hand, it makes the choice a bit more complicated. However, if you consider the following, it may not be the case.
- Think about the project you have in hand. That is, what are you going to do. A business card is not the same as a page in a book, or a notepad. That will already eliminate small or large weights. Almost all projects to print have a range of weights to use, so you will have limited what you can use and it will only depend on your taste to choose one or the other.
- Take a look at the result. There are some papers whose weights cannot be glossy, or are rough to the touch. If you want it to have a certain result (for example, it is smooth, shiny, etc.) that will rule out some types of paper, as well as weights of those papers.
- Take a test. Whenever you are given the opportunity, do a test with a specific grammage. And give it a spin. That way you will know if it is what you need or if you have to increase or decrease the grams of it.
Examples of paper and weight
Now that you have seen a little more in depth what the grammage is and the types that exist, as well as what you should look at to choose one or the other, we are going to give you some examples of grammages depending on the project you have at hand. For instance:
- If you want to print cards, the most common weight to do so is 350 grams. It does not matter what type of paper is used, since those that are usually chosen, such as graphic, glossy or coated paper do reach that thickness.
- In the case of catalogs, very appropriate to have a paper portfolio to show it to your clients, here it will depend on whether it is the front and back cover, which is normally 350 grams, and the inner sheets, which will be up to 150-170 grams.
- For creative writing the same thing happens; the front and back cover will be thicker than the inside. We speak of about 300 grams for this part of the book while, for the inner sheets, one of 80-90 grams is usually used.
- If what you do are brochures, leaflets, flyers ... then we recommend a grammage that is between 100 and 150 grams. It is the best because, when folding the paper, the greater the grammage, the more signals are left in that fold and it also becomes so weak that it is capable of breaking, something that in this case is not the most appropriate.
As you can see, it is very easy to understand the grammage. How do you usually apply it to your projects?