How does it feel? Weight vs Thickness

Paper. It’s a real thing and it’s a feel thing.

And that’s a huge part of the printed publication experience. There’s an oft-quoted saying that It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it and that holds true with how you present your content as a printed product.

What choices do I have?

Your choices are boundless. As long as your budget is too. And, let’s be honest, most budgets aren’t. We publication printers tend to settle on a ‘house stock’ which falls within mainstream parameters. Being able to buy from the mill by the lorry load, gets us stand-out value for money in this competitive market. Opting for a specific stock, therefore, you’ll find the price increases disproportionately due to reduced volumes [less efficient logistics], higher waste [set sizes and imprecise usage which can’t be rolled into another order]. Finally, flexibility will be compromised, so you may need to fix pagination and print run much earlier than you otherwise would.

Heavier is thicker though, right?

On a like-for-like basis, yes. But it’s more complicated than that depending on the finish of the paper and a thing called Bulk.

Bulk?

Yes, Bulk is a technical parameter used to describe the relationship between the weight (GSM) of a paper and its thickness (microns).

A 100gsm paper with a bulk of 1.0 is 100 microns thick. Simple eh?

Taking the Rough with the Smooth

Papers with a rough surface tend to be thicker (more bulky). Smooth papers tend to be thinner (less bulky). There are exceptions to this, such as fine papers which are calendered (a kind of polishing using brushes) but basically, coating is heavy. On gloss stocks, a large amount of [dense] coating is needed which leaves a smaller amount of ‘filler’ in the substrate.

How bulky are your stocks?

Here are some approximations to help with your calculations:

woodfree gloss coated 0.75

woodfree silk coated 0.92

LWC [light weight coated] bulk 1.2

uncoated [offset] 1.2

What does all this mean?

Let’s imagine you have a magazine with 128pp of text on 100gsm

on woodfree gloss, 64 leaves of 75 microns = 4.8mm

on uncoated, the same pages would measure 7.68mm, an increase of 60% thickness for the same weight

Opportunity!

It certainly can be for some. If you reduce the GSM but increase the bulk, you may be able to reduce your distribution costs whilst making your publication thicker

Why isn’t everyone doing it?

High bulk papers usually have a rougher surface. For some, this can be a desirable by-product. Rougher surfaces feel more natural; more ‘organic’ as we’ve heard it described. For others, the ‘Low-fi’ feel means that reproduction of images can be compromised, particularly with shadow areas on darker images filling in leading to loss of detail.

How do I decide?

We can’t decide for you but we can help! Use our instant chat to tell us what you’re looking for and we can advise on a shortlist of options. We’re always happy to provide samples and even mock-ups on white paper to give you a clear idea of how your end product will feel.

Acknowledgments

And apologies to Bob Dylan for the shameless use of his venerable song title.