Printer Paper Buying Guide

Size

When buying printing paper, size is an essential factor to consider. Whether you're printing a business card or a large-format architectural plan, there’s a paper size to accommodate any printing job.

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Weight

The higher the weight of a paper, the thicker and stiffer the stock. Cover stocks are at the higher end of the weight spectrum and feel like thin cardboard. Text stocks are papers of regular weight.

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Brightness

This refers to how light interacts with a paper. Measured on a 0 to 100 scale, the brightness of a page will affect the sharpness of a printed job’s images and text. Most paper is in the 90s on this scale.

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Ream

A ream of paper is a wrapped pack containing 500 sheets of paper. Copy and printer paper are sold by individual reams and by cases that might include 5, 8, or 10 reams. Other cases are reamless and could have 2,500 sheets of paper not separated into reams. 

Material

While most paper is made from wood fibers, paper can also be made from cloth, synthetic fibers, and even plastic, all serving specialized purposes.

Eco-Conscious Paper

While many papers are sustainably sourced, some are especially eco-conscious because of the materials used or how fast they biodegrade.

Color

There’s more to paper than plain, white stock. Printer paper can come in a rainbow assortment of colors, ranging from clear, off-white and yellow to purple, tan, and black (and many hues in between). Color paper can pop out in a sea of white, helping a design or graphic stand out with innovative uses.

Premium Paper

Beyond standard paper stock are the premium ones that include all the top attributes of weight, coating, brightness, opacity, and material, making them good for presentations and print jobs where quality matters. For example, paper made from a blend of wood pulp and cotton (commonly 75% and 25%) has a luxurious feel and is made to last, so it can be good for archival projects.

Inkjet Paper

These papers are specially designed to absorb the inks used in the printing process of inkjet printers.

Laser Paper

These papers can better withstand the heat used in the printing process of laser printers, where special rollers fuse colored toner inks to the page.

Photo Paper

Specially formulated for printing high-quality images with an inkjet printer, photo paper can be matte, semi-gloss, or glossy.

Cardstock

Cardstock is thicker and heavier than copy paper and can be used for business cards, report covers, and more heavy-duty applications than document text pages.

Copy and Multipurpose Paper

As the name suggests, these papers are adaptable to different functions, including inkjet printing, laser printing, and photocopying. The papers can come in a wide variety of size, weight, color, and brightness choices. Copy paper tends to be slightly thinner and less expensive than regular printing paper and can usually be a good substitute for it unless the page features heavy ink coverage. In this case, the result might be too saturated and affect image quality.

Bond Paper

This paper has a high content of cotton rags or cotton textile fibers in its composition, giving it a thicker, more substantial texture. The name “bond paper” goes back to the late 19th century when this type of paper was used to print government bonds and other official documents. Today, bond paper is used, for example, for stationary, letterhead, and drawings with pencils, ink, and markers.