Choosing a Printing Paper
When you’ve been in business for a long time, you know for certain that business marketing plays an important role to achieving success. Aside from introducing your products and services to your target customers, you also encourage them to make a purchase. This makes producing marketing materials such as brochure printing, posters, catalogs, and hang tags very essential.
But as you create your materials have you ever really given enough thought in the paper you use? Most likely not, until the time you need to create a really enticing, reliable, and compelling printed material that your old desktop printer can’t produce.
There’s no denying though of the service desktop printing offers. Businesses can print their works independently at the rate, quantity, and quality they desire. However, desktop printing can never compare to the quality and reliability of professional printers. From the color to the turnaround time, everything is taken into consideration in professional printing houses. But perhaps the biggest and often ignored element in printing that requires good consideration is the paper used. If you are in the process of printing brochures or catalogs today, here are things you need to mull over in choosing the right printing paper:
• Paper’s grade. There are several elements that make up a good paper grade such as the weight, use, and appearance. A desktop grade paper is often only good for reports and essays while an offset grade paper is fitted for commercial printing such as printing labels, banners, CD & DVD covers, and brochures. Commercial papers are usually designed for strength and reliability allowing the printer to print large numbers of pages at high speeds. They keep the ink from seeping in so the resulting images and texts are crisp and clear.
There are actually several grades of paper available today such as ledger and bond papers, and even papers made from cotton. A printer would usually select the type of paper grade to use depending on the print job and the capability of the paper to handle the intensity of the printing required.
• Opacity of the paper. Opacity means the ability of the paper to allow light to pass through. If you would notice, a desktop paper would tend to show the print on both sides. This doesn’t mean though that the paper is too thin that’s why the printing shows on both sides. It has more to do on the density of the material. If a paper is made of non-opaque material such as polyblend, the tendency for a print to be see-through is greater than a material made of opaque material. So, when choosing a paper for your poster or brochure, make sure to select a paper with high opacity. Tell your poster or brochure printer to use highly opaque paper as it won’t look good for business to have a brochure that has a fading design and message.
• Paper stock. When printing your marketing materials, there are usually two kinds of paper that you have to use: cover stock and text stock. The cover stock is use for materials that need heavy and reliable paper such as brochures and business cards, while the text stock is light weight paper that is mostly used for posters, flyers, and other direct mail materials. Just keep in mind that when choosing paper stock look for good grade, weight, finish, and opacity.
• Finish. This refers to the surface of the paper. At best, a glossy coating is appropriate for a slick and professional look. A glossy coating is often considered the finish of a high grade paper that creates a smooth finish on printed materials. However, you can still use vellum or parchment, but they are only good for handwritten greeting cards but for a printed marketing campaign.
There are just some of the factors you need to consider in choosing your material’s paper. Carefully consider these factors as it can make or break your material and strengthen or conceal your message.
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