The Hand is the paper. The final feeling of a design. Paper is a decision to be thought out carefully reflecting with intent. Paper can be bulky, crisp, slick, silky, loud, understated, glossy, or authentic. It could be anything, but what is important is to create something memorable.
There is many ways to make paper. When paper is produced, it comes from fiber materials. Those materials can be wood, linen, cotton, and possibly cellulose from plants. Paper does not come in only one form, of course, there are many different ways to make paper.
Let’s discover HOW IT’s made.
PULP
Pulp is a mix of softened even blended fibers. It requires hot water and then distributes over a screen to be pressed and drained. Sounds simple but the process of harvesting these fibers is not so simple.
At a Pulp Mill, bark must be separated from the trees which are then are cooked with chemicals to separate the fibers within. It must be bleached and clean to continue at a Pulp Mill. Without a Pulp Mill, the fibers will need to be purchases before the process.
PAPERMAKING
99%💧
In order for pulp to turn into paper it must go through the paper making process before. The first step is to pump the pulp into the Fourdrinier machine which then moves to a belt of mesh wire to be pressed and drained of any excess water ultimately forming paper. The fibers are blended together as the water is drained creating the thin sheet of paper, which involves more steps along the way.
83%💧
After the paper is drained it moves to a dandy roll which mixes the fibers in place one last time. The dandy roll can also change the appearance such as adding a watermark… how cool! Once is rolls through the dandy roll it moves onto some pressure.
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
50%💧
Applying some pressure as the paper moves up the couch roll in the first press. The paper is placed on felt material and then rolled through the first and second press to then drain any excess water left.
0%💧
After being squeezed, drained, and pressed there shouldn’t be any water left…at all…right? Just in case the paper gets steamed through the huge dryer cans to reach 0% and ready to be prepped and cut.
FINISHING
Wrapping up the paper making process entirely, calenders are used to finalize the feel. Calenders are metal rollers that flatten and smooth out the paper to give it that gloss or rough texture. To get a smoother texture, sometimes paper will go through the calenders again to achieve that extra smoothness.
To specialize the paper, a coating will take place using material such as china clay, chalk, and binders (starch or latex) creating a pigment. This is to add character to the paper.
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
Once stylized and finished, the last step is to cut down the paper to the print size needed and abracadabra! You have you very own paper!
Wanna hear a joke about paper?
Never mind… it’s “tearable”!
What type of paper do you choose?
There is many types of paper to choose from. It can be a bit overwhelming head on with large categories such as industrial, sanitary, newsprint, boxboard, and commercial. So lets organize it!
THE FIVE COMMERCIAL PAPER TYPES…
COATED
Diving back into the paper making process, coating takes place before paper is put through the calenders. Coating paper is best for imagery and digital printing because it gives you that sharp crisp edge when the ink gets placed. To classify these coated papers, they are called Cast Coating, Gloss, Dull, Silk, or Matte. The finish is determined by the brightness the paper will have.
GlossA shiny surface for crisp images in full-color printing
Dull/SilkDiffused, non gloss surface for solid ink lay and readability
MatteLow glare surface with a toothy feel, excellent readability
OFFSET & OPAQUE
Need to mail something? Offset and opaque is the way to go. Now offset and opaque paper does not need coating. It is durable and strong with good internal bonding and high surface strength.
Offset: Developed to run on offset presses for lots of printers!
Opaques: Opacified paper with improved brightness, formation, and surface. Opaque paper is very economical for direct mail as well!
You want amazing colors and dazzling finishes? Text and cover paper is the best for an array of colors and finishes. The uncoated printing paper is premium. They are classified by finish, quality, and cost. You want high-end? High-end premium paper hold…
Superior formation, opacity and ink holdout for excellent four-color process print reproduction on offset and digital presses.”
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
Text : Light, very light! Used for pages in reports, booklets, and brochures!
Cover: Heavy and STRONGGGGGG! Used for covers in brochures, business cards, and luxury packaging.
TEXT & COVER TEXTURES:
COCKLE Cockle finish simulates handmade paper with a rough and wavy finish produced by air drying paper with only a small, controlled amount of tension. It is often found in writing or bond papers. A machine-made cockle finish is often designed to mimic the look of handmade paper.
EGGSHELL Usually found on uncoated, uncalendered paper, eggshell is a fairly subtle but rough texture. It resembles the surface of an eggshell an
FELT Genuine felt finishes are applied to paper by means of marking felt on the paper machine while the paper is still very wet. The felt imparts a distinctive texture by gently rearranging the fibers and creating a soft resilient surface suitable for printing and specialty print processes such as embossing, foil stamping and letterpress printing. Some felt finishes are embossed off machine.
GROOVE OR VERTICAL The wide or narrow linear patterns are usually very pronounced and are created by an off-machine embossing process.
LAID A linear pattern often found in high-quality writing papers and applied by a dandy roll while the paper is still very wet. The laid dandy roll consists of wires that run parallel to the roll’s axis (laid lines) and chain lines which connect the laid lines and run with the grain of the paper.
LINEN Reminiscent of woven fabric, linen is produced by embossing paper with a patterned roll as a separate off-machine operation.
SMOOTH Measured by the Sheffield scale, smoothness is determined by how much the paper is calendered (pressed between rollers) on the paper machine. The lower the Sheffield number, the smoother the sheet.
VELLUM This finish is a more natural, uncalendered machine finish. Some describe it as having tooth, or being toothy (a subtle roughness). It gives a unique hand to the sheet and is usually found in uncoated papers.
WOVE Wove is a natural machine finish. It is a standard smooth even finish with no distinct pattern.
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
WRITING
Long, long ago, known as bond papers, writing grades as of today are the go to letterhead paper. You want your letterhead engraved? offset? thermograph? lasered? inkjet? Writing paper has got you.
To achieve the perfect letterhead, cotton is used in the paper to create a soft feel yet strengthen the bond. 25% cotton is the most common for letterheads. Watermarks can be applied with… you know it… a dandy roll! It gets pressed into the sheet while still wet to impact the density of the watermark itself.
NOW WERE TO PUT THE LETTERHEAD?
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
SPECIALTY
Time to use your imagination and discover your uniqueness! You can get as picky as you want with your paper style (as long as the printer can do it).
SOME IDEAS FOR YOUR NEXT PRINT
Inclusions of all types (fiber, glitter, confetti)
Metallic/pearlescent shimmers
100% cotton cover
Translucent papers—also in fabulous colors
Special making to match a non-standard color, weight or finish
FORMATION Formation refers to the uniformity and distribution of fibers within a sheet of paper. In well formed sheets, ink is absorbed evenly for smooth solids and clear reproduction. A poorly formed sheet will exhibit more dot gain and a mottled appearance when printed.
OPACITY Opacity measures the amount of light passing through a sheet of paper in values from 1 (the most transparent) to 100% (the most opaque). A paper with a relatively high opacity of 96% will have less (or no) show-through from printing on the reverse side or the sheet below. Selecting a sheet with good opacity is especially important if the design includes solid blocks of color, bold type and heavy coverage. Basis weight, brightness, type of fibers, fillers, coatings and formation all influence opacity.
BRIGHTNESS Brightness is measured as the percentage of light reflected from the surface of the paper. It is not necessarily related to color or whiteness. A blue-white and yellow white paper can have the same brightness value but look very different. A paper with a brightness of 98 is an extremely bright sheet with almost all light being reflected back to the viewer. Four-color process images pop on bright white papers, as they illuminate transparent printing inks. For pieces with a great deal of copy, a natural shade of white is preferable to minimize eyestrain.
FINISH/SMOOTHNESS Paper comes in a wide range of finishes, with notable differences even among those classified as smooth. Finish or smoothness affects ink receptivity and ink holdout. Smoothness is measured on the Sheffield scale. A higher value on this scale typically indicates a rougher sheet—for example, coated paper may have a smoothness of 10-30, a super-smooth premium uncoated will have a smoothness of 45-60 and a vellum text and cover from 300 and higher.
SIDE-TO-SIDE CONSISTENCY Finished paper has two sides: the wire side, which comes in contact with the wires on the paper machine and the felt side, which does not. Smoother papers have good side-to-side consistency and will print colors evenly on both the wire and felt sides.
PRINTABILITY The print quality of a paper will be determined by formation, smoothness, brightness, opacity and if applicable, surface coating.
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITIES For many customers, the use of recycled paper or paper manufactured with renewable energy is important. The variety and quality of recycled papers have grown dramatically, meaning designers no longer have to compromise when choosing an environmental paper.
PAPER PERMANENCE Acid-free papers are manufactured in an alkaline environment, which prevents the internal chemical deterioration of the paper over time. Archival papers will contain an additional 2% calcium carbonate reserve which acts as a buffer, making the paper resistant to the effects of an external acidic environment. They also contain a very small amount, if any, of lignin and meet tear criteria. The life span for alkaline paper measures in hundreds of years, compared to just decades for acid paper.
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
WEIGHTS
CALIPER Caliper indicates the paper’s thickness. Measured in thousandths of an inch, the caliper can either be expressed as .007 inches, or 7 point. A paper’s caliper is affected by its basis weight and finish.
M WEIGHT M weight is used for the weight of 1,000 sheets of the given size.
BASIS WEIGHT The American concept of basis weight is the basis for much confusion. Each different paper category has a specific basic size associated with it. The weight of 500 sheets in its basic size is a paper’s basis weight. This system provides a standard of comparison that doesn’t change with the size of sheet or quality of stock you are buying. However, you must always be mindful of the paper category as well as the pounds.
GSM The metric system measures paper weight in grams per square meter (g/m2 or GSM). The scale is continuous, meaning that all categories of paper use the same scale. This avoids the confusion of the American system and promotes a good sense of relative weights. Many swatch books provide gsm equivalents.
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
SWATCHBOOKS
Swatchbooks are a road map to a paper grade. Full of product availability, standard sizes, production tips, suggested uses and paper samples.”
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
DISTRIBUTION
Anything you want made will impact where you print. Many retail places carry basic copy paper but also some specialty paper as well (like envelopes!). It will all depend on what you need done. Make sure to call beforehand to check if your design will print!
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
TERMS YOU MIGHT WANNA REMEMBER
ACID FREE Acid-free papers are manufactured in an alkaline environment, which prevents the internal chemical deterioration of the paper over time. The addition of calcium carbonate as a buffer also makes the paper resistant to the effects of an external acidic environment.
ARCHIVAL Archival papers do not deteriorate (become brittle) over time and are acid-free.
BASIS WEIGHT Weighing 500 sheets of any grade of paper in its standard basic size will determine its basis weight. In other words, 500 sheets of 17 x 22 24-pound bond weigh 24 pounds. The standard basic size for writing papers is 17 x 22, text is 25 x 38, cover is 20 x 26.
BOND Originally a term applied to cotton content paper used for printing bonds and legal documents and distinguished by strength, performance and durability. Bond paper may now be made from either cotton, chemical wood pulp, or a combination of the two. Today, writing, digital and cut size papers are often identified with the bond scale.
BOOK General term for papers suitable for the graphic arts. Book paper may be coated or uncoated and is equivalent in weight to text papers.
BRIGHTNESS Brightness is measured as the percentage of light in a narrow spectral range reflected from the surface of a sheet of paper. It is not necessarily related to color or whiteness. A paper with a brightness of 98 is an extremely bright sheet with almost all light being reflected back to the viewer. Bright white papers illuminate transparent printing inks, giving cleaner, crisper color and better black contrast.
CALENDER A machine which smooths paper by pressing it between rotating cylinders.
CALIPER Caliper is a measure of paper thickness expressed in thousandths of an inch. The micrometer is used to measure caliper. A paper’s caliper determines the bulk of a given basis weight and is affected by processing done to obtain smoothness and porosity.
CARBON NEUTRAL To be carbon neutral an entity must have its carbon emissions calculated, reduced where possible and offset through the purchase of real, verified and additional carbon offset credits.
CAST COATED High-gloss coated paper manufactured by casting the coated paper against a highly polished, heated steel drum.
COATED PAPER Paper made with a surface coating, which allows for maximum smoothness and ink holdout in the printing process. Coated papers are available in a range of finishes from dull to matte and gloss.
CONDUCTIVITY The electrical property of a sheet of paper that enables it to attract charged toner. Low conductivity can result in poor image quality in digital systems.
COVER PAPER Also called card stock, these papers are heavyweight coated or uncoated papers with good folding characteristics. Their diverse uses include folders, booklet covers, brochures and pamphlets.
CUT SIZE Papers cut to a small common size, usually 8.5 x 11 (letter size) and 17 x 11.
DECKLE EDGE The rough edges on hand-made and machine-made papers. These edges were originally considered an imperfection but came into fashion with the handcraft revival in the last decade of the 19th century.
DIGITAL IMAGING SURFACE™ Mohawk’s trademarked unique surface treatment for both uncoated and coated papers, specifically engineered to enhance paper-toner performance and yield increased print fidelity.
DIGITAL PAPERS Papers designed for the specific demands and imaging techniques of digital presses. This includes dry toner, liquid toner and ink jet presses. They are available in popular digital sheet sizes and rolls.
DOUBLE-THICK COVER Stiff, durable cover papers produced by laminating together two pieces of equal weight paper. The resulting sheet is heavy and strong, with excellent printing and folding characteristics.
DUMMY A non printed version of a planned printed piece made from the correct paper grade, size, folds and binding.
DUPLEX PAPER Text- or cover-weight papers produced by laminating together two pieces of equal weight paper. Often duplex paper is made with a sheet of white paper laminated to a sheet of dark colored paper.
DUPLEXING The ability of a press or printer to print on both sides of a page without having to manually turn the sheet over.
EMBOSSED PAPER Embossing takes place off the paper machine as a separate operation. The embosser uses a patterned roll and pressure to produce an embossed (raised) pattern on a web of paper. Embossing produces a very compact sheet with excellent ink holdout. Linen paper is the most common embossed pattern.
FELT Woven textile, originally wool but now usually synthetic, used to carry the web while moisture is pressed from it. While on the paper machine, the felt acts as a support for the paper web. Felts, if they are rough, can impart a felt finish to the paper.
FORMATION Refers to the uniformity and distribution of fibers within a sheet of paper. In a well formed sheet, solid ink coverage will lay down smoothly. A poorly formed sheet will exhibit a mottled appearance when printed. Formation can be checked by holding the paper up to a light source: a well formed sheet appears uniform, while in a poorly formed sheet the fibers appear as clumps, giving it a cloudy look.
GENUINE FELT FINISH A finish applied to paper by means of marking felts while the paper web is still very wet. These felts impart their distinctive textures by gently rearranging the paper fibers. This creates a soft, resilient, textured surface suitable for printing and relief operations.
GSM The metric system measures paper weight in grams per square meter (g/m2 or GSM).
GRAIN DIRECTION As the paper web is carried forward on the machine, the majority of fibers orient themselves in the machine direction. When the web of paper is sheeted, the sheets will be grain long (fibers that follow the long side of the sheet) or grain short (they follow the short side). Grain direction should be considered during the design process for best results during printing, folding and converting.
HOUSE SHEET Paper that is kept in stock by a printer so it is readily available. It is generally something that can be used for a wide variety of printing jobs.
I-TONE® Mohawk’s proprietary Digital with i-Tone surface has a unique affinity for both liquid and dry toners, offering breakthrough performance on HP Indigo presses and color digital production presses using dry toner. Mohawk’s i-Tone papers have exceptional transfer, adhesion and image durability on smooth and textured papers.
INK HOLDOUT A characteristic of paper related to its capacity to keep ink sitting on its surface rather than absorbing into the sheet. Better ink holdout produces sharper, more vibrant printed images.
INXWELL® A revolutionary and exclusive technology, created and patented by Mohawk, that produces text and cover papers with an uncoated feel, but with the added advantages of superior ink holdout, lower dot gain and significantly increased opacity.
LAID A linear pattern which is applied by a dandy roll while the paper is still very wet, to mimic the effect of some hand-made papers. The laid dandy roll consists of wires that run parallel to the roll’s axis (laid lines) and chain lines, which connect the laid lines and run in the grain direction.
LASER PAPER Very smooth, low-moisture papers manufactured in cut sizes for laser printers and office duplicating equipment. Low moisture prevents paper curling from high heat in laser printers. If your job is designed to run through a laser printer, you should specify laser-compatible offset inks.
LINEN FINISH One of the many textured effects that is produced by embossing a web of paper with a patterned roll. Embossing takes place off the machine as a separate operation.
MACHINE FELT FINISH Rubber marking rolls apply a felt-type finish to paper right before the dryer section. This technique yields a softer surface than embossing and better bulk. The surface is slightly harder than with a genuine felt finish. Though less natural in feel, a machine-felt texture is more economical and provides greater ink holdout because of its compact surface.
MOISTURE Paper is made to contain between 4% and 7% moisture. Paper will either pick up or lose moisture to reach equilibrium with the relative humidity in which it is used. If the moisture content in a sheet is too high or too low, the paper can curl or build up static, which affects the way it runs through a press, printer or copier.
M-WEIGHT The weight, in pounds, of 1000 sheets of paper of a given size.
NON-INTEGRATED MILL A paper mill that does not have an on-site pulp mill and must purchase all the pulp it requires.
OFFSET PAPER Uncoated paper designed for use in offset lithography. Important properties include good internal bonding, high surface strength, dimensional stability, lack of curl and freedom from foreign surface material.
OPACITY Measure of the percentage of light passing through a sheet of paper. The more opaque a paper is, the less show through there will be from printing on the sheet below. Basis weight, brightness, type of fibers, fillers, coatings and formation all influence opacity.
PAGES PER INCH (PPI) The number of pages in a one inch stack of paper.
PAPER AND ENVELOPE CONVERTER A company that constructs various envelopes and other end-use products from parent-size rolls or sheets of paper.
PAPER GRADE A system used to classify papers by their common features or content, such as recycled, coated or newsprint papers.
PAPER MANUFACTURER A company that makes web, sheet and/ or cut size paper and sells it through paper merchants and paper stores.
PAPER MERCHANT A liaison between the paper manufacturer and the paper buyer who offers a number of lines of papers and can offer advice to buyers on the best sheets to specify for particular jobs. Merchants sell paper and envelopes to printers.
PAPER STORES A retail outlet often run by a paper distributor, which sells paper in cut sizes to end users. Paper stores typically offer a larger assortment of premium printing papers and envelopes than office superstores, which tend to emphasize papers for xerography.
PCF Process chlorine free (PCF) refers to papers that contain postconsumer recycled fiber that was processed without the use of any additional chlorine or chlorine compounds. If these papers also contain a percentage of virgin fiber, the virgin fiber must have been processed without the use of any chlorine or chlorine compounds. Because PCF paper contains recycled-content fibers, PCF paper production can also reduce water, energy and virgin fiber usage.
POROSITY Often interchanged with air permeability, porosity is a characteristic of a paper’s internal structure. Porosity is the ratio of pore volume to total volume of a sheet. Although rarely measured for premium papers, porosity can indicate how ink will penetrate the sheet.
POSTCONSUMER WASTE FIBER (PCW) Fiber recovered for paper making from post consumer waste paper, which has served its intended use and has been discarded for disposal after passing through the hands of a final user.
RECYCLED Papers that contain postconsumer waste fiber can currently be called recycled. The Federal Executive Order calls for a 30% postconsumer waste fiber minimum for uncoated papers and a 10% postconsumer waste fiber minimum for coated papers.
SHEFFIELD The method used to measure the smoothness of paper. The lower the number, the smoother the paper.
SMOOTHNESS The surface quality of a sheet of paper, related to the flatness of the sheet. Smoothness affects ink and toner receptivity. The Sheffield scale measures smoothness. A higher value typically indicates a rougher sheet. For example, Navajo’s smoothness is 45, whereas vellum offset may have a rating of 300+.
STRENGTH Paper strength is determined more by the nature of its fiber than its thickness. High bursting strength is achieved by forming paper with a tight weave of long fibers so that they are both vertical and horizontal within the paper.
TEXT AND COVER PAPERS A class of high-quality uncoated papers in a wide variety of colors and textures. Text is usually made with a matching or coordinating cover.
UNCOATED PAPER Paper manufactured with no surface coating. There is a wide variety of grades and levels of quality among uncoated papers.
VELLUM FINISH Natural or machine finish, like wove or eggshell.
WATERMARK A watermark is an unalterable part of the paper that is created when a dandy roll presses the watermark design into the wet sheet during the papermaking process. The resulting changes in density make the watermark slightly more, or less, translucent than the rest of the sheet.
WIND ENERGY Electric energy that is produced by wind driven turbines. Also called wind power.
WIRE SIDE The side of the sheet that rests on the paper machine wire as it moves through the wet end, as distinguished from the felt or top side.
WRITING PAPER Suitable for pen and ink, pencil, laser printing or offset printing. Writing grades are designed for letterheads and corporate identity programs.
Mohawk, A. (1997). Paper basics. Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc.
