Even with the increasing use of technology in the workplace, paper is still a necessary feature for any office. It has even been estimated that each office worker in the United States uses about 10,000 sheets of paper every year.
Despite its continued use in offices throughout the United States, many businesses still have several questions about what wholesale paper they should be using, especially when it comes to paper weight.
How Is Paper Weight Determined?
The following are a few questions and answers about paper weight and its various business applications.
How is Paper Weight Measured?
Paper weight can often be confusing since there are three ways to officially measure paper weight: the U.S. basis weight, the metric weight, and the points (or mils) system.
The U.S. basis weight is provided in pounds and is based on the weight of 500 sheets of paper for the basis size of a particular type of paper. For instance, the basis size of watercolor papers is 22 inches by 30 inches, and if you place 500 sheets of this style of paper on a scale, you’ll know the official paper weight.
Another method of measuring paper weight is the metric weight, which is measured in grams. This method measures the weight of a style of paper by weighing a 1×1 meter square of the of the paper and recording the weight in grams per meter squared (g/m^2).
Finally, paper weight can be measured using the points or mil system, which uses calipers to measure the exact thickness of one sheet of a paper style. Deciding on what method your business should order paper weight in is important to getting the right paper for your company’s purposes.
What Are Some Common Weights?
Now that you know the differences in how paper weight is measured, your company should know the common weights for several styles of paper. Cardstock wholesale paper can weigh from 50 to 110 pounds (135-300 g/m^2).
Watercolor weighs at 140 pounds (300 g/m^2) and is slightly heavier than other styles of paper due to its use in holding water.
Text paper, on the other hand, can vary from 50 to 100 pounds (74 to 148 (g/m^2) depending on the coating used (white shimmer paper, matte paper, etc). Remember these common weights next time your business needs to order more paper.
Understanding the difference between paper weights when buying bulk paper or wholesale paper can help your company know which style paper they need for their purposes.
This, in turn, can decrease paper and financial waste since there is no need to waste money on unnecessary wholesale paper.
Useless info without telling us what the basis size of ordinary copier/inkjet paper is.
You said something about “text” paper typically being 50 to 100 lbs, but that can’t be right, because 95% of the paper I see at office supply stores is 20 lb stock. Sometimes I see 24 lb for slightly heavier stock. But that’s a far cry from 50 to 100 lbs! So what gives?
As I said — this article is ultimately useless and fails to answer the most common and basic question about how paper weights are calculated for ordinary office paper. (Nobody cares about watercolor paper!) >:-(
The weight of the stock you see in an office supply store is “bond” weight.
The weight referenced in the article (50 – 100#) is what they call “offset” paper.
20# bond paper = 50# offset
24# bond paper = 70# offset
It’s the different ways that paper thickness are expressed within the commercial printing industry. Offset weights are calculated by measuring the weight of 500 sheets of 25″ x 38″ paper while bond weights are calculated by taking the weight of 500 sheets of 17″ x 22″ stock. Essentially, if you take 500 sheets of offset press paper (the larger size) it should equal 50 lbs on a scale. If you take 500 sheets of the same stock but at 17″ x 22″ size, it will equal 20 lbs on a scale.
The difference being that press operators refer to offset paper weights for their presses and digital operators (like, say, a highspeed Oce copier) will refer to bond weights.
Confusing, I know.
It’s an attempt to cross reference weights within the printing world.
Thank you for your contribution! We’d love to re-write this article and add your information -or- better yet, love to have you contribute more to some of our pages lacking the technical data.