Choosing Best Paper for Your Order

You can choose which media you want for your print request through the “Media” tab.

If you are creating a book, you can change the media of the insides by clicking the “Media” tab like usual. To change the media of the covers, you can click the “Front 封面“选项卡 and the “Back 封面“选项卡. For magazine-style booklets, use the “Wraparound 封面“选项卡.

For more information on how to change media, watch our How-To video How to Order Books, Magazines, and Readers, which will cover the different ways you can change or modify media options.

Depending on the job type you selected, different media selections will be available; 例如:

• 标准 Service will offer a variety of media that is easily processed for bulk reproductions
• The Postcards category will offer only media that is rigid enough for being processed by the post office, so you don’t have to worry about accidently selecting something 太薄
• The 证书 category defaults to cover-weight parchment paper

Media options are named in the following manner:

• Length of longest edge of the sheet
  • 11” is 8.5 x 11” letter-sized
  • 14” is 8.5 x 14” legal-sized
  • 17” is 11 x 17” ledger-sized
  • 36” is 24 x 36” A-frame poster-sized
  • 48” is 36 x 48” giant poster-sized
• 压纸器
  • 20# is read as 20 pound
  • 65# is read as 65 pound
  • 90# is read as 90 pound
• 论文类型
  • Bond is standard copy paper
  • 封面 is thick like a book cover
  • Glossy has a coating that makes it shiny
  • Index is thick like an index card
  • Text is thin like the text in a book
  • Uncoated doesn’t have a coating

A few examples: the most common paper used is 11” 20# 标准 White. Thick, shiny poster-sized paper is 17” 32/80# 文本光泽. An orange book cover would be 11” 65# 封面 Cosmic Orange.

It is important to note the relationship between the paper weight and paper type. 论文类型 is an adjective that impacts the overall thickness of any given media of a set weight; as a result, media with a higher weight but a light modifier will be thinner than a lighter weight media with a heavier modifier. For example, 65# 封面 is thicker media than 90# Index. If we apply this to vehicles, it would be like saying that a truck is usually heavier than a car, but a miniature truck is lighter than a super-sized car (with “miniature” and “super-sized” being the adjectives that modifies 重量).

This modifying adjective also impacts the media coating. Most of our media is uncoated, which means the media has a subtle texture that is ideal for writing on. 练习册, worksheets, cards that people will write messages on, and note cards are best on uncoated stock such as Bond, 封面, and Index.

Some media has a shiny coating on it that makes the colors on the media appear brighter because of the reflective nature of the coating. We offer “silk” and “glossy” coatings, but they are hard to write on. Silk is semi-glossy and is best for magazines or brochures that combines text and pictures. It’s easier to read text on silk media than glossy. Glossy is highly reflective and is best suited for bringing out the colors in photographs or highly graphic imagery. 

Another way to measuring media is by grams per square meter (GSM), which is a system that doesn’t have modifiers. Some people find this easier and a conversion table is provided below to help you determine which media is thicker or thinner. 下面的列表 provides the media from thinnest to thickest.

重量	类型	GSM
20#	邦德(所有颜色)	75
20#	标准	75
60#	文字(所有颜色)	89
70#	文本裸	104
32/80#	文本光泽	118
90#	Index (all colors)	163
65#	封面 (all colors)	175
80#	光滑的封面	215
80#	覆盖裸露的	215
110#	封面	298