Paper Weights & What They Mean

Paper weights is a confusing subject for everyone, mainly because they're most often expressed in a Pound (lb) rating, but the lb rating can mean very different things depending upon the exact type of paper one is speaking about. For instance, a 28lb Bond, Writing or Ledger stock is roughly equivalent in weight to a 70lb Book, Text or Offset stock, with both coming in at 105 gsm. We agree this makes no sense, but it's the truth. You simply cannot count on the lb rating to tell you much, at least not without knowing the rest of the details.

As you may have surmised from the above example, the most accurate way to tell the weight or thickness of any paper is to have it's gsm or Grams per Square Meter rating. The problem is that this measurement is not normally given if you're not in the paper business. Grams per square meter is exactly what it sounds like: How much one square meter of the paper weighs in grams. While this doesn't always automatically correlate directly to thickness, it is a much more consistent measurement.

For our papers the easiest thing to remember is that it's all either Cover or Card stock, with pound ratings in the 65-70 range and around a 175 gsm weight. The exception to this rule being Vellum Bristol stock, which while 67 lb comes in at 145 gsm. There are some very logical reasons why we have made these particular choices. They include:

• These weights give a certain, highly desired sturdiness to the final card print. You wouldn't want to drop this down to a flimsier paper type because people have become conditioned to greeting cards being sturdy.
  
  
• However you also don't want to go too thick. Going much above this level will cause issues with many modern-day desktop printers, which simply aren't constructed to handle ultra-thick paper stock. If the paper gets too thick it can cause paper jams because the rollers are not configured to handle these heavier stocks.
  
  
• Mailing weight is also a consideration, since the way to get a greeting card from one place to another is often via the Postal service. If one were to increase the paper weight of either the card stock or the envelope stock it is entirely likely that the card would then require extra postage in order to mail it.
  
  
• As a general rule mailing rates are a product of two factors: The size of the item, and its weight. Size is the easier of the two to see, and yes all of our paper/envelope sizes fall under the standard First Class mailing rates of the United States Postal Service. Technically speaking the USPS calls size Shape, because they also take into account thickness. But for our purposes it's just the size that's a concern.
  
  
• This leaves us with a overall weight as a concern. The maximum for this type of mailer is 3.5 ounces. You'll be happy to know all of our paper and envelope combinations come in at under the max and do not require you to pay for extra postage.