Taking Stock of Your Paper Options

Ahhh paper, I love it!  The creative horizon is wide open with so many colors, textures, and prints - it's exciting!  An interesting paper can put a personal stamp on any project, therefore, it requires some consideration.  Before choosing your paper, decide how it's going to be used and for the purpose of this blog, we're deciding that it's going to be used for print purposes.  I've chosen 3 properties to touch on: finish/smoothness, impurities, and opacity.

• Finish/Smoothness - this is the texture of the paper, the smoothness or roughness of its surface.  A smooth finish is good when copying a photograph or designing with full color in general.
• Impurities - specks, spots, and general imperfections that are left over from the paper-making process, which is all very normal.  In recycled paper, these imperfections come from inks, adhesives, etc., which are nearly impossible to completely remove.  When a best image or a clean look is required, choose a high quality non-recycled paper.  Otherwise, the look of recycled paper can be charming as well as make a statement about your ecological views!
• Opacity - this refers to how much light a sheet of paper blocks.  The importance of this comes into play when your project is two-sided or heavily inked.  The higher the percentage of opacity in a paper, the better that paper is for printing on both sides because the images will be less likely to show through.

Whether your project is personal or professional, in the printing world paper is the mode in which your message is carried.  Paper can give the underlying impression of class, environmental awareness, whimsy, or sensibility, don't be afraid to express yourself through it!