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Choosing
Carton for Cover
The Design
of your document is the most important part of creating a printed
piece, but choosing the appropriate paper comes next. Good quality
paper allways makes a good impression, but good design on an inexpensive
paper can be very effective too.
Knowing which
type of paper is best for a certain type of printing projects is
the only way to get the best paper for the job. The choices for
both cover material and paper for innerpages are wide ranging, but
basic knowledge of paper will narrow down those choices.
You have to
consider price vs. impact required: with a very expensive paper
but a low quantity print run, the price of paper is not really a
cost factor in the printing price. On the other hand, with a large
print run the paper can be a significant cost factor.
Types of
Paper
In on-demand
book production the most common choice for cover is either uncoated
stock of approximately 225 g/m² or similar weigth carton which
is coated on one side only (the outside). The inner pages are usually
80 or 100 g/m² copypaper or offsetpaper, depending on the printer
used.
Coated Papers
are a good choice for the cover material of higher-quality jobs.
. They may be gloss-coated, dull-coated (a clay or chemical coating),
machine-coated (a sheet is made smooth by a blade running over it
during the manufacturing process), or cast-coated (a high-gloss
coating used for the highest-quality premium papers) on one or both
sides. For cover production a one sided coating is needed. Printing
ink does not soak into a coated sheet as much as it does with an
uncoated paper, so coated papers can make halftones and color images
look richer. Coated papers are often used in brochures and annual
reports etc.
When using coated
stock for covers you have to be sure that the paper does not crack
when folded. Important issues here are the right grain direction,
thickness of the paper and the coating used. The thicker the paper,
the easier it cracks - especially if it's not creased before folding.
Some papers have such tough coating that it causes more cracking
than others. The grain direction should always be along the spine.
Uncoated
Papers can be used for both the cover and the inner pages. Good
quality uncoated papers are so smooth that it's hard to tell that
they're not coated. Uncoated papers are manufactured in many textures
and colors.
However, most
uncoated papers are not suitable for use in laser or ink-jet printers.
In some papers that you can get in regular A4 or letter formats
the paper surface is designed for printer's ink. The paper is ok
also for handwriting or typewriting, but maybe not for laser printing.
It might accept laser toner or ink-jet ink but maybe not particularly
well. Some of these papers also have irregular edges and your printer
cannot grab an edge unless it is straight.
Some of these
papers are also textured or heavily embossed (have raised or depressed
paper surfaces). If you run these through your laserprinter, the
pressure rollers would crush the embossing and in an ink-jet the
head might leave marks on the raised areas.
Acid free
paper. In archiving you might need papers that are produced
acid free. These products usually contain an excess of 2% buffers
and are considered archival in relation to the effects of natural
aging. The pH of this process is normally between 7.5 and 9.
Offset papers
are similar to the coated and uncoated sheets, except that they
have
sizing added to resist the moisture that occurs in offset printing.
The paper is also more moist than a paper designed for photocopying.
Only use it for a blank cover or if it's pre-printed in a printing
house - usually the result is not very good used in laser or ink-jet
printing.
Copy Paper
is dryer than an offset paper as it is intended for laser- or photocopying
which actually uses heat to attach the color into the paper. Offset
paper with more moisture may start to roll if used in a copier or
laser printer. You can use copy paper for covers if it doesn't feel
too thin for the purpose.
Index papers
are used for cards or tabs and are sometimes used in place of the
more
expensive cover stocks. They are available in a smooth or vellum
finish. If you intend to print it with your office printer, make
sure that it is possible according to your printers specifications.
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