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What sort of photocopy paper should I buy?
| Date post: | 08-Jul-2015 |
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Art & Photos |
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What sort of photocopy paper should I buy?
Enter into your local stationery store and the most common site to greet you by the door will be reams and reams of copier paper.
It’s probably the most common stationery product because it is widely used and relatively cheap.
But of course, as with everything in the world there is good paper and there is ‘sub-optimal’ paper.
I would hesitate to say “bad” because even the cheapest paper has its uses, but when it comes to printing quality reports, letters to customers or other important documents, bear in mind that the cheaper end of the market might not make the best impression.
FIRSTLY, THOSE PAPERS THAT SAY THEY’RE “IDEAL FOR INKJET” OR “PERFECT FOR LASER” RATHER THAN JUST “PHOTOCOPY” AREN’T JUST MARKETING GIMMICKS.
THEY ACTUALLY ARE OPTIMISED FOR SPECIFIC USES BECAUSE DEVICES WORK IN VERY DIFFERENT WAYS.
Ink jet printers (as the name suggests) fire ink at the page and so a paper that is absorbent is better here as it will hold the ink without smudging.
Good quality papers will dry quicker too meaning they can be handled as soon as they’re done printing.
Hewlett Packard [HP] OfficeJet Pro 8600e Colour Multifunction
Inkjet Printer
HP Hewlett Packard Bright White Inkjet Paper 24" Roll 610mmx45.7m 90gsm
Laser printers are a completely different story. They use a powder which has to be electrostatically bound to the paper before being heated to bind it to the paper.
As you can see, the paper has to pass through two completely different processes and therefore the properties matter.
Hewlett Packard [HP] Laser Paper Smooth ColorLok 120gsm A4 White
Brother HL-2240 Mono Desktop Laser Printer
Photocopiers are mostly similar to laser printers in that they generally use the powder/heat process combination but now we have multi-functional devices which scan/copy/print, it’s not quite so easy to make that distinction.
Value Copier Paper 5 Star Multifunctional Ream-Wrapped FSC 80gsm A4 White [500 sheets]
Coloured Copier Paper 5 Star Multifunctional Ream-Wrapped FSC 80gsm A4 Yellow [500 sheets]
Buying paper that’s ideal for copiers will probably mean it’s also good for laser and if you put this through an ink-jet or multi-functional machine, you won’t get optimal results.
So what should you choose then?
My personal advice is to have a selection. Before you say “of course, you sell more!”, let me just explain how this can save you money.
We all have different needs during the day.
Some people may just want to print off the odd document for reading at their leisure and some may need to print an important report for a client.
If you’re not after the quality needed for customer-facing information then there’s no need in paying sometimes double for your paper.
Likewise, using cheap paper to send to a client will likely give the wrong impression and you don’t want to do that too often.
So, choose your paper wisely, base it on the job at hand and the type of device you’ll be printing from and make sure you get the right stuff for the job.
