As a printing broker one of the most difficult challenges I face in trying to determine bid specifications is paper. Why paper? Because most people have no idea how many different kinds of paper are available. Usually I have to resort to questions like, “Does it feel about the same as the paper in your office copier?” Or, “Is it more like poster board?” These questions at least get me in the ballpark. Then maybe I can start pinning it down by asking about the surface of the sheet. “Is it smooth, or textured?” “Is it shiny, or flat?” “If you scratch it with your fingernail does it leave a shiny spot?” “If you hold it up to a light source can you see a watermark?” Anyone in the printing business will understand what I am talking about. It’s like a game of twenty questions, particularly if we’re speaking on the telephone.

Here is something funny–I was discussing a job with a customer the other day–and to help me determine the weight of the paper, he flipped the corner of the sheet over the mouthpiece. When I asked what he was doing, he half-seriously said, “You [Bill] have been in the business for so long that I thought you’d be able to tell how much it weighed by the sound.”  That was a first. I’ve had customers expect me to read their minds, but never has one asked me to identify the weight of paper by the sound.

Of course, the easiest way to figure out what kind of paper a customer wants to use is to have them provide a sample. Usually the stock will become immediately evident, but then there are those occasions when it is not a domestic sheet and importers don’t carry it either. I had that problem once with a local company who represented a skin care line of products manufactured in France. They produced a paper sample that neither I, nor three different paper merchants could identify.

Some of the problems come from the paper industry itself. Paper has been around a long, long time. Just like a foot became a length of measurement by the King’s shoe print, paper weight had rudimentary methods of comparison. How many shovel-fulls of this or that went into the mix. For example here is a list of some weights you may encounter when buying printing: Cover, Text, Book, Bond, Ledger, Tag, Duplex, Blanks, Bristol, and Index. To make it more confusing you can buy 80# Cover, or 80# Text but they aren’t the same thing–not at all. 80# Cover is heavy more akin to poster board, and 80# is similar to your office stationery but probably a little heavier. People will often say something like the paper is  eighty pound and be sure they answered the question, until I ask, “Cover or text?” That’s when they get stuck.

Most stationery is printed on bond and you can often recognize it by a watermark. A 24# bond sheet weighs about as much as a 60# offset. Confused? We haven’t even gotten started yet. No wonder customers can’t figure out what they want the printing/paper industry has made it impossibly difficult. Not on purpose, but there it is.

If your job requires interaction with printers, I have some recommendations to simplify communications:

1. Always try to provide a sample of the paper you would like to match.
2. Create a paper sample book. Put various papers in a binder and label them with their weight, finish, and color. By doing this you will have a ready reference to help you.
3. Watch for paper that crosses your desk. It might be direct mail, catalogs, or invitations. Slip them into the pocket of your binder if you like them and have your rep identify them later.
4. If you find a paper that you particularly like and want to use it often, ask your print rep to get you a swatch book to keep with your binder. The paper mills put them out to display their wares and they will show you all of the weights, textures, and colors that the paper comes in.
5. In many markets, the paper merchants will conduct seminars to teach customers about various aspects of paper like weight, thickness, surface, and brightness. Ask your printer if there are any learning opportunities like that in your area.
6. Avoid using phrases like, just regular paper, something cheap, you know what we like, or something like we did last time. Honestly we want to help, but most of us in the printing business are terrible at reading minds.

Almost all paper is made from either wood pulp, cotton, or a combination of the two. It’s not the base that is the significant factor in the wide variety of paper on the market. The processing at the paper mills makes all of the difference. Developing a new product line is a monumental task. Decisions have to be made at the very beginning. For example, before sheet one is produced, marketing must be considered. Who will buy this paper? Will this new line increase total sales or erode sales from another paper in our product line? How much will it cost to make it, including possible new tooling? How do we position this paper in the marketplace? What will we emphasize most, price, uniqueness, printability, or quality?

Why should the paper making issues  make any difference to you as a consumer? If you were to see the figures the printer has to consider in estimating  a printing bid, you would note that the cost of paper is routinely 30-60% of the cost. The bigger the job the greater the percentage of paper cost. Why is it so much? In addition to all the R&D, the short answer is that it takes a big expensive facility to manufacture paper in the volumes needed to supply the needs. Just how expensive? The cost of building a new mill today is well over a billion dollars. To give you an idea of how much real estate is needed for a typical mill here is a photo of  the Blue Heron Paper Mill in Oregon, USA.

Blue Heron Paper Mill

Paper mills have been subjected to the same pressures we all experience in this business climate. Their manufacturing costs have increased dramatically, in part because of  raw materials. Environmental laws have made harvesting of trees more expensive, and mills have been forced to comply with demanding clean air and water regulations. Regulations which have forced retrofitting the plants with new equipment to meet EPA standards. Some mills, unable to afford the retrofits have shut down. Mills in United States face world wide competition that keeps the sell prices low even in the face of these higher costs. So the paper mills are squeezed.

Again, why should this matter? It matters to all of us because we have enjoyed a golden age of amazing paper options. If new mills are unable to be built, and older mills close up shop, the availability will decrease. In steps that old law of supply and demand, with decreased supply, a steady demand will force the costs up. The final buyer of printing will see their printing bills increasing, and more companies will  consider options other than printing. When companies slow orders of printed materials, printers will suffer. With a drop off of paper orders, more mills will close. It’s the proverbial vicious cycle. I don’t know about you, but I’m not quite ready to see printing become a quaint curiosity is some dusty museum. There is still something  to be said about the feel and permanence of a printed piece that just can’t be duplicated with electronic blips on a computer monitor.

I’m not just talking through my hat, printing is a strange and wonderful miracle. The printing press has been named as the most influential invention of the last two thousand years. The most influential invention of the last two thousand years–wow! Without printing, knowledge would be limited to a very small class of people. 99.8% of us would live in ignorance. Without the printing press none of the modern day communications would exist. Do you think the telephone and electric light would have gone anywhere without an educated public? How would the engineers, and scientists collaborate if not through the printed word? This computer I’m typing on at the moment, would never have existed in a world without the printing press. Think about it. We wouldn’t be much better off than the serfs in the dark ages without the amazing transformation made possible by the press.

As enamored as I am with the miracle of printing I live and breathe in the actual world of printing,  and I’m here to tell you that keeping a printing press in good working order and producing excellent products is a challenge. I’ve heard a great many words spoken about presses other than miracle or fantastic.  Those other words are  known as printer talk. Printer talk consists of a wide range of impolite four letter words. You know the kind of language I’m talking about, don’t you?

If you see a press operator with a sprained foot and notice dents in the side of the press you can bet it has been a bad day for someone.

You’d think by now,  the science and art of printing would have resolved all of the issues. You might think that, but you would be wrong.  See, printing is a dynamic business. Things are always changing. Everyday there’s a new ink, a different kind of printing plate, and some exciting new paper that just came out. The varieties, colors, and weights, of paper can be daunting even for the experts.

The number one question I get from graphic designers is about paper. What kind? What weight should I use? Will it look good if I design this, that, or the other on it? I’ll tell you a little secret. The paper mills develop a new paper and send their mill reps out to promote it. The reps spend a lot of time getting the graphic designers stirred up about it. The designers go to the printer expecting to get the same results as the samples given to them by the mill reps, but in the real world, not the world of paper marketing, the designers have half the budget and half the time and they are often working with printers that have not yet experienced that particular paper and don’t have a clue as to how well it will print or what the challenges will be.

I remember a few years ago the rage was translucent papers. I was hired to produce a direct mail project for a prominent advertising agency. The artists were in love with the idea of a see-through envelope. The paper salespeople were excited to have someone order a large amount of stock for the mailing. I was going to get a good commission so it appeared to be a win-win-win for everyone. Wrong. No one knew just how brittle these new papers were. When they went through the mail, with the usual US post office’s normal careful handling, they looked like they had gone through a shredder. The agency was mad. Their client was mad. The paper merchant shrugged, and I somehow got egg on my face. I didn’t specify the paper. I didn’t manufacture the paper. I had never been involved in the printing of that brand of paper and yet I was supposed to intuit the immanent disaster. I’m not Jewish, but Oy Vey comes to mind.