What are the different types of paper

What are the different types of paper

Paper comes in different types, with different sizes, weights, thickness and finishes. Getting the right types of paper for your office printing needs may be a little complicated. However, grasping the basics of paper types will help you make the right choices while stocking up on your office supplies. Office documents serve different purposes and as such, there are different types of paper suitable for each need. Read on to find out the common types of paper and a brief description of each. Many catalogues and brochures are made from paper.

Bond Paper

This paper is more durable and is commonly used in electronic printing. The basic size is 17 inches by 22 inches and weight range is between 16 and 36 pounds. The size may also vary slightly. It is commonly used to make letterheads, envelops, invoices or most documents printed using laser and inkjet printers.

Bristol Paper

Also known as Bristol board, this paper is a heavyweight, thick and uncoated paper. The basic size is 22.5 inches by 28.5 inches with a 0.006 inch thickness. Its strength makes it perfect for use in making book covers, tickets, brochures, file folders, among others.

What are the different types of paper

Recycled Paper

If you are looking to reduce your environmental impact, then using recycled paper may be one step in fulfilling this goal. It is important to note that recycled paper may be slightly expensive than the standard “virgin paper.” This is because it is generally produced in low quantities and hence, per unit production cost may be high. That said, the paper can be used for printing most office documents such as memos and reports.

Index Card

Index card comes in three sizes, 3 inches by 5 inches, 4 inches by 6 inches and 5 inches by 8 inches; and three weights: 90, 110, and 140 pounds. The paper is usually thin and stiff, and is perfect for making magazine inserts, postcards, and index cards. It is budget-friendly and holds ink well, making it ideal for most print projects that require durable paper.

Tag Paper

This type of paper is tough and durable, making it ideal for frequent handling. It is commonly used in making print hand-tags that can be found on consumer goods.

Text Paper

What are the different types of paperThese are uncoated and can be used to satisfy a variety of office requirements such as printing office stationery, letterheads or envelops. They are economical, and with their multiple uses in the office, they make a good choice for normal office use.

Coated Paper

These types of paper usually come with a clay coating to create a gloss on the paper surface. The coating gives a shining effect and is better in holding ink as compare to uncoated paper. There are two major types of coated papers: gloss coated paper and matt-coated paper. Gloss coated paper is more shiny and hence, can be used in making brochures and flyers. On the other hand, matt-coated paper is not shiny as it is coated with matt instead of gloss. This eliminates the glare that comes from shiny paper, making it ideal for making reports or leaflets. In between gloss and matt, there is silk coated paper with a silky and smooth coating. It has multiple uses, including making magazines and books.

The Paper Experts – paper manufacturing and recycling

The Paper Experts - paper manufacturing and recycling


Paper Materials and Paper Making Process



The Paper Experts - paper manufacturing and recycling

Paper Recycling




Go Green by Going Paperless

Go Green by Going Paperless

Advances in technology have brought a new era where paper use is no longer a necessity in the office. If you chose to go paperless, there are technologies that can be used in place of paper and yield the same results. It is no longer necessary to sign papers using ink to make that contract binding, or to give credibility to an invoice. Hardware such as tablets can be used to create and manipulate electronic documents and ensure that they reach the necessary parties.


The thousands of tons of waste paper generated each year can be avoided by adopting the paperless initiative. Additionally, going green will not only save you on costs associated with paper use, but also help in saving the environment. So many trees can be saved and at the same time, the greenhouse gas emissions from paper industries can be reduced. Manual filing will also be an issue of the past, and valuable time used to search for documents will be saved. Converting documents into searchable text increases efficiency as the document can be searched and edited by the click of a button. Conducting business online also increases efficiency in reaching your clients. You can bill your clients through electronic invoicing, and save on postage and stamping costs.

Go Green by Going Paperless

So, What Are The Alternatives?

There are people who are still stuck at using paper and either do not know of alternatives, or they are just scared of going paperless. Well, there are hoards of alternatives that can be used in place of paper. Think about the hardware technologies mentioned earlier. With your tablet PC or smartphone, you can create, update and send invoices to your clients with real time updates. Sending that invoice or any electronic document will require the use of software technologies such as electronic mail or electronic fax. Online fax services are especially helpful in distributing contracts used in law or by real estate agents.

Digital Signature Services

Some documents need to be signed for them to hold legal weight. There are software services that can be used to imprint digital signatures using your smartphone of tablet. For documents that need multiple signatures, these can be embedded on the document and shared through the cloud.

Storage of Documents

Go Green by Going PaperlessGoing green will eliminate manual filing of documents. In place of that, you are spoilt of choice with the different paperless filing systems to help in managing your documents. Different filing systems have different features, benefits, and costs, and your choice will depend on your business needs. Some examples include PDFelement for Business to edit and store your PDF and scanned documents or CrashPlan easily back-up your documents.

Bottom Line

Most if not all normal business activities, can be done digitally. Sharing of information within and outside the office can be done online through the use of email. Creating an internal memo and sharing it through email will ensure that your employees receive any updates or instructions without wasting time and paper printing the same. In an era where people are increasingly becoming environmentally conscious, going paperless can be a source of competitive advantage for your business.

How is Paper Recycled?


Paper recycling involves mixing the already used paper with chemicals and water to break it down. The paper is cut into smaller pieces then super-heated. Heating breaks it into strands of cellulose, which is a type of organic plant material. The resulting material which is the mixture of water chopped paper and chemicals is called pulp or slurry.

Paper Recycling

paper recycling process involves major steps, which involves, collection of the waste paper up to the end product, that is a clean paper. These processes include, collection of waste paper, transportation, sorting, and processing it into usable raw material. The raw material which is the slurry is used in making of new paper.

Paper Collection

Already used papers are collected from waste bins either in the cities or dump sites, they are then deposited in big containers known as recycling containers. At this stage collected papers are put into a single main container.

Transporting the paper

Once all the waste has been collected from the damp sites and pilled in a major container, they are transported to the paper recycling plant. transportation is done by a collection van or track which move the containers to the paper recycling plant.

Sorting the Paper For Recycling

Once the waste paper reaches the recycling paper plant, the waste paper is sorted into different categories; newspapers, magazine paper, computer paper, news prints, card board. Sorting of paper is important to be able to separate waste paper and treat it differently during the paper recycling stages, this is done so as to produce different types of recycled paper products.

Turning the Waste Paper into Usable Raw Material

This is a major step in the paper recycling process. During this stage the waste paper undergoes a calculated procedure. Which include several major processes:

Making Slurry or Pulp

The pulping process includes the mixing of chemicals and water. For you to get the right slurry mixture, the waste paper is chopped using a machine to chop the waste paper into fine pieces this is done before adding water and the appropriate chemicals. The mixture of water, chemical and chopped waste paper is super-heated. This is done to break it into paper into fibres fast. the mixture eventually turn into a mushy mix; this mixture is referred to as a slurry or pulp.

Cleaning and Screening of the Pulp

This process is done to remove any form of uncleanness from the pulp. The pulp is forced through some screens. the screens have different hole sizes and shapes. The pulp is passed through the screens to get rid of contaminants such as globe of glue and plastics bits that might be present in the slurry. In case the slurry has more contaminants such as staples. The slurry has to be turned around in a cone shaped cylinders.

In the cylinders the heavy contaminators are thrown out of the cylinders using centripetal force. the light contaminators are moved to the Centre of the cone and are gotten rid from the slurry.

Deinking the Paper Fibre

After the steps of cleaning and screening, deinking has to be done to the paper fibre. This involves removing the ink from paper fibres of the slurry. All the sticky material mostly known as adhesives, glue residues at this stage they are also separated. Deinking is achieved through mechanical action combinations. Mainly it involves (shredding and the addition of chemicals). small and light ink particles are removed using water while the larger and heavier ink particles are gotten rid using air bubbles in a chemical process known as flotation.

Refining, colour stripping and bleaching

After the paper fibres in the form of slurry is di-inked, the slurry undergoes refining. In the refining stage, the paper pulp is beaten until the fibres swell. The beating is also responsible for separating fibres into individual fibres. It’s important to facilitate new paper production from separated fibres. In case colouring is required; colour stripping chemicals are added at this stage too to get rid of the dyes from the paper. During the process of colouring, brown papers are obtained. When the objective is to produce white recycled paper, the pulp is usually bleached using oxygen, chlorine dioxide, or hydrogen peroxide which usually makes them brighter or white.

New Paper Making

This is usually the final stage during the process of paper recycling. The cleaned paper slurry is then ready to be used in paper production of new paper. At this stage, the pulp is usually mixed with virgin wood fibres – this is done to provide the new paper with smoothness and strength. Paper fibres can be used alone at times meaning it’s not necessary to add the virgin fibre

During this step, the paper pulp is mixed with hot water and appropriate chemicals, hot water percentage in the mixture is far higher than the paper fibres and chemicals. The mixture is fed to a head box used in paper making machine. The pulp is sprayed in a continuous jet into a large wire mesh- like a screen. The screen moves at a very high speed in the machine. Once the water starts draining out, the recycled paper fibres start bonding together forming a watery sheet. The sheet moves through a continuous felt cover press rollers. The rollers compress out more water from the paper pulp sheet and the sheet eventually comes out as a freshly manufactured paper.

Dissolved Water Flotation

The water squeezed out is cleaned for reusing purposes within the plant. this is important to conserve water.

Waste Disposal

The usable material that is a waste product in the paper recycling process includes the plastics, filler fibres, ink and staple materials and is referred to as sludge. Sludge is usually buried in a landfill, or sometimes it’s burned to create energy at the paper mill and sometimes local farmers use it as fertiliser.


How is Paper Manufactured?




From Plantations to Mills









Specialty Papers

photographic paper

There are lots of different specialty papers in use today. Photographic papers qualify as specialty papers, given that they are fairly streamlined in terms of their purpose. Specialty papers are common for photographers and a lot of other artists. The light-sensitive chemical formula used to coat the papers reacts with the chemicals used for processing photographs producing some very high quality prints.

For brochure, catalogue and other printed material you can employ a fulfilment house to distribute your paper catalogues.

A lot of photographers swear that the quality of the picture is better for the people who use photographic papers and who create the prints themselves. The photographic papers are layered with a sort of chemical that is sensitive to light, and this is what allows the photographic papers to work as well as they do for so many people.

Artists will use certain types of paper for sketches, certain types for watercolours, and other types of paper for almost all of the other types of media that people will usually imagine. Even different pencils require different types of paper in many cases.

Certain professionals use specialty papers. Graphing paper is common for engineers and architects, for instance, even in a world where they do a lot of their work digitally. Other professionals are going to have their own special paper that is made in order to conform to specific requirements, and few other people will use these niche pieces of paper.

Paper Finishes

paper supplies

There are lots of different types of paper finishes within the coated variety rather than the un-coated variety. Un-coated papers are typically the ones that people write things on as opposed to the ones that are used in printing. Coating and finishes are often going to be the same thing and they are often going to be grouped in the same way, which is going to make a difference for a lot of people.

Coated papers come in many different varieties, including silks, mattes, glosses, and watermarked papers.

Gloss coating is one of the most popular of all of the different types of coating. However, some people have a problem with the glare from the gloss coating. Paper like this will typically be very soft and shiny, and this might be a problem for some applications.

Matte finishes are similar compared to gloss finishes, but they are rougher than what you would get with gloss finishes.

Lots of people like the silk finish because of how it feels to the touch. Silk finishes will tend to add a touch of class, style, and luxury to a lot of different printed publications.

Recycled paper can have coating and finishes or no coating and no finishes. Recycled paper is made from the wood pulp of previously used paper, and a lot of people will use it in order to conserve the natural resources that are used in this category. Recycled paper often seems similar to its counterparts, although it might have a somewhat thinner or rougher look.

Vellum these days typically refers to the synthetic parchment and not the stuff that is actually made from the skins of cows, which would have been the case historically. Paper vellum is an alternative to the vellum of old. It is synthetic and it is made from plasticised cotton as opposed to the skin of calves. Vellum paper is parchment, and it tends to be used for things like graduation certificates and a lot of other really formal documents.

Most high-quality writing paper will be bond paper, since bond paper is typically going to be a lot thicker than some of the other forms of paper that people can purchase today.

The paper finishes are all really important and they can have a huge effect on the actual use of paper, because they have such a huge effect on the texture and the quality of the paper in general.

Paper Weights and Materials

paper weights



Paper Weights
