Paper weight is measured in GSM - grams per square metre - and the only number you need to anchor the whole scale is one you already hold every day: standard office printer paper is 80gsm. Everything else in commercial printing is a multiple of that feeling. A 150gsm flyer is nearly twice the weight of office paper; a 350gsm business card is more than four times it, stiff enough to stand on its edge. Once you can feel 80gsm in your memory, every number on a quote makes sense.
Here's how the scale works, what coated and uncoated actually mean, which weight suits each job, and the one paper mistake that jams office printers across Perth every week.
What do the GSM numbers actually feel like?
- 80-100gsm - everyday paper. Office printing, plan printing, the inside pages of cheap magazines. Folds without a crease line, shows print through from the other side if coverage is heavy.
- 115-170gsm - the flyer zone. Substantial enough to feel intentional, light enough to keep volume runs affordable. 150gsm is the standard commercial flyer.
- 200-250gsm - light card. Posters at the top of this range hang flat; folded cards and premium brochures live here.
- 250-350gsm - true card. Business cards, presentation folders, booklet covers, capability statement covers. Rigid, takes handling, holds a crease only when scored.
- 350gsm+ - heavy board. Premium cards and anything that needs to feel like an object rather than a page.
One rule that surprises people: thicker is not automatically better. Weight is a tool matched to a job, and the most common paper mistake we see is choosing a weight for how impressive it sounds rather than what the piece has to do - which brings us to letterheads.
Why do heavy letterheads jam office printers?
A letterhead's job is to go through your printer after it leaves ours - invoices, quotes and letters get overprinted on it in your office. That means letterheads need to be uncoated stock in roughly the 100-120gsm range: heavy enough to feel like quality, light enough to feed reliably through office laser printers, and uncoated so the toner from your printer actually bonds to the surface.
Order letterheads on thick coated stock because it "feels premium" and two things go wrong: the sheets misfeed or jam in office printers built for paper half that weight, and laser toner sits poorly on coated surfaces - it can flake off a sheet that was never designed to go through a fuser twice. If a letterhead quote ever tempts you toward card weight, that's the moment to ask what the sheet has to survive after printing. (This is also why we ask what printer your office runs when you order letterheads - it's not small talk.)
Coated or uncoated - what's the difference?
Coated stock (gloss, silk or satin surfaces) is sealed, so ink sits on top rather than soaking in. Colours come out sharper and more saturated, photographs look their best, and the surface resists marks. The trade-offs: it's hard to write on, and it's the wrong choice for anything that gets overprinted later.
Uncoated stock absorbs ink into the fibre. Colours render slightly softer, the feel is natural and tactile, pens and pencils work properly, and laser printers love it. It reads as honest and premium in a different register - letterpress-style branding, notepads, letterheads, anything people write on.
The quick test for any job: will anyone write on it, or print on it again? Yes - uncoated. No, and colour impact matters - coated.
And one distinction worth having straight: lamination is not coating. Coating is part of the paper; laminate is a film applied over the finished print - the matt, gloss and velvet finishes on business cards. Laminate adds protection and feel that no paper stock can, which is why cards are laminated and flyers usually aren't: a card is handled for months, a flyer for minutes.
Which weight for which job?
| Job | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Letterheads & compliment slips | 100-120gsm uncoated | Must feed through office printers and take laser toner |
| Notepads | 80-100gsm uncoated bond | Pens and pencils need absorbent, uncoated paper |
| Plan printing | 80gsm bond | Volume copies, folded on site, cost matters |
| Flyers (handout) | 150gsm gloss or matt | The commercial standard - professional feel, volume-friendly |
| Flyers (counter display / menus) | 300gsm | Survives handling; effectively a card |
| Posters | 150-200gsm satin or matt | Heavy enough to hang flat, finish reads well under lights |
| Booklets & capability statements | 250-300gsm cover, 150gsm text | Structure outside, comfortable page-turn inside |
| Single-sheet capability statements | 250-350gsm | Weight in the hand for a two-page document |
| Business cards | 350gsm+ | Four-plus times office paper - an object, not a page |
| Recycled business cards | 350gsm Impact Recycled | Smooth uncoated 100% recycled board, FSC-certified |
Every one of these is a starting point, not a law - a menu that lives in a damp café servery has different needs to one behind a counter, and that conversation is exactly what we're for.
Does recycled stock mean compromise?
Not any more - and the numbers make the case better than the sentiment does. Our recycled stock of choice is Impact Recycled: made from 100% recycled fibres, FSC-certified, process chlorine free, with a smooth uncoated finish and the superior ink absorption that uncoated recycled sheets are quietly excellent at. None of the grey, flecked craft-paper look people picture - clean, sharp print with minimal show-through.
The detail that matters most for this guide: Impact runs from 80gsm right up to 350gsm - which means everything in the table above, letterheads to business cards, can be printed recycled without changing a single recommendation. Recycled isn't a separate category with compromises attached; it's a checkbox on the same jobs.
For businesses supplying government or larger organisations, printing on certified recycled stock is also a small consistency signal that backs up the sustainability section of your capability documents. And if you want the recycled look deliberately - visible fibre, natural tone - that exists too; just ask for it by intent rather than assuming recycled implies it.
What about file setup?
Whatever stock you choose, the artwork rules don't change: 3mm bleed, CMYK, 300dpi at final size - everything in our print-ready file guide applies. The one stock-specific note: heavy solid-colour coverage behaves differently on uncoated paper (it drinks ink), so if your design is wall-to-wall colour on an uncoated stock, tell us - we'll advise before press rather than after.
Not sure? Describe the job, not the paper
The fastest route to the right stock is telling us what the piece has to do: who holds it, for how long, whether anyone writes on it, where it lives. We match paper to jobs every day at our South Perth shop - email hello@takoprint.com.au or call (08) 6107 6756, and if you'd like to feel the difference before you decide, you're welcome to come in and handle the stocks.