Papers come in different weights–letter weight, cover stock, card stock. But there is more than use that describes paper–there is weight. You’ve seen paper stock printed in three ways–in pounds (60-lb. or 60#), grams per square meter (g/m2 or gsm), or points (pts). There seems to be a big difference. There is. Even if you don’t love the metric system, you’ll find the gsm method more reliable.
Ream of paper from ecosalon.com
For years, I could feel a piece of paper and know with great certainty its weight in pounds, if it was cover or text stock, and with some certainty, the manufacturer. Well, not every paper, but I could tell cover and text stock and the manufacturing mill for about 30 different mills. It was my job in those days. I had more trouble if the weight was card stock, which is given in points. When the gsm method first came up, it seemed to be random–that it didn’t match with the pounds weights from paper to paper. I started losing bar bets. Here’s the difference, in simple words.
Pounds measure weight, no matter what the size. The pound weight of paper is set by the weight (in pounds) of a ream of paper–500 sheets. It doesn’t matter how big the paper is– cover stock is cut from a “standard” size sheet that measures 20″ x 26.” Text stock is cut from a “standard” size sheet that 25″ x 38″–considerably bigger. But a ream of 500 sheets, regardless of size, is put on a scale and
Strathmore drawing paper: 24 sheets, 80-lb or 130 gsm.
weighed. That measurement is accurate, but very variable.
Points measure height, no matter what the size. The point size is a bit more reliable. It measures the height of a ream of paper. A 10-pt card stock means a ream of paper (500 sheets) measures 10 inches. In this case, the flat size of the sheet doesn’t matter.
To get a feel for the difference: Most business cards are 10-pt or 15-pt stock, the post office’s minimum measurement for a post card is 7-point stock. A point is 0.007″ or one-one-thousandths of an inch. This is a better measurement for comparison, but it still doesn’t sort out heavy-bulk differences for paper that’s been compressed more.
Gsm measures the weight of a standard size paper. Gsm is the reliable because it is standard across all papers. It measures the weight of a square meter of paper. That sets the size as the constant, and allows the weight to vary by heaviness of paper stock. A square meter of a light stock might be 90 gsm, and a square meter of heavier stock might be 140 gsm. In each case, the size is the same–a square meter.
–Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and creativity coach who trains people how to communicate clearly.
QuinnCreative 