This week I was meant to go over the main details of a letterhead, but after some consideration I realized that all of you are aware that paper has been used for thousands of years, and even though computers have advanced further than I would have dreamed possible a decade ago, I have every faith that paper will be continued to be used for the next 1000 years as well.

Instead I wanted to go over some of the main paper that Capital of London supplies and what the differences are. The quality of our printing can only ever be as good as the paper it’s printed on so I wanted to make sure everyone knows what to expect and how to choose what they need.

Let me start by going over the main brands of paper that we supply:

G. F. Smith ColourPlan: - ColourPlan is a classic collection of coloured papers and boards available in 56 different colour and 8 different weights.

Mellotex: - Mellotex is the market leading family of ECF twin wire business papers manufactures by Tulis Russell. This Co-ordinated choice of un-watermarked paper, Board, and envelopes has a unique crispness and gives superb print performance.

Conqueror Connoisseur: - Conqueror Connoisseur, with its distinctive Shadow watermark, is the premium quality element of the conqueror family.

Crane & Co: Crane and Co is now in its seventh generation, with its roots extended to before the American Revolution. From these early times to the present, their reputation for quality, innovation and integrity is unmatched.

and this is just mentioning the more popular varieties of paper that we use.

Choosing paper is more complex than just picking the most expensive sheet and keeping your fingers crossed. In fact you shouldn’t think about choosing paper based on the highest quality available or the highest quality you can afford. Rather you should figure out the most appropriate quality paper for you needs because most appropriate equals best.

I’ve got some points to help you make you’re decision for any stationery, hopefully this will make you selection easier.

1) The most important thing I could mention would be to consider your paper early on in the design process. Quite often a client will spend days organizing the image for the engraver but only gives the paper a quick glance before he selects it. Take the time to match the paper to your printing, certain types of paper are suitable for different types of printing and the best engraving in the world will still look awful if the wrong paper has been selected. Also please bear in mind that different papers take different time to supply. A paper that we have in stock we will be able to print on straight away, but ordering the paper can take from overnight to 6-7 weeks depending on what the paper is and which company is supplying it.

2) Consider the life span of your printed piece. For example is it a letterhead that you send out every week or is it gong to be a once in a lifetime wedding invitations that someone is always going to keep, The personality of your piece, its life-span, texture, colour and coating determine the price range and quality of your paper, in addition to your budget. You need to ask yourself what impression the piece should make, i.e. if you are printing a job that reflects on environmental issues choose papers with recycled contents, visual fibres or a mixed composition with lower brightness and a texture that conveys the environmental feel.

3) Finish: - there are many different choices for a finish on your paper, I don’t really want to stifle anyone creatively so I’m not going to say don’t choose a paper with a finish but please bear the following things in mind. The rougher the texture of the paper the harder it is to print on it, this means that something like a 100% Cotton paper even though it will feel very nice and will cost a small fortune, will not print as crisply as a smoother paper. There are ways a round this rule if you are absolutely certain that you would like a textured paper, but there are extra charges associated with this as it means that the paper needs to be prepared before printing. In general if colour and a crisp image is your concern, a smooth matte is always a great and safe choice. There is defiantly a trend to uncoated sheets. Remember the paper is not only there to give the ink a foundation, but to enhance the design of the image you want to portray. Don’t feel you’re stuck with the same paper over and over again. At Capital of London we pride ourselves on our ability to supply you with thousands of papers and board, so why would you want to limit yourselves.

4) As anyone who works in printing will tell you there is white, white and white, and let no one tell you any different. Papers are available in Blue white, balanced white, natural white, soft white…- you name it. At the moment blue whites are the rage, they have a higher brightness and allow colours to stand out, while warmer whites, which have a lower brightness are more comfortable on the eyes for reading or extended viewing. As you can imagine, not every white fits every purpose. Don’t print warmer tones on a blue white sheet, this is what warmer white papers are made for.

5) The weight of your paper is something lots of people struggle with. I thought I would give you a brief idea of how to choose your paper and also some of the things that you should bear in mind. In addition to the dimensions of the paper there are 2 main measurements that you should check. The first is the weight. All paper in Europe comes weighed in gsm (grams per square metre), so a 1 metre square of 120gsm paper will weigh 120 gramms. In america it is done slightly differently as the weight assigned to the paper is the weight of the ream, 500  sheets, of varying “basic size”, before the paper is cut into the size it is sold to the end customer, printing paper is generally 20lb, 24lb or 32lb at the most. Cover stock is generally 68lb and anything over 110lb is considered card stock. The next measurement will be the calliper, this is only essential if the exact thickness of the card is needed, for example a wedding invite that must have several different items all placed into the same envelope, in this instance we could check the calliper before hand to make sure that everything will fit. Please use the following as a rough guide to what weights to start looking for

6) The fact that government agencies and conservation groups are continually reminding us to “go green” is no coincidence. Let me start by saying that all the virgin fibre (i.e. new) paper that we use at Capital of London comes from FSC certified suppliers; this means that all the paper that they make is from renewable and carefully managed sources. There are still some situations where this will not be acceptable and you will have to use recycled paper. When it comes to recycled papers there are still a few misconceptions among designers and print buyers. Some believe that all paper is recycled anyway, and others worry about having a limited paper choice. There is also the perception that recycled papers have a potential for technical problems in the printing process. All these fears are unfounded. If you think looking for recycled paper will limit your creativity, think again, all the same processes that we are able to use on new paper we are able to use on recycled paper as well. In my own opinion it is not only the recycled contents that you should watch out for, but also the way your paper you choose is bleached. For years chlorine gas has been used to bleach paper, which produced cancer-causing dioxins that infiltrated our surface waters. Most paper mills now use ECF (an elemental chlorine free process) that reduces these toxins dramatically, but doesn’t eliminate them completely. A more environmentally friendly option is to look for paper that has not been bleached at all, these papers are usually marked as either totally chlorine free (TCF) if talking about virgin fibres, or processed chlorine free (PCF) if you are talking about re-cycled paper. Another option I mentioned earlier is FSC-certified. This means that the fibre content in the paper, even though virgin, comes from plantations that are certified by the forest stewardship council for sustainable forestry practices. To finish off  the most important thing to consider if you do decided to use a re-cycled paper is the paper’s on press performance. Today’s re-cycled paper has come a long way from what you might have heard about, and run as smoothly on press as any virgin sheet. In addition they often score, fold and emboss better because re-cycled fibres are softer and allow these processes to be performed with ease.

7) It happens to all of us at some point, we have champagne taste on a beer budget. Your paper will average to 30 % of the cost of a print project. That is not a small percentage and defiantly one you will want to take a closer look at if you are on a tight budget. There are lots of ways to save on the general paper cost, but this would make for a whole article in itself. If you are interested in learning ore about your paper or if you do have a tight budget to work with we are always here to help so give us a ring or drop me an email my contact details are on the website  www.capitaloflondon.com

I know that’s a lot of information to take in but I hope it makes the choices you have to make a little easier. I guess the best bit of advice I could give you would be to ask if you get into trouble. We have spent a long time perfecting the techniques that we use at Capital of London, we try to remain flexible in what we can do and we are always looking to the next challenge. No matter how unusual you may think your idea is and even if other printers have told you it is not possible give us a call and discuss it with us I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

Next week I will be discussing correspondence cards, going over the do’s and dont’s as well as showing off our new range of pre-printed correspondence cards. I hope you will all come back then.

To place an orer with Capital of London please click here