I have to admit, I’m not a fan of the “all online” “go paperless” “exclusively digital” revolution I’m living in. Going green is great, but I like when things are tangible. I like making a list of tasks for the day and crossing everything off – nothing beats the satisfaction of finishing that tough job, and scratching it out on the To Do list. It’s the perfect icing on the cake.

Call me old school, but I like a folder I can hold in my hand instead of lost in cyber space, a phone number dialed from memory not automatically from my contacts list, and edits written on the page in red pen (gasp!) instead of changes tracked on a Word document. A hard drive with 600 gigabytes of saved files is just begging to crash, and an average of 150 emails a day means you’re bound to accidentally delete or overlook at least one.

So I ask you, are you embracing or fighting the digital revolution? Do you have a secret app that helps you stay organized? And, most importantly, when you have that very imperative message to get out, how do you make sure it doesn’t get lost in the daily electronic shuffle?

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There is a wide variety of printing papers available; coated, uncoated, 100% cotton, recycled, FSC certified—the varieties can seem endless. Here are some “Paper Basics” you should know to better understand paper specifications on your next printing quote.

Paper weight is complicated. Basis weight is the weight in pounds of a ream (500 sheets) of a paper at its basic size. The basic size is the size of the uncut sheet supplied to the printer. For example, the basic size of book paper is 25 x 38 inches, and a ream weighing 70 pounds would be called 70-lb. book paper. (Not all paper grades have the same basic size, but as a print buyer you don’t have to know them all.) Sometimes the metric system is used: 70-lb. book paper is equivalent to 104 g/m². Occasionally, paper is specified in thousand-sheet increments: a 70-lb. book paper might be listed as 25 x 38—140M. “M” means “1,000,” so 1,000 sheets of book paper at this basic size weigh 140 pounds. Since a ream is half that, it’s 70-lb. paper.

Cover, card, and other thick stocks are often specified by thickness, measured in “points,” abbreviated “pt.”— for example, “8-pt. cover.” One point is 1/1000th of an inch, so this means that the stock is 0.008 in. thick. By law, postcards need to be at least 7 pt for up to a 4¼ x 6″ card and 9 pt for larger postcards.

Paper grade refers to the end use of that paper. Bond paper is used for letters and documents, book paper for books, offset for offset printing, and so on. Thicker grades include cover, bristol, tag, and index. Digital papers have been optimized to perform on digital presses, and digital press manufacturers offer or recommend specific grades for their equipment.

Paper is often coated during manufacture, which improves the reproduction of fine halftone screens and color fidelity, as coatings keep ink from getting absorbed into the paper, unlike uncoated paper. C1S means “coated one-side,” which is useful for labels, packaging, and other materials designed to be printed on only one side. C2S means “coated two-side” and is preferred for two-sided commercial printing.

Brightness refers to the percentage of light that is reflected from the sheet’s surface. Basic white copy paper has a 92 brightness. Brightness by component wavelength (red, green, or blue) is also determined for papers, as papers can reflect different amounts of certain colors, imparting a color cast to a printed piece if you’re not careful. This is extremely important thing to consider since inks are transparent.

There are many other characteristics of paper, but these are some of the ones you are likely to encounter. Design magazines such as Communication Arts and HOW usually bind in paper samples. While this can make these magazines hard to flip through, they can help with the paper specification process. PaperSpecs is also a very good online resource for all things paper.