Well it all started back in the days of the Egyptians, who got tired of chiselling messages into stone\u2026Well, maybe that is a little to far back.\u00a0 So, fast forward\u2026<\/p>\n
\u00a0Paper was first produced by machines in 13th<\/sup> century Europe.\u00a0 The standardised sizing of paper came about for 2 reasons: the machines used to produce it and the use to which the paper was put.\u00a0 Traditionally “bond” was standardized into a 17 x 22 inch sheet because when folded in quarters or even eighths it created a nicely sized “book”.\u00a0 In quarters a sheet was 8 \u00bd x 11 inches and in eighths, 5 \u00bd x 8 \u00bd inches.\u00a0 These 2 sizes are still in common use today.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Alternatively, the same paper was made in sheets that measured 25 x 38 inches and was used in offset printing presses; this paper was called “offset” a word that is still used to describe paper that comes in this size.\u00a0 It is also commonly referred to as “text” or “book”,<\/p>\n \u00a0All pretty straight forward so far.\u00a0 So if you stack 500 sheets of bond on a scale, it will weight 20lbs, which is referred to as the basis weight.\u00a0 This is the most commonly produced paper today and is mostly bought in \u00bc sheet sizes of 8 \u00bd x 11 wrapped in 500 sheet packages of 20lb bond, commonly, but incorrectly, referred to as a ream1<\/sup>. \u00a0Thus package of bond \u00bc sheet bond weights 5 pounds.<\/p>\n \u00a0The same paper, cut for offset use at 25 x 38, if stacked 500 sheets on a scale will weight 50lbs. also referred to as basis weight.\u00a0 I’ll let you do the math.\u00a0 So here comes the confusion, or the clarification if you like: it is the same paper!\u00a0 So, if you cut it to 8 \u00bd x 11 inches and stack 500 sheets on a scale it will still only weight 5 lbs.\u00a0 It is still the same paper and the only reason it is labelled as 50 lb. text or offset is because it was cut out of a 25 x 38 inch sheet instead of a 17 x 22 inch sheet.<\/p>\n \u00a0Now there may be some unsavoury characters that will tell you that 50 lb. text is better than 20 lb bond because it is “heavier”.\u00a0 Not so Batman!<\/p>\n \u00a0So in a nutshell the equivalent papers are:<\/p>\n \u00a0The same logic, if logic is what you want to call it, can be applied to cover and index.<\/p>\n \u00a0To further complicate matters of “weight”, papers are coated in various compounds to impart certain qualities to the paper, including improved surface gloss and smoothness or lower ink absorbency or to give water resistance and protection from ultraviolet radiation.\u00a0 Any coating will impact the basis weight of the paper and render a different weight classification on the label.<\/p>\n \u00a01<\/sup> Technically speaking, 1 ream is defined as 20 quires and a quire is 2 dozen.\u00a0 So 2 x 12 x 20 = 480 which is close to 500 but not quite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" some unsavoury characters that will tell you that 50 lb. text is better than 20 lb bond because it is “heavier”. Not so Batman!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commercial-printing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bond\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Text<\/h2>\n
20 lb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 50 lb.<\/h3>\n
24 lb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 60 lb.<\/h3>\n
28 lb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 70 lb.<\/h3>\n
32 lb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 80 lb.<\/h3>\n
40 lb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 100 lb.<\/h3>\n
Cover\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Index<\/h1>\n
55 lb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 67 lb.<\/h3>\n
65 lb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 80 lb.<\/h3>\n
80 lb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 100 lb<\/h3>\n
100 lb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 120 lb.<\/h3>\n