I needed to print a two-sided flier, and needed to test out some papers to see which would best serve my purposes. Since I was doing this anyway, I decided to document my findings so I could share with you.
The four papers I compared:
- 20lbs white copy paper, Staple: thin, can see print from the front through on the back
- 28lbs white laser paper, Staples: smooth and bright white, some show through
- medium weight Imaging and Photo paper, matte, Jetpack: off white, coated, some show through
- 65lbs cardstock, Stardust (off white with speckles), Wausau: heavy, no show through
I compared print quality, how the paper took markers and colored pencils.
I have a laser printer, so my printer lays down a pretty good solid black. I printed all my samples from a high resolution PDF.
Printing
- 20lbs white copy paper: provided the darkest print
- 28lbs white laser paper: revealed that the PDF printed in a dot pattern and not areas of solid ink, appeared dark grey
- medium weight Imaging and photo paper: revealed that the PDF printed in a dot pattern and not areas of solid ink, appeared dark grey
- 65lbs cardstock: paper didn’t take printing evenly, and looked aged
Sharpies and Gel Pens
- 20lbs white copy paper: Sharpie ink spread, seemed to become translucent when wet, dried back to normal, most bleed through to an under sheet.
- 28lbs white laser paper: took color well, minimal ink spread, some bleed onto an under sheet
- medium weight Imaging and photo paper: the coated paper tok the gel pens well, but it mucked up the Sharpies, some bleed onto an under sheet
- 65lbs cardstock: Sharpie ink spread, but not as much as 20lbs paper. Almost no bleed onto an under sheet.
All four sheets had ink bleed through onto an under sheet. The 20lbs had the most, the cardstock the least.
Colored Pencils
- 20lbs white copy paper: paper has some bite, colored pencils reveal texture
- 28lbs white laser paper: pencils went on smooth
- medium weight Imaging and photo paper: pencil went on smooth, but the light colors showed dark, and the dark colors looked weak/pale
- 65lbs cardstock: paper has some bite, colored pencils reveal texture
Results
For my purposes (a 2-sided flier with a coloring page on the back) the 28lbs bright white paper ended up being the best choice. If I was giving printouts to young kids for coloring I would probably stick with the 20lbs paper. If I wanted to create a particularly nice colored page, I think I would go with the 28lbs sheet before I tried a card stock. I liked the smoother sheet.
The image used for this comparison is from When Octopods Dream