Monday, September 21, 2009

Paper Buffet


Let's hop back for a moment and revisit my decision to make my own save the dates.


I figured that if I was going to go DIY our wedding stationery, I might as well look into paper choices that I wouldn't necessarily have if I had gotten pre-printed save the dates. So the first thing I looked at was the heftiness of my paper choices.


Paper weight
There are several types of paper--cover, text, writing and bond (for those in the paper industry, don't shoot me if I'm wrong). The paper is further categorized by weight (in pounds)--meaning the weight of a certain number of sheets.  For a much better explanation of paper weight, go to The Paper Mill Store--they have a pdf packet explaining all this mumbo jumbo.

 

If you don't want to read in-depth, here's a tip: you want cover paper. It's the heavier weight. 80lb is about the lightest I would go, although for a nice thick feel and paper that does not waver in the wind when you hold it, 110lb and above was the choice for me.

On the other hand, 80lb is usually the heaviest recommended weight for inkjet printers (which I'm assuming most of you would be using at home unless you are STEALING FROM YOUR EMPLOYER and using the laser printer--I am *positive* that none of you do that).  But don't fear, there are some inkjet printers that can do the job, like the top-loading Canon ip2600 inket printer we have at home:
 
Source ($49 at Amazon)

Actually, in my experience, laser printers (yes, the ones at work--lips zipped, ladies), actually had a harder time pulling in the 110 lb paper than this inkjet printer.

I'll save the another aspect of the paper selection process, paper finish, for the next post.

Any aspects of paper selection you found fascinating?   Anybody have good luck with printing heavy paper with a home printer?

1 comment:

  1. Let's see... my 'paper selection' involved opening up a catalog, flipping through briefly, and ordering. There was none of this feeling up of the paper samples, back in the Dark Ages when I was planning my wedding.

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