Print guides · 4 min read
A buyer's guide to paper and board: GSM, bleach board, art paper
Paper is the largest single cost in most print jobs, and the least understood line on the quote. Learn a handful of terms, GSM, art paper, bleach board, box board, and you can read any printer's quotation and compare suppliers on equal footing.
GSM: the number that anchors everything
GSM means grams per square metre: the weight of one square metre of the sheet. It is the standard way to specify paper thickness across the industry. An 80gsm sheet is everyday office paper. At 130gsm you have a solid brochure page. Around 250gsm to 300gsm the sheet becomes card, stiff enough to stand as a carton.
GSM is a weight, not a strict thickness, and two boards of equal GSM can feel different in hand: a bulky board and a dense one can weigh the same yet differ in stiffness. But as a specification on a quote it is the number that lets you compare like with like. Never accept a quote that names a paper without its GSM.
Art paper: the brochure standard
Art paper is coated on both sides with a fine mineral layer that gives a smooth, sealed surface. Ink sits on top of the coating instead of soaking in, so images print sharp and colours stay vivid. It comes in gloss and matte finishes and typically runs from about 90gsm to 170gsm.
Use it for brochures, catalogues, flyers, leaflets and magazine work. Its heavier sibling, art card, from roughly 200gsm to 300gsm, covers business cards, folders, covers and lighter cartons. Between them, art paper and art card handle the bulk of everyday commercial printing.
Bleach board: the premium carton board
Bleach board, also called solid bleached board or SBS, is made from chemically bleached pulp and is white all the way through: face, back and the cut edge. Its clean printing surface and consistency make it the default for pharmaceutical cartons, cosmetics, food packaging and any pack where the inside of the box is visible.
It costs more than recycled boards, and it earns that cost where purity, whiteness and print quality matter. For a regulated pharma carton, bleach board is the usual specification.
Box board: the workhorse
Box board is a layered board, commonly with a coated white printing face over a core of recycled fibre. The back may be white or the natural grey of the recycled core, which is why you will hear white back and grey back on quotes. Grey back is the economical choice when the inside of the carton is never seen.
It carries print well on the coated face and folds cleanly at higher GSM. For retail cartons, hosiery and garment boxes, and general product packaging, box board delivers most of what bleach board offers at a noticeably lower price. Many brands run bleach board on their premium line and box board on the standard range, printed to the same artwork.
How to specify with confidence
State three things on every enquiry: the board or paper type, the GSM, and the finish you intend to apply. A request for 300gsm bleach board with matte lamination can be quoted identically by any competent printer, and the quotes you receive will actually be comparable. Leave any of the three out and every supplier will assume something different, and the cheapest quote will usually be the one that assumed the least.
When in doubt, ask for physical samples on your shortlisted boards before committing a large run. Any established printer can pull sheets from stock. At PrintVision we would rather put three boards in a buyer's hands than argue specifications on the phone, because the right board is usually obvious the moment you fold it.
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