Printing Basics: How to Choose the Right Kind of Paper

IntroductionOnce upon a time (and yes, it is something of a fairy tale) futurologists and technology journalists confidently predicted that the arrival of the paperless office was both inevitable and imminent. What with e-mail and the Internet, the inexorable denouement and impending extinction of newspapers and magazines, plus the rise of emerging technologies like e-books and electronic tablets, there would be no compelling reason to continue using expensive, ephemeral, forest-devouring paper.




Alas, the reality has been quite different, because the ubiquitousness of computers and electronic communications hasn’t dented or diminished the use of paper one iota. In fact, we’re consuming more paper than ever. Instead of typing a letter or a report one page at a time, now we hit the “print” button and generate two, 10, or 200 copies without hesitation. And we print out Web pages to read on the train home, generating all those extra pages of ads and menus that we throw right away.
But the big problem most people face is not whether or not to print to paper, but what is the best kind of printer paper to use. The answer is... it all depends.