Top 10 Things You Might not Know About Paper

5. Groundwood papers offer good alternatives to uncoated offset for some applications—lower price and higher bulk, thus less basis weight. These factors are all pluses. The downside is lower brightness, potentially lower print quality and loss of permanence—an important negative for book papers.

4. Paper is greener than many people think, and electronic communications are not as green as people believe. Paper is renewable, and much of the energy that paper mills use is carbon neutral, or at least renewable—from bark, lignin, wind and hydro sources. On the other side, according to the EPA, computer servers use 1.5% of all electricity in the United States, and more than 2.2 million tons of electronic waste were generated in 2007. Of this, 1.8 million tons went to landfills, up 7.7% annually since 2000.

3. Mills announce prices increases, but not decreases. Prices may end up unchanged at the end of the year after three increases. Stay close to your mills and merchants to find out if price increases are holding and when prices are falling.

2. Printers use opaque grades because they have better opacity than offset...Or because they are brighter...Or both. For heavier basis weights, especially 60 and over, offsets usually have enough opacity. Now that offsets have moved to 92 bright, they usually have enough brightness. Why else to use opaques? They are often smoother, have better formation, and offer matching cover weights.

And . . .

The number one thing you might not know about paper or might need to be reminded of . . .

1. People still love paper, and will continue to use it.