\nWe\n get asked a lot of questions about different areas about printing. It \ncan be a confusing or somewhat arcane subject matter for those outside \nthe industry. There are a several that get asked time and again though, \nand I thought it would be a good time to update our blog so you know \ntoo. This is a update of the blog entry written back in January 2015. A \nlot of things have changed since then so it\u2019s about time we corrected a \nfew of our answers and added a few new questions about how we do things \nnow<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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A.\n It costs you more because the paper costs us more. 99.99% of all \nprinting is done on white super smooth paper so the papermakers have \nsell at the most competitive rate they can because of the demand. With \ncoloured paper having less use in the printing industry theses days, \nthat means less demand so a higher price. If you need colour paper we do\n carry a small range, and order in at your cost from a bigger selection.\n Often it’s actually cheaper to print in full colour on white than print\n on coloured paper. For textured papers, it\u2019s more of a case of demand \nand complexity. Modern printing systems focus on printing as fast as \nthey can so need the smoothest surface to lay the image on. Textured \npapers & cards aren\u2019t smooth so extra steps are needed to make sure \nthe image is even when the surface is not. As such it\u2019s less often done,\n reducing the demand for the paper so it\u2019s more expensive to buy. \nProcessing old used paper to make paper of commercial printing standard \nis quite an expensive process, far more than from new wood, so naturally\n the recycled paper cost more too. However if you want to make sure your\n paper is ‘green’ as you can get it, have a look at the next question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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A.\n While we get papers from several different suppliers, who in turn \nsource it from many different paper mills, they all conform to several \ninternational environmental standards. We would have to work quite hard \nto find a paper that isn’t sourced from sustainable new growth \ncommercial forests, as covered under the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council<\/a>) or PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes<\/a>).\n The manufacturing process of the paper are also environmentally safe \nmethods vetted by various environmental agencies, with some of the new \npapers we are getting are classed as ‘carbon neutral\/negative’ where the\n carbon the absorbed by the trees as much or more than what is generated\n by the paper manufacturing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n A.\n Yes, but we have the right to refuse to print on it. A lot of papers \nsold are not designed to handle the commercial toner printers we use. It\n will warp, shrink, or even discolour (scorch) from the heat. Some \npapers buckle or tear from the stresses that our equipment puts on it as\n it feeds through. I’ve had people bring in inkjet photo-paper who are \nsurprised when I say I will only print on it with our more expensive \nwide format inkjet printer. What they don’t realise that most \n\u2018photo-papers\u2019 have a plastic top coating that protects the water \nsoluble ink of the print. That same plastic coating can shrink or even \nmelt under the high temperatures of our toner printer, which can damage \nvery expensive parts of it. It’s only rarely that I do refuse a paper \nand often we can match the look of other papers with just a few design \ntricks own our own papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n A.\n A lot of art and craft papers are have textured or have a \nraw\/unfinished surfaces. When you print with an inkjet printer, the ink \nsoaks in to the paper ‘filling in’ the gaps as it were. Our toner \nprinter is designed to handle textured papers to a degree, our own linen\n and recycled card work well with it. However we can\u2019t promise the same \nwith paper\/card you bring in as it may not be designed for use in \ncommercial printing systems. Also some papers\/cards will come out patchy\n no matter what we do because that\u2019s the intended effect and in fact \nyour printer might be printing it wrong. Having said all that, we are \nwilling to test it for you if you give us some sample paper, we can also\n do some design trickery to simulate some effects too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n A.\n Yes, with a proviso. Officially 350gsm paper is the heaviest our \nequipment is rated for, and we put through the 350gsm high-bulk for our \nbusiness cards. Generally speaking 350gsm has become the standard heavy \nweight for all small to medium print companies as it means you can use \nthe same card both in digital printers (toner) and offset printers (wet \nink). If you were to bring in card heavier than 350gsm we may consider \ndoing it but it\u2019s at your risk and we have the right to refuse to print \non it if we think it might cause problems for our equipement. Larger \nprint companies can do much heavier weights, like board used for drink \ncoasters, but that\u2019s a whole different level of price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n A.\n We still do have a sizable range of papers and cards to print your work\n on. The reason why the choices are more limited on our web 2 print site\n is two fold. One, too many options can be confusing and in reality the \ndifferences between a 150 and 170gsm paper are only noticeable to people\n who need to know. If you are one of those people you would be \ncontacting us directly not using w2p. Two, it also falls in line with \ngeneral print industry standards, which means that if you order flyers \nthrough our express (digital) service or our standard\/high volume \n(offset) service they should look and feel the same. Don\u2019t worry thought\n we can customise any order on our online systems easily. Give us a \nphone call or email to find out more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n A.\n We do carry a select range of non-papers for specialty jobs. This \nincludes adhesive label (die cut and flat sheets), ohp sheets, \u2018never \ntear\u2019 plastics, adhesive plastics. We are also looking into other \nmaterials that can offer new options for you so keep an eye out on our \nwebsite, sign up to our facebook page, or join our newsletter. If you \nare looking for things like magnets, bags, usb drives, mugs, etc, we \ncan\u2019t print them in house but we have partners who do. For such branded \nitems we will work direct with you to get the best option to meet your \nneeds and you only have to deal with us for updates and payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This\n is the first of a series of FAQ\u2019s we will be adding to the blog to \nanswer the common questions we get. If you have one that is not answered\n by this or any of our helpful blog articles then please do give us a \ncall or email and we will be happy to answer all of your questions in \nfuture articles.<\/em><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We get asked a lot of questions about different areas about printing. It can be a confusing or somewhat arcane subject matter for those outside the industry. There are a several that get asked time and again though, and I thought it would be a good time to update our blog so you know too. … Continue reading “Common Questions About Paper”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,77,33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":929,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions\/929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Q. Can I bring in my own paper to print on?
<\/h3>\n\n\n\nQ. Why is the print you do on my paper patchy when it looks fine at home.
<\/h3>\n\n\n\nQ. Can you print on card stiffer than 350gsm?
<\/h3>\n\n\n\nQ. Didn\u2019t you use a lot more types of paper than what you have on orders.copyexpress.co.nz?
<\/h3>\n\n\n\nQ. Can you print on stuff other than paper?
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