Coated & Offset Paper: Which Is better For Printing
Both offset paper and coated paper are often used in China printing service. So when choosing paper for book printing, which is better? In fact, the choice of book paper should carefully consider paper characteristics, book positioning, paper thickness, weight, price, etc. Let's briefly talk about it!

What is offset paper?



Offset paper is generally divided into three grades: A, B, and C. Grade A and B offset paper are usually made of 100% bleached softwood pulp or combined with bamboo pulp, cotton pulp, and grass pulp. Grade C offset paper uses 50% bleached wood pulp, and can also be mixed with part of cotton pulp or bamboo pulp.

Its flexibility is small, water resistance is strong, and the absorption of ink is uniform, so the ink with better quality should be selected. Offset paper is suitable for printing monochromatic or multi-color book covers, text, inserts, pictorials, maps, posters, color trademarks and various packaging products.

What is coated paper?



Coated paper is generally high-grade printing paper, and its printing particles are extremely fine, so it has high smoothness and good gloss. It is mainly used for printing covers and illustrations of high-grade books (such as custom hardcover book’s cover), color pictures, various exquisite commercial advertisements, samples, commodity packaging, etc.

The difference between coated paper and offset paper:

The coated paper is coated on both sides, while the offset paper is not. Offset paper is similar to the base paper of coated paper, that is, uncoated coated paper.

Offset paper is mainly single-sided offset printing paper. The surface of the paper is white and smooth, but the whiteness, tightness and smoothness are lower than those of coated paper.

Check out below 4 parts to find out which one is better for printing

1. Features of paper

Offset paper is not easy to stretch or get wet with water, has a tight texture, smooth touch, slightly yellowed, opaque, mostly used for books with few pictures, black and white, full color, and two-color are applicable.

The surface of the coated paper is smooth and reflective, with good elasticity, uniform fiber distribution, and consistent thickness. It is mostly used for full-color books with many pictures, such as photo book printing, color magazine and beauty book printing.

2. Book’s positioning

Which one is better, offset paper or coated paper, is mainly to choose according to the type of book, not "just choose the expensive", but to choose the right one.

If it is a book that contains a large number of pictures (such as photo book printing，catalogue printing, custom recipe book printing, etc), publishers usually choose coated paper with smooth surface and high color rendering performance, rather than offset paper that may cause color difference due to ink de-powdering, hair pulling, and color cast.

If it is a book with a large number of text displays and a small number of pictures (such as story book printing), the publisher usually chooses offset paper with a yellowish color and a relatively lower price, which can achieve the purpose of reducing costs. The coated paper has a higher whiteness, and readers are prone to visual fatigue after reading for a long time, which affects the reading experience.

3. Paper thickness and weight

In addition to which one is better, offset paper or coated paper, the thickness and weight of the paper is also one of the considerations for book paper. There are different origin classifications of paper, and the thickness and price of different varieties of paper are also different, but usually, the coated paper of the same gram is much thinner than the offset paper.

4. The price of paper

The cost of offset paper is generally low, and it is mostly used for pictorial, maps, etc., while coated paper, as a high-grade paper, is of course not cheap.

In short,there is no better between coated paper and uncoated paper, only suitable or not.When you start printing books in China, you should consider which one is more suitable for your book based on 4 aspects of paper characteristics, price, thickness and weight, and positioning of the book.

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