Envelope weights and colors
Thickness and weight of Paper: The thickness of paper is often measured by caliper, which is typically given in thousandths of an inch.[10] Paper may be between 0.07 millimetres (0.0028 in) and 0.18 millimetres (0.0071 in) thick. Paper is often characterized by weight. In the United States, the weight assigned to a paper is the weight of a ream, 500 sheets, of varying "basic sizes", before the paper is cut into the size it is sold to end customers. For example, a ream of 20 lb, 8.5 in × 11 in (216 mm × 279 mm) paper weighs 5 pounds, because it has been cut from a larger sheet into four pieces. In the United States, printing paper is generally 20 lb, 24 lb, or 32 lb at most. Cover stock is generally 68 lb, and 110 lb or more is considered card stock. Most commercial paper sold in North America is cut to standard paper sizes based on customary units and is defined by the length and width of a sheet of paper. The paper is then converted into envelopes using a die cutting press. Color Paper Envelopes: Color Paper Stock: Commercial Envelopes are available in the following Colors: • White • Cream/Natural • Ivory • Gray • Canary Yellow • Goldenrod • Pink • Blue • Green Catalog and Booklet Envelopes are available in the following Colors: • White • Brown Kraft • Gray Kraft Digital Friendly Recycled Paper Stock: #24 White Wove Recycled Paper Stock available with 30 percent post consumer fibers. Plus, it's digital friendly for running through your digital printers. Other Premium Paper Stocks available upon request. Producing paper: The pulp is fed to a paper machine where it is formed as a paper web and the water is removed from it by pressing and drying. Pressing the sheet removes the water by force. Once the water is forced from the sheet, felt (not to be confused with the traditional felt) is used to collect the water. When making paper by hand, a blotter sheet is used. Drying involves using air and or heat to remove water from the paper sheet. In the earliest days of papermaking this was done by hanging the paper sheets like laundry. In more modern times, various forms of heated drying mechanisms are used. On the paper machine, the most common is the steam-heated can dryer. These dryers can heat to temperatures above 200 °F (93 °C) and are used in long sequences of more than 40 cans. The heat produced by these can easily dry the paper to less than 6% moisture. Finishing: The paper may then undergo sizing to alter its physical properties for use in various applications. Paper at this point is uncoated. Coated paper has a thin layer of material such as calcium carbonate or china clay applied to one or both sides in order to create a surface more suitable for high-resolution halftone screens. (Uncoated papers are rarely suitable for screens above 150 lpi.) Coated or uncoated papers may have their surfaces polished by calendering. Coated papers are divided into matte, semi-matte or silk, and gloss. Gloss papers give the highest optical density in the printed image. The paper is then fed onto reels if it is to be used on web printing presses, or cut into sheets for other printing processes or other purposes. The fibers in the paper basically run in the machine direction. Sheets are usually cut "long-grain", i.e. with the grain parallel to the longer dimension of the sheet. All paper produced by paper machines as the Fourdrinier Machine are wove paper, i.e. the wire mesh that transports the web leaves a pattern that has the same density along the paper grain and across the grain. Textured finishes, watermarks and wire patterns imitating hand-made laid paper can be created by the use of appropriate rollers in the later stages of the machine. Wove paper does not exhibit "laidlines", which are small regular lines left behind on paper when it was handmade in a mold made from rows of metal wires or bamboo. Laidlines are very close together. They run perpendicular to the "chainlines", which are further apart. Handmade paper similarly exhibits "deckle edges", or rough and feathery borders.
