
A cost-effective and sustainable solution is to have them converted into recycled notepads, which you can give to employees, clients, or partners to use as scratch paper.Īvoid Paper Jams and Improve Uptime with a Reliable Managed Print Service They will be much more likely to create a misfeed or paper jam if you print on them. We've all got one or two of these sitting around somewhere. If a business uses opened reams of paper, it must do so promptly.Īlso, consider recycling those half-used reams of mystery paper sitting around in your storage closet. Moisture-proof wrappers help keep paper from absorbing moisture or drying out in storage. Since moisture content is an essential component of paper jams, careful consideration is required when storing printer paper. Ideal printing paper moisture content is somewhere between 4 and 5%. Then again, if printer paper is too dry, it may cause static electricity, leading to jams and misfeeds. Paper with a moisture content above 5.3% is too wet.

High moisture content and curling go hand in hand. However, thick, stiff paper can also cause jamming because it cannot bend easily. Caliper is expressed in mils (thousandths of an inch) or microns (millionths of a meter).Ĭaliper is an important paper property because a thin paper with low stiffness can wrinkle and cause a printer or copier to jam. Thicker paper is generally stiffer and rougher than thin paper.
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Grain awareness in printing is critical because color documents folded along the grain will have less toner crack along the fold, resulting in a cleaner, more professional-looking finished product.Ĭaliper (thickness) depends on weight and pressing during manufacturing. For example, 11”x17” is long grain, and 17”x11" is short grain. The second number in the paper’s dimensions specifies the grain. Reading the labeling and packaging is a quick and easy way to determine the grain direction. Sometimes, larger sheets of copy paper are short grain. And, just like the newspaper, most 8.5”x11” copy paper is long grain, meaning the grain runs parallel to the long side. Tearing those coupons out of the newspaper is an excellent way to experience paper grain. Just like wood, paper always tears straighter with the grain. Going against the grain is not just a cliché when it comes to printer paper. This setting is important because entering the paper weight improperly can cause paper jamming.

For this reason, the setting for paper weight on most multifunction printers is g/m2. The higher quality paper might be set at 28 lbs and 105 g/m2.īecause different paper types use different sized basis sheets, the pound system (used only in North America) is not as exact as the metric system in comparing weights of varying paper types. Thus, a ream of multi-purpose copy paper may be designated at a weight of both 20 lbs and 75 grams. Paper weight is expressed both in grams per square meter (g/m2), and in pounds per 500 sheets of a particular basis size, usually 17” x 22” for copy paper. Reducing curl is essential because paper curl is a major cause of paper jams. Loading your paper on the crown side will, to some extent, counteract the curling produced by printers as the rollers heat and press toner into the paper. If possible, load your paper tray to ensure that printing is done on the crown side. Whichever side produces the most sag is the side with the crown. Flip it over, do it again, and there will be a difference in the amount of sag.


Open a ream of paper and cup your fingers loosely under the middle, and you will notice the ends sag. This paper characteristic is commonly referred to as crowning. Like a long piece of lumber or a sheet of plywood, printer paper has a natural bow. Let’s break down each factor contributing to paper jams and review a few best practices to enable better paper management and ensure your printers and copiers consistently function at peak performance. Why are these things relevant to you? It's simple - understanding these factors is the key to producing high-quality print jobs, with the lowest instance of jamming or malfunction. There are some basic paper properties that anyone who has ever loaded an empty printer paper tray should learn. After a day of squeezing tubes of ink onto rollers, we'd all have a greater appreciation for today's advanced printers and copier machines.Īlthough office print solutions have evolved, they still share one main ingredient with their predecessors: paper. Office copy rooms used offset presses not too long ago.
