Number 209 - October 2000

Be Sensible
Constance J. Sidles' On Paper, Adobe Magazine, Autumn 1999
Three years ago a Thai restaurant set up shop in one of the worst locations in my neighborhood. The building squats behind a gas station off the main road. Three restaurants have already failed in that building.     I love Thai food, so I decided to do my part to help it succeed: I made reservations. When the proud proprietor brought my food, it was a work of art. Atop a scorching red curry, thin slices of ginger mimicked the purple dendrobium orchid that adorned the edge of the plate.     "This looks beautiful;' I said, "but can you afford it? Won't you soon go out of business like the others?" The owner's smile faded. "Food is not just for eating;' he admonished. "Food is for looking too." That restaurateur has succeeded where others have failed because he did something they didn't: he has paid meticulous attention to every detail, and it shows. It's the difference between a crafted job and a mass-produced one.     I think about him whenever I recommend a particular paper to a client. Design--be it food or graphic--should appeal to more than one sense. Paper also has a weight, a feel, a sound, even a smell that contributes to the message. When the paper you select engages these other senses, it makes your work stand out from the masses. Here are four ways to delight your clients' senses.     Weight. Today's trend is to specify lighter-weight papers; they cost less and they're also cheaper to mail.     Rather than automatically buying the cheapest paper, however, think about whether a heavier-weight paper might be worth the extra expense, especially if the press run is fairly short and mailing costs aren't excessive. For example. most letterhead papers are 20- or 24-pound bond. If you use 28-pound bond or 80-pound text, not only will the finished design feel heavier, it will look it--heavier paper is more opaque.     Thickness. Maybe it's a holdover from the days when airmail postage cost so much that people wrote on onionskin to save a few pennies. But thin paper feels cheap. For a more elegant feel. specify thicker paper.	Of course, most bulky papers are uncoated stock. because the coating process usually involves a lot of polishing and smoothing between rollers, which flattens paper fibers. Designers avoid uncoated papers because their rougher, more porous surface lets ink sink and spread into the paper fibers. causing excessive dot gain. When that happens, colors look grayer and details less sharp.     Happily, many mills have introduced super-smooth. uncoated papers that let ink dry on the surface. You get the brightness and printability of coated stock along with the thickness of uncoated.     For thickness, fold a cover back on itself to get a heftier weight and tremendous durability and stiffness. Or try duplex papers, such as those from Neenah Papers (www.neenahpaper.com). These are made by gluing two separate uncoated sheets together. In Neenah's palette, you can order outrageous red paper married to forest green, or more subtle combinations of black and white, silver and white, and so forth.     Surface. It's a truism in our business that if you design a four-color job, you need a coated paper to deliver the desired bright colors. But in our color-saturated world, sometimes a whisper is more effective than a shout. Consider softening a diffuse photo with a soft-finished paper. Or try using a paper subtly embossed with columns to enhance classical designs for banks, men's, or museums. If that doesn't appeal to you, you can go glitzy by specifying metallized paper (paper treated with a metallic finish that you can overprint with offset inks).     Formation. The pulp content of paper can enhance a message, too. Recycled paper is an obvious choice for projecting environmental consciousness. But your choices are more varied than that. Try using a flecked paper to draw attention away from poor-quality photos that you might have to use, or to add value to a line-art design. Or explore the world of alternate fibers with papers made from denim, hops, or junk mail (see "Tree Free at Last," Adobe Magazine, November 1996).     In short, the message from the marketplace is that paper doesn't have to be plain anymore. Neither must your choices be.     Constance I. Sidles is a production consultant and writer in Seattle. Her column "On Paper" appears in every issue of Adobe Magazine.
Number 209 - October 2000