Four Examples of Times to Request Paper Samples from Your Printer or Paper Merchant

It is well within industry custom for you, as a print buyer, to request paper samples, and there are some good times to do this to save yourself trouble and expense. Maybe you’re working with a brochure printing vendor (brochure printers), a custom book printer service (book printers), or a smaller printer for letterhead stationery printing (stationery printers), and you need to get a really good idea of exactly what to expect of the final printed job. Here are some scenarios:

1. Let’s say you are designing a brochure with a complex fold. Maybe you will include a gatefold, or maybe an accordion fold (zig zag). Since it will be particularly useful for you and your client to see just how the piece will look on the final paper stock, request a “folding dummy.” Since the final weight of the piece will affect postage costs, and since the size and format may not adhere to postal regulations, or not fit well into a particular size of envelope, a folding dummy provided by you to the US Post Office for their approval would be doubly prudent in this case.
2. Another scenario might be if you were designing a perfect-bound book on 60# Finch opaque stock, and your printer suggested printing it on 50# opaque paper to save on paper costs and reduce your postage expense. Subscribers to your publication might not want to pay the same price as last year for a book that is significantly thinner (a shift from 60# to 50# stock, at the same page count, would yield a thinner book, since the 50# paper stock is thinner than 60# stock–the technical term is “bulk” or “caliper”). Requesting a paper dummy of the book would be wise in this case.
3. Maybe you have chosen an off-white stock for a booklet and you want to see exactly how a particular ink color will look on this stock. After all, many printing inks are transparent and are therefore altered somewhat by the color of the paper. Even if the ink is not transparent, the color of the surrounding paper will affect the viewer’s perception of the ink color. Requesting sample sheets of your chosen paper stock, and then asking your printer to do an ink “draw-down” (using an ink knife to smear ink of a particular PMS color on the actual stock) would give you a better idea of what to expect when the printed piece arrives.
4. Or maybe you are having problems feeding a particular printing stock through your laser printer. Maybe you want to start using a felt stock of a particular weight, maybe 80# text, for your letterhead, and you want to make sure the paper will feed consistently through your office printer. Requesting paper samples to test on your laser printer can save you time and heartache later on when you’re on deadline.

Now the big question is, who do you ask? Your offset printer can give you the names of the paper suppliers from which he buys his paper, and you can ask their sample departments directly for whatever you need. It is their job to send samples to you, and they will be happy to do so. Or you can just ask your printer to request that samples be sent to you. This is a prudent choice when working with any of your print vendors, be they brochure printers, book printers, or letterhead printing services.