Paper Types · The Complete Guide

The Naming Fog · and Why It Exists

Walk into any paper merchant in Mumbai, Delhi, or Ahmedabad and ask for "a nice premium paper." You will be shown swatchbooks with names like Curious Collection, Colorplan, Sirio Color, Conqueror, Gmund Cotton, Crush, Materica, and Keaykolour. Each has a distinctive name, a beautiful swatchbook, and a price that reflects the premium brand positioning.

What you are rarely told is that nearly all of these fall into just eight or nine underlying generic paper categories. The name is the merchant's asset. The category is the material reality. A designer who specifies "Curious Metallics" is specifying a pearlescent coated paper. A buyer who asks for "Conqueror Laid" is asking for a laid-finish cotton-blend uncoated paper. A packaging manager specifying "Crush" is specifying an agrifibre recycled paper.

This is not fraud. Mills invest heavily in product development and brand building. But the fog of proprietary names has created a situation where:

• Designers specify by brand name without knowing the underlying material
• Buyers cannot compare prices between equivalent papers from different mills
• Press rooms receive files specifying unavailable papers with no generic fallback
• When a mill closes or discontinues a product, buyers are lost

The 12 Generic Categories

Every paper used in commercial print and packaging in India falls into one of these twelve categories. This is the complete map.

What it actually is

Coated paper is paper that has been given a mineral coating, typically a blend of calcium carbonate (chalk) and kaolin (china clay), on one or both sides after the base sheet is formed. The coating fills in the surface irregularities of the paper fibres, creating a smooth, non-absorbent surface that holds ink on the surface rather than letting it sink in.

This matters enormously for print quality. When ink is absorbed into uncoated paper, the halftone dots spread and lose sharpness. On coated paper the ink sits on the surface, dots stay crisp, and colour reproduction is significantly more accurate. A 175 LPI halftone that looks photographic on coated paper would look muddy on uncoated stock.

The sub-types

Indian market names for coated paper

In India, coated paper is commonly sold under these generic names. They are all the same category, differentiated only by GSM, finish, and coating weight:

How to specify correctly

Do not specify by brand name. Specify: GSM + finish + coating weight + certification if required. Example: "130 GSM gloss coated art paper, minimum 10 gsm coating each side, FSC Mix certified." This allows any qualified supplier to provide an equivalent without dependency on a specific mill's product.

What it actually is

Uncoated paper has no mineral coating. The surface is the paper itself, cellulose fibres with their natural irregularities. Ink absorbs into the surface rather than sitting on top of it. This produces more dot gain (halftone dots spread and appear larger than specified) and lower colour saturation than coated paper, but also a more natural, tactile quality that many designers and readers prefer for long-form reading.

Uncoated paper is higher in bulk (thicker at the same weight) than coated paper. A 100 GSM uncoated sheet is noticeably thicker and stiffer than a 100 GSM coated sheet. This makes uncoated paper attractive for books, catalogues, and any application where physical presence matters.

The two fundamental types

Woodfree uncoated (WFU): Made entirely from chemically processed (chemical pulp) wood fibre with all lignin removed. White, stable, does not yellow significantly with age. The standard for office paper, stationery, books, and quality uncoated printing.

Mechanical / groundwood uncoated: Contains mechanical pulp which retains lignin. Lower quality, lower cost, yellows rapidly on exposure to light and oxygen. Newsprint is the primary example. Not suitable for archival printing.

Surface finishes in uncoated paper

What it actually is

Coloured paper is uncoated paper where pigment or dye has been added during manufacture, either to the pulp itself (pulp-coloured, the premium method) or applied to the surface of the finished sheet (surface-dyed, the economy method). The critical difference between these two methods is visible at the cut edge: pulp-coloured paper shows the same colour through the entire cross-section of the sheet. Surface-dyed paper shows a white core at the cut edge.

This distinction matters for die-cut work, embossing, folding cartons, and any application where the cut edge or scored surface is visible in the finished piece. For premium stationery, invitations, and packaging, pulp-coloured is always the correct specification.

The reveal · what famous brand names actually are

How to print on coloured paper correctly

Coloured paper is not white. Every CMYK ink you print on it is modified by the paper's base colour. A yellow that reads correctly on white coated paper will look completely different on deep blue Colorplan. There is no automated correction for this, it requires intentional design and, for critical colour work, physical proofing on the actual substrate before committing to the production run.

Key rules: avoid printing photographs on deeply saturated coloured papers. Simple graphic design with flat colours works best. Embossing, foil stamping, and letterpress (which add texture without ink) are the most reliable print techniques for deeply coloured stocks.

What it actually is

Textured paper is uncoated paper with a surface pattern applied either during manufacture (by a patterned dandy roll on the paper machine, this produces laid, wove, and some linen patterns) or by embossing rollers after manufacture (which can create any pattern, linen, leather, stipple, pebble, and dozens of others). The texture is physical, it can be felt with the fingertip and creates depth when examined at a low angle.

Texture serves both aesthetic and functional purposes. Aesthetically, it signals quality, tradition, and physicality, the antithesis of the flat, digital world. Functionally, textured surfaces take foil stamping and blind embossing exceptionally well because the die's impression is emphasised against the textured background.

The reveal · what famous textured brand names actually are

What it actually is

Metallic and pearlescent papers are papers coated with metallic pigments, typically aluminium flakes (for silver/metallic effects) or mica particles coated with titanium dioxide or iron oxide (for pearlescent/iridescent effects). The coating creates a surface that reflects light directionally, producing shimmer, iridescence, or a near-mirror appearance depending on the grade.

There are three distinct levels of metallic effect, from softest to most intense:

• Pearlescent / Pearl: Soft, diffuse shimmer. Iridescent, the colour shifts with viewing angle. The most common and versatile metallic paper type.
• Metallic: Stronger, more directional reflectance. Gold, silver, copper, and bronze effects. More obviously "metallic" than pearlescent.
• Mirror / High-gloss metallic: Near-mirror reflectance. Very high gloss. Primarily used for premium labels and luxury packaging.

The reveal · what famous metallic brand names actually are

Printing on metallic paper · what actually works

Metallic papers are challenging to print on. The metallic surface has very low ink absorption. CMYK process colours will look washed out unless you use UV inks or allow extended drying time. The metallic surface shows fingerprints immediately after printing and before lamination. Key rules:

• UV offset or UV inkjet gives the best colour density on metallic papers
• Limit total ink coverage to 250% maximum, the non-absorbent surface cannot carry heavy ink loads
• Lamination after printing protects against fingerprints and scuffing
• Barcodes on metallic backgrounds frequently fail scanner verification, always test
• Embossing and foil stamping on metallic paper produce stunning results, the contrast between the metallic base and an embossed or foiled element is particularly effective

What it actually is

This category covers papers made from post-consumer recycled fibre (PCW, paper that has been used, collected, and reprocessed) or from agricultural fibres and waste materials as a substitute for or supplement to wood pulp. Both types produce papers with a distinctive warm, natural appearance, typically off-white or cream in colour, often with visible natural flecks, with a tactile surface that signals environmental responsibility.

It is important to understand the difference between the main types, because they have very different properties and applications:

The reveal · what famous ecological brand names actually are

What it actually is

Cotton paper is made from cotton linters (the short fibres remaining after cotton has been processed for textiles) or from cotton rag (recycled cotton textile waste), rather than from wood pulp. Cotton fibre is longer and stronger than wood fibre, and contains no lignin, the compound in wood that causes paper to yellow and become brittle over time. This gives cotton paper exceptional permanence, strength, and a distinctive feel.

Cotton paper is significantly more expensive than wood-pulp paper. A 300 GSM 100% cotton sheet may cost 8–12× more than an equivalent coated art paper. The premium is justified where permanence, an unmistakeable tactile quality, or the ability to withstand repeated handling (currency) is required.

Key properties of cotton paper

The reveal · what famous cotton brand names actually are

What it actually is

Synthetic paper is not paper in the traditional sense. It contains no cellulose fibre from wood or cotton. Instead, it is a plastic film, manufactured from polypropylene, polyethylene, or a calcium carbonate/HDPE composite, that has been surface-treated to accept printing inks. The result is a material that looks and feels similar to paper but has fundamentally different properties: it is completely waterproof, highly tear-resistant, and dimensionally stable across humidity changes.

The main types

When to use synthetic paper

Synthetic paper is not a premium upgrade from regular paper, it is a functional specification for environments where paper would fail. Common applications:

• Restaurant menus and outdoor signage (waterproof, can be wiped clean)
• Pharmaceutical labels (chemical resistance, moisture resistance)
• Outdoor self-adhesive labels on bottles, drums, and containers exposed to moisture
• Maps and navigation materials
• Wristbands and event passes
• Security documents and ID cards (Teslin)
• Instructional tags on products exposed to the elements

What it actually is

Specialty coated papers carry a functional or sensory coating that goes beyond the standard gloss/matte/silk range. The base is typically a standard coated or uncoated paper, but the surface treatment gives it a specific tactile, optical, or functional property. These papers blur the line between paper substrate and finishing technique, in some cases the "paper" is really a standard coated sheet with a post-manufacturing surface treatment applied.

What it actually is

NCR stands for No Carbon Required. Carbonless paper is a multi-layer paper system that creates duplicate copies when written on or impacted, without the messy carbon paper intermediate layer used in older copy systems. It is the most widely used specialty paper in India, the humble duplicate invoice book, delivery challan, receipt book, and order form that is the operational backbone of virtually every Indian business are all printed on NCR paper.

How carbonless paper works

NCR paper uses two different coatings on different layers:

• CB coating (Coated Back): Applied to the back of the top sheet. Contains microcapsules of colourless dye. When pressure is applied (writing, typing, printing), the capsules rupture and release the dye.
• CF coating (Coated Front): Applied to the front of the receiving sheet. Contains a reactive clay that turns dark when the dye contacts it, forming a visible mark.
• CFB coating (Coated Front and Back): Applied to middle sheets in 3-part or 4-part sets, they receive the impression from above and pass it to the sheet below.

NCR sets · the standard colour sequence in India

What it actually is

Handmade paper is produced one sheet at a time using traditional papermaking techniques, a suspended fibre mixture (the "furnish") is scooped onto a flat mesh screen (the mould), drained, pressed, and air-dried. No paper machine is used. The result is a sheet with natural deckle edges, natural texture variation, and embedded character that no machine-made paper can reproduce. Each sheet is individually unique.

India has one of the world's richest handmade paper traditions, dating back centuries. The craft survives most strongly in Sanganer (Rajasthan), a village that has produced handmade paper for 500+ years and today supplies premium stationery, wedding invitations, and art paper to buyers across India and internationally.

Indian handmade paper varieties

What it actually is

Board is paper above approximately 200 GSM that has sufficient stiffness for structural applications, folding cartons, book covers, mounting, and packaging. Board is typically multi-layer (several layers of fibre bonded together during manufacture) rather than a single sheet, giving it stiffness that single-sheet paper cannot achieve at the same caliper.

Board grades are covered in depth in the Paper & Board Grades article. A brief summary of the main types:

For full specifications, caliper-GSM relationships, crease rule calculations, and SBS vs FBB comparison, see Paper & Board Grades and Folding Cartons.

How to Specify Paper Without Using Brand Names

The goal of knowing generic categories is to be able to specify paper in a way that is mill-neutral, that can be sourced from multiple suppliers and does not create dependency on a single brand or mill. Here is the framework:

The correct specification format

A complete paper specification contains six elements:

1. Generic category, e.g. "Gloss coated art paper" not "Galerie Art"
2. GSM, e.g. "130 GSM"
3. Finish (if applicable), e.g. "gloss" / "matte" / "laid"
4. Colour (if applicable), e.g. "white" / "natural" / if coloured: specify as close to Pantone as possible
5. Certification (if required), e.g. "FSC Mix required" / "PEFC certified"
6. Reference brand (optional, as a guide), e.g. "similar to Colorplan Ebony or equivalent", this helps the supplier understand the quality level without making it mandatory

The master demystification map

Use this reference whenever a designer or buyer specifies a proprietary paper name, it tells you the generic category and the correct replacement specification: