what is brightness of paper?
Answers
Paper brightness and whiteness are two important factors when considering paper choices, but they are often the two most commonly misunderstood paper traits. What do these terms mean and why do you need to know the difference? How do these traits affect your paper choice and final printed results?
Brightness
It is the amount of light a paper reflects from its surface. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 100 and the higher the number, the brighter the sheet. Think of brightness like a light bulb. When you use a 40-watt bulb in a lamp, the room is dimly lit, you can’t see details in the room clearly, colors are murky and the shadows in the corner seem dark and fuzzy. But if you put in a 100-watt bulb, the room lights up and you can see more clearly, colors become vibrant, details appear and shadows have more contrast. The same happens to your printed image when it is reproduced on papers with different brightness levels.
For many years, brightness also provided a standard upon how to classify coated papers into a Premium, #1, #2 and #3 category (other paper characteristics such as surface and opacity are also considered). Typically, the higher the category number, the higher the paper brightness (and the higher the quality and the cost). Today, we still loosely use those category numbers to distinguish the difference between coated sheets. However, with the influx of imported papers and house sheets, the lines have become blurred. Imports sometimes boast high brightness levels that technically put them in #1 category, but the other characteristics of the sheets, such as surface and opacity, are not of the standards of a #1. This has lead to some confusion in the market and, unfortunately, the commoditization of some coated papers.