Shopping Discussion

Laser Printer Paper? Should I just buy the boring bulk stuff or can paper make a diff?

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  • Dec 9th, 2019 2:26 pm
Deal Addict
Dec 19, 2007
4912 posts
4932 upvotes
Ontario

Laser Printer Paper? Should I just buy the boring bulk stuff or can paper make a diff?

For the office I'm getting a new MFCL8900CDW Printer. It's colored don't know much on quality of colors, etc.

I was going buy the staples 5000 sheets $50 box. That being said I heard that some papers can show way better colors, etc be more vibrant. I'm wondering if this is something I should be considering at all? Is there samples or ideas? I tried googling it and got a lot of iffy advertisements more.

Just wondering if someone has more practical experience.

Thanks.
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4 replies
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jul 29, 2005
9295 posts
3156 upvotes
Mississauga
If you're printing regular every day stuff, regular paper is fine.

If you're printing presentation, reports, flyers, etc., Select a brighter white and heavier stock (not card stock).
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Deal Addict
Apr 7, 2011
2133 posts
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Hamilton
For q home printer that isn't used all that frequently I will buy the heavier 24lb paper since it doesn't jam as much due to humidity or dust.
For a office where you're running through a couple of reams a day you can get away with the cheaper stuff.
Deal Fanatic
Jan 21, 2018
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Vancouver
I also found with our office printers that some of the cheap paper seemed to stick together more and cause multiple sheets to feed.
Deal Guru
Nov 15, 2008
12993 posts
8360 upvotes
Sometimes toner won't adhere as well to the finish of cheaper paper. I've used the basic Staples paper, it's fine.

Truthfully you want a few different papers for the office.
  • 20 lb paper is for one-sided, black and white internal documents. It doesn't matter how bright it is because you'll never print colour on it. A brightness of 92 is fine. The stuff you picked is fine.
  • 24 lb is for your letterhead and formal business correspondence and you might print little bits of colour on it like your logo. It will stand up to the abuse of being in a 3-ring binder but there might be some show through with two sided printing. You need a minimum 96 brightness suit using colour. Inexplicably the brightness scale goes 92, 96, 97, 98, 100 with no 93-95 or 99 brightness, so this is just one step brighter than the last paper.
  • 28-32 lb is presentation paper and what you'd use to print large graphics or a resume, or create durable binder materials with no show through. You'd want to go all out and get a brightness of 98 or so.
Now you just have to train people to never print in colour unless they use the good paper, and never use the good paper unless it's damn important.

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