What it means
Paper weight is how paper stock is specified. The international measure is gsm (grams per square metre) — one number, comparable across all papers. The US system quotes pounds per ream of 500 sheets at a basis size that differs by paper category, which is why 80 lb text (118 gsm) is thin and 80 lb cover (216 gsm) is card: the two are weighed on different sheet sizes. Board for covers is often quoted by thickness instead, in points (thousandths of an inch): 10 pt is a standard paperback cover.
Book interiors are usually 50–60 lb text (about 74–90 gsm), in white or cream; cream is kinder to the eye for long fiction, white is used for anything with images. Colour books use heavier coated stock, 70–80 lb, for sharp images and less show-through.
Weight sets the caliper, and caliper × page count is the spine width — so paper choice changes the cover template.
In Bindery
Bindery’s print presets pair each binding with the printer’s stocks — cream for black-and-white text, coated for colour — and the quote shows the per-copy price before payment.
Make the book, not the checklist
Describe a book or upload a manuscript. Bindery writes with you, typesets in LaTeX, sizes the spine from the real page count and produces printer-validated files — the watermarked proof is always free.
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