Printer Paper GuideHow Paper Affects Print Quality, Jams & Reliability

Start with the basics

Why Does Printer Paper Cause Paper Jams?

Not every paper jam means there is a fault with the printer. A modern office machine has to separate one sheet from a stack, pick it up, keep it straight, transport it through rollers and sensors, print on it and then, in many cases, duplex, staple, fold or sort it. Paper condition affects every stage of that path.

Weight, stiffness, curl, surface finish, moisture, static, cut quality and the way the tray guides are positioned can all influence whether the next sheet enters the machine cleanly.

Load the paper squarely

Paper should sit flat and square inside the tray. If the stack starts at an angle, it can enter the paper path skewed. A small misalignment at the pickup point can become a crease, registration problem or jam further through the machine.

Set the paper guides correctly

The side and rear guides should touch the stack closely enough to locate it, but not squeeze or bow the paper. Guides that are too loose let the stack move. Guides that are too tight can distort the edges and make feeding more difficult.

Do not overfill the tray

The maximum-fill mark is there because the pickup and separation system needs room to work. Forcing extra paper into a cassette can encourage double-feeds, misfeeds and jams. This becomes even more important with heavier paper because the same number of sheets creates a physically deeper stack.

Should you fan printer paper before loading it?

Often, yes—but follow the instructions for the machine and media. Manufacturers including Epson, Brother and Xerox instruct users to fan ordinary paper in many models before loading it, which can help separate sheets that are clinging together. Epson also specifically warns against fanning or curling some photo papers because the printable surface can be damaged.

Paper weight explained

What Does GSM Mean on Printer Paper?

GSM means grams per square metre. It is the grammage of the paper: the mass of one square metre of that material. ISO 536 is the international standard that specifies how paper and board grammage is determined.

In everyday terms, a higher GSM usually means a heavier, more substantial sheet. But GSM is only one part of the story.

The important point is not to choose a paper just because a number on the packet looks suitable. Check what the specific printer, tray, duplex unit and finisher are designed to handle.

A commonly missed distinction

GSM Is Not the Same as Paper Thickness

GSM is useful, but it doesn't tell you how thick or stiff the paper actually is.

GSM measures the weight of the paper. Caliper describes its physical thickness. Two papers can both be 100gsm but still have a different thickness, stiffness, surface and even feed differently through the same printer.

A bulky uncoated sheet, for example, can be thicker than a more compressed coated paper of exactly the same GSM. This matters because pickup rollers, bends in the paper path, duplex units and finishing equipment don't react to weight alone.

Is 80gsm or 100gsm better?

Neither is automatically better. Good 80gsm paper is usually ideal for high-volume everyday office work because it balances cost, storage, duplexing and handling. 100gsm can feel more substantial and may improve presentation, but it uses more storage space, increases finished document thickness and can reduce finisher capacity.

Tell the machine what you loaded

Why the Correct Paper Setting Matters

One of the easiest ways to create avoidable problems is to put heavier, coated or specialist stock into a tray while leaving the machine set to ordinary plain paper.

Modern business printers use media settings for a reason. Depending on the technology, the selected paper type can influence transport speed, ink coverage, drying behaviour, fusing conditions, duplex availability and which paper path the machine uses. Epson, for example, provides separate settings for plain paper, recycled paper, letterhead, preprinted stock and several card-stock weight bands on current business inkjet models.

Check both places

1. The printer or photocopier tray setting. The machine needs to know the size and type of paper physically loaded.
2. The print driver or application setting. The print job should request the same or compatible media type.

If those settings disagree, some machines will stop and ask for the correct media. Others may continue using settings that are not ideal for the sheet.

Printing technologies treat paper differently

Inkjet Paper and Laser Paper Are Not Necessarily the Same

Laser and inkjet printers create an image in different ways, so the characteristics of the paper matter in different ways too.

Laser printers and photocopiers

Laser devices place toner onto the sheet and then use heat and pressure to fuse it. The paper therefore needs to be suitable for the machine's fusing process as well as its weight and paper path. This is particularly important with labels, coated media and preprinted forms, where adhesives, coatings or inks may not be designed for laser-printer temperatures.

Business inkjet printers

Inkjet equipment places liquid ink onto the paper. Absorption, porosity, coating, surface finish and drying behaviour can therefore have a very visible effect on the result. A sheet that absorbs ink too quickly can reduce sharpness and colour density. A sheet that does not accept or dry the ink correctly can smear or mark as it moves through the machine or stacks in the output tray.

That is why changing paper can sometimes transform the output of a business inkjet without changing the printer at all.

Why paper can have a bigger effect on inkjet colour

Think about putting the same liquid onto two different surfaces: one porous and one sealed. The liquid behaves differently even though the amount applied is identical. Inkjet printing works on the same principle at a much finer scale.

When investigating poor inkjet quality, test a known, suitable paper before assuming the print head or ink system is at fault.

Can better paper improve print quality?

Yes. Sometimes one of the easiest ways to improve a printed document is not to change the printer at all — it is to change the paper.

Try printing the same presentation on basic copier paper, good-quality 80gsm paper and a brighter 100gsm presentation stock and put them side by side.

The printer may be producing exactly the same file, but differences in the paper's surface, whiteness, opacity, thickness and absorption can make the finished document look noticeably different.

This can be particularly noticeable with business inkjet printing because the paper has a direct effect on how the ink is absorbed and dries.

For everyday internal printing, premium paper may not be necessary. But for quotations, presentations, reports and customer-facing documents, spending a little more on the paper can sometimes make a bigger visible difference than changing the printer settings.

What the sheet looks like changes the print

Brightness, Whiteness, Shade and Opacity

Paper is the background to almost every colour your printer produces. Normal office printers do not print an opaque white layer underneath the image, so the colour and optical properties of the sheet influence what your eye sees.

Brightness and whiteness are not exactly the same thing

Brightness is a technical measure of light reflectance in a defined part of the spectrum. Whiteness is broader and relates more closely to how neutral or “white” the sheet appears across visible light. A paper can also have a warmer cream tone, a neutral white or a cooler blue-white shade.

In practical office terms, brighter or cleaner-looking paper can increase contrast and make colour work appear more vivid, while a warmer paper changes the visual character of exactly the same file.

The effect becomes even clearer with coloured stock. Print the same image on white, pale blue or pink paper and the colours will not appear identical because the paper itself forms part of what your eye sees. This matters where colour accuracy, brand colours or photographic reproduction are important, and it can be particularly noticeable with inkjet output.

Opacity matters for double-sided printing

Opacity describes how resistant a sheet is to light passing through it. If you print heavy text or colour on both sides of a low-opacity sheet, the reverse-side image may show through. That is particularly noticeable in reports, booklets and documents with large solid areas.

Important for folding, stiffness and movement

What Is Paper Grain Direction?

During manufacture, paper fibres tend to align more strongly in one direction. This is known as the grain direction. It affects how the sheet bends, expands with moisture, curls and folds.

Xerox specifically identifies grain as a paper property that affects handling and recommends folding with the grain because folding against it can increase cracking, particularly on coated stocks.

Why grain matters for booklets and finishing

For folded or bound work, the grain should normally run parallel with the main fold or spine. This helps the document fold more cleanly and sit more naturally. On heavier or coated stocks, folding across the grain can make cracking more obvious.

Does grain affect feeding?

It can. Grain changes the sheet's stiffness depending on direction, and stiffness is part of how paper behaves as rollers pick it up and bend it through the machine. Some manufacturers provide specific grain-orientation guidance for particular media and devices.

For everyday 80gsm office work you may never need to think about grain. It becomes much more relevant when you move into heavy stock, booklet making, folding, production work or repeated feeding problems with a particular paper.

Good paper can become bad paper

Paper Storage, Moisture and Acclimatisation

Paper absorbs and loses moisture from the surrounding air. That can change its curl, dimensions, stiffness and electrical behaviour. In other words, a perfectly good ream can start feeding badly because of how it has been stored rather than how it was manufactured.

Keep paper wrapped until you need it

The wrapper is part of the storage system. Xerox guidance explains that ream packaging acts as a moisture barrier and recommends leaving paper unopened until it is ready to be used. Once a ream has been opened, protect unused sheets again rather than leaving them exposed for days.

Store it flat

Paper should be stored flat, supported and protected from direct sunlight, damp and extreme environmental changes. Avoid leaning reams vertically against a wall or leaving open paper close to heaters, air-conditioning outlets or damp floors.

Let cold paper adjust before opening it

If paper has been stored in a cold warehouse, van or another environment that is significantly different from the print room, give it time to reach the room conditions while it is still wrapped. Manufacturer guidance warns that rapid temperature and humidity changes can encourage curl, dimensional change and condensation.

Grip and printability

Why Paper Surface and Cut Quality Matter

Smoothness affects print appearance, but the surface also changes how the sheet interacts with feed rollers. Glossy, coated, very smooth, rough or previously printed paper can behave differently from standard copier paper.

As pickup and feed rollers wear, unusual media often reveals the loss of grip before standard 80gsm paper does. A machine can therefore run thousands of normal sheets perfectly and then struggle with a glossy or reused stock.

Cut quality matters too

Paper should be square, consistently sized and cleanly cut. Rough or dusty edges, crushed corners and inconsistent sheet dimensions make accurate feeding and registration harder. This is particularly noticeable at high print volumes.

Previously printed paper

Reusing paper is sometimes practical, but a previously printed sheet may have passed through heat, absorbed or lost moisture, developed curl or had its surface altered. That can change feeding behaviour. Some manufacturers specifically caution against previously printed stock in particular machines or paper paths.

If reused paper is important to the workflow, test it properly rather than assuming it will behave like a fresh sheet.

The volume effect

Paper Dust and High-Volume Printing

Every sheet carries fibres and microscopic debris. At ordinary office volumes that may never become particularly noticeable. At 20,000 pages a month, however, 240,000 sheets pass through the machine in a year.

Dust and fibres can build up around feed rollers, sensors, paper paths and other internal areas. Paper with rough, poorly cut or excessively dusty edges adds more contamination than a clean, consistent stock.

In our own service work, we pay particular attention to paper condition and dust on high-volume business inkjet machines because contamination around the paper path and print zone can contribute to feeding and image-quality problems.

Not every printable sheet is ordinary paper

Labels, Envelopes, Letterhead and Specialist Media

Special media needs more care because the complete construction of the sheet matters, not just its GSM.

Recycled paper isn't automatically a problem. Many modern office printers are designed to use it perfectly well. What matters is whether the particular paper suits the machine and runs consistently. As with any paper, look at curl, dust, surface quality and feeding rather than assuming recycled paper is either good or bad simply because it is recycled.

The whole document path matters

Printing Is Only One Part of the Paper Specification

A multifunction printer can have several separate paper-handling systems. The main print path, duplex unit, automatic document feeder and finishing unit can all have different limits.

A printer may print a sheet it cannot scan through the ADF

A machine may be capable of printing on heavy card but unable to pass the same weight reliably through its automatic document feeder. In that situation, the flatbed glass may be the correct way to scan it.

Heavier paper reduces finishing capacity

Staplers and booklet makers are normally limited by both sheet count and finished thickness. Manufacturer finishing specifications show that the number of sheets a device can staple or fold often falls as paper weight increases.

If you change a booklet from 80gsm to 120gsm, do not assume the same number of sheets can still be folded and stapled.

Duplex limits can be different from simplex limits

A printer may accept a heavy sheet through a bypass tray for one-sided printing but not allow that same media through the automatic duplex path. Labels, envelopes and transparencies are also commonly restricted from automatic duplexing.

Look beyond the price per ream

Cheap Paper Can Become Expensive Paper

Paper is sometimes forgotten when businesses calculate the cost of printing.

Standard A4 80gsm office paper can cost around 1p per sheet, depending on the quality, brand and quantity purchased. That means the paper itself can be one of the largest individual costs involved in producing a basic black-and-white office page.

At high volumes, saving a fraction of a penny per sheet can certainly add up. But the cheapest box is not necessarily the cheapest paper to actually use.

If cheaper paper creates more jams, wasted prints, reprinting, cleaning or staff interruptions, the saving can disappear very quickly.

That doesn't mean every office should use expensive presentation paper for everything. The sensible approach is to match the paper to the job.

For organisations printing at higher volumes, the paper cost should be considered alongside toner or ink, service, waste and device utilisation. Our managed print service looks at the wider print environment rather than only the headline cost of the machine.

The important point

Paper Is Part of the Printing System

A business printing solution is not simply the printer. It is the combination of:

If any one of those is wrong, the finished result can suffer. That is why we look at what a customer actually produces when specifying an office printer or photocopier: monthly volume, mono and colour use, A4 and A3, paper weight, special media, scanning, stapling, booklet making, image quality and the environment the machine will work in.

There is little value in buying a fast, well-specified printer if it cannot reliably handle the documents your organisation actually needs to produce.

And sometimes improving print quality or reliability doesn't mean replacing the printer. It might simply mean using better paper, the correct settings and the right paper-handling process.