Envelope Standards & Facts

January 11, 2010 by Brenda Bell · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Finishing, Mailing, Paper

With so many different shapes, sizes and categories, envelopes can quickly become very confusing. Here some info on the most common envelopes and their sizes to hopefully help make things a little clearer.

Commercial and official:
These envelopes normally have a commercial flap (standard flap), however some manufacturers offer a square flap version as well for certain sizes.
#6 1/4 envelope – 3.5625 x 6.25
#6 3/4 envelope – 3.625 x 6.5
#8 5/8 envelope – 3.625 x 8.625
#7 3/4 envelope – 3.875 x 7.5
Monarch – 3.875 x 7.5
#9 envelope – 3.875 x 8.875
#10 envelope – 4.125 x 9.5
#11 envelope – 4.5 x 10.375
#12 envelope – 4.75 x 11
#14 envelope – 5 x 11.5

Announcement envelopes:
These envelopes have a square flap.
A-2 envelope - 4.375 x 5.75
A-6 envelope – 4.75 x 6.5
A-7 envelope – 5.25 x 7.25
A-8 envelope – 5.5 x 8.125
A-10 envelope – 6 x 9.5

Baronial Envelopes (abbreviated “Bar”):
These envelopes have a baronial (pointed) flap.
#4 Baronial envelope – 3.625 x 5.125
#5 Baronial envelope – 4.125 x 5.5
#5 1/2 Baronial – 4.375 x 5.75
#6 Baronial – 4.75 x 6.5
Lee – 5.25 x 7.25

Remittance envelopes:
These envelopes have a statement or return flap
6 1/4 Remittance envelope – 3.5 x 6
6 1/2 Remittance envelope - 3.5 x 6.25
6 3/4 Remittance envelope – 3.625 x 6.5
#9 Remittance envelope – 3.875 x 6.5

Other Envelope Facts:

A Booklet envelope has the flap on the long side. For example, on a 9×12 booklet, the flap is on the 12 inch side.
A Catalog envelope has the flap on the short side. For example, on a 9×12 catalog, the flap is on the 9 inch side.
A converted envelope is when the envelope is printed on a flat sheet and then made into an envelope. This is opposed to printing on a preconverted envelope. A converted envelope is most economically feasible at larger quantities.
A square flap envelope with rounded corners is called a pictorial flap envelope. In most cases this is only available with a converted envelope.

Tags: commerical flap envelope, envelope converting, envelope facts, envelope shapes, envelope sizes, pointed flap envelope, square flap envelope

What are all of the paper weights and what do they actually mean?: Basic size & weights explained

August 21, 2009 by Brenda Bell · 2 Comments
Filed under: Educational, Paper

Have you ever wondered what exactly say an 80# text is and why is called 80#? It’s a topic that is often overlooked and often misunderstood. I even had someone tell me once that they thought the weight of paper meant how much pressure was applied to the paper when they made it. As you will see below, that is not true at all.

Simply put, the basis weight (a graphic arts term for the # number eg. 80#) is the actual weight of 500 sheets (a ream) of the basic sheet size. The basic sheet size depends on the grade of paper, so here is a listing of commonly used paper grades and their basic sheet sizes:

Paper Grade: Book (also called text)
Basic Sheet Size: 25 x 38

Paper Grade: Bond and Writing
Basic Sheet Size: 17″x 22″

Paper Grade: Cover
Basic Sheet Size: 20″ x 26″

Paper Grade: Tag
Basic Sheet Size: 24″ x 36″

Paper Grade: Index
Basic Sheet Size: 25.25″ x 30.5″

Referring to the list above you can see that our example of 80# text comes from the fact that 500 25″x38″ sheets actually weigh 80 pounds.

Tags: basic size, basis size, basis weight, bond, book, cover, index, paper grades, pounds of paper, tag, weights of paper, writing

Paper weight conversion chart – pounds to gsm

May 22, 2009 by Brenda Bell · 5 Comments
Filed under: Digital Printing, Educational, Paper

Digital color machines (like the Konica Minolta we have) are more particular about paper weights than our offset presses. For this reason most digital machines use grams/square meter instead of the conventional weight system. This is more accurate in the fact that it doesn’t vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. The caliper of one manufacturer’s 100# cover may be different from the caliper of another manufacturer’s paper in the same weight. No so with gsm weights.

Below is a conversion chart from the conventional weight system to gsm (and visa versa). Most production digital color machines, including ours cannot run heavier than 300 gsm stock. Using the chart below, you can see this is approx. 110# cover, depending on the manufacturer that is.