100lb Paper Explained, Text vs Cover Weight
One label, two papers. Here is where the 100 pounds is actually measured, what each sheet feels like in the hand, and which 4OVER4.COM products run on it.
100lb paper is two different stocks, because text and cover are weighed at different basic sheet sizes. 100lb text is 148 gsm and about 0.005 inch thick, a flexible sheet for brochures and flyers. 100lb cover is 270 gsm and about 0.010 inch, real card for postcards and covers. The cover sheet is 45 percent smaller at its basic size, so the same 100 pounds packs roughly 1.8 times the paper into it. Text folds without a score. Only cover clears the 0.007 inch minimum the USPS needs for a mailed card.
Quick answer
Same 100 pounds, measured on two different sheets
A basis weight is what 500 uncut sheets weigh at that grade’s basic size, and the two grades use different sizes. Text is weighed at 25 by 38 inches and lands at 148 gsm. Cover is weighed at 20 by 26 inches, covers 45 percent less surface for the same 100 pounds, and lands at 270 gsm. That single fact explains the rest: why text folds without cracking, why only cover can be mailed as a card, and why quoting a stock in gsm or caliper saves an argument later.
Why One Number Describes Two Different Papers
Paper in the United States is sold by basis weight, and a basis weight only means something once you know the grade. Every grade is weighed at its own basic size, the large uncut sheet the mill works from. Text and book paper is weighed at 25 by 38 inches. Cover is weighed at 20 by 26 inches.
Put 500 sheets of each on a scale at that basic size and both read 100 pounds. The difference is what those 500 sheets cover. A text sheet is 950 square inches, a cover sheet only 520. The same 100 pounds is spread across 45 percent less paper, so every cover sheet has to be roughly 1.8 times heavier per square inch to reach the number.
Convert both to grams per square metre and the confusion disappears: 100lb text is 148 gsm, 100lb cover is 270 gsm. For scale, the 20lb bond in an office copier is about 75 gsm. So 100lb text is around twice a sheet of copy paper, and 100lb cover is closer to three and a half times it.
| Stock | Basic size | Metric weight | Typical coated caliper | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80lb text | 25 x 38 in | 118 gsm | about 0.004 in | A flyer that flexes easily and stacks tight. |
| 100lb text | 25 x 38 in | 148 gsm | about 0.005 in | A good magazine page. Folds without a score. |
| 80lb cover | 20 x 26 in | 216 gsm | about 0.009 in | Light card. Holds its shape, still fairly bendy. |
| 100lb cover | 20 x 26 in | 270 gsm | about 0.010 in | Proper card. Stands on edge, snaps back flat. |
| 14pt cover | quoted in caliper | roughly 325 gsm | 0.014 in | The standard business card feel. |
Calipers move with the mill and the finish. Uncoated sheets bulk up thicker than gloss at the same weight because there is no clay layer compressing the surface, and a matte or silk sheet usually sits between the two. If thickness is what you actually care about, the caliper figure beats the pound figure every time, which is the argument our guide to cardstock weights in points works through.
How 100lb Text and 100lb Cover Behave on a Real Job
Weight on a spec sheet turns into three decisions on the shop floor: whether the piece folds, whether it can be mailed, and what it costs to send.
Folding. 100lb text folds straight off the press and holds a crisp hinge. That is the whole reason it is the default brochure stock. Coated cover is a different animal. The clay coating on the surface will not stretch around a tight bend, so an unscored fold splits it and leaves a white crack down the spine. Cover always gets scored first, and even scored, a heavy sheet folded against the grain looks rougher than the same fold running with it.
Mailing. The USPS refuses any mailpiece thinner than 0.007 inch, which quietly settles the question for postcards. Coated 100lb text is around 0.005 inch and will not travel on its own. 100lb cover clears the minimum at roughly 0.010 inch. A text sheet can still go in the mail, but it has to be inside an envelope or folded into a self-mailer that meets the thickness rule.
Show-through and postage. Ink that shows faintly through the back of a sheet is a text-weight problem, and it gets worse with heavy solid backgrounds. Moving from 80lb to 100lb text usually solves it. Going all the way to cover solves it and then adds mailing weight you pay for on every piece, which matters at 5,000 and is irrelevant at 250. Weigh a printed sample before you buy postage for a large run.
The short version a printer would give you across the counter: if it folds, use text. If it gets handled, propped up, or mailed naked, use cover. Our notes on paper types for brochure printing and choosing a brochure fold cover the folding side in more depth.
Which 4OVER4.COM Products Run on 100lb Stock
Text weights and cover weights sit on different products in our catalog, and the naming follows the grade rather than the marketing.
Standard brochures start at $57.11 for 50 and offer four stocks: 100# gloss text, 100# silk matte text, 70# uncoated text, and a heavier 14pt gloss cover for pieces that want stiffness more than a clean fold. The two 100# text options are the ones most half-fold brochures are printed on, and the silk gives you a low-glare surface that is still easy to read under office lighting.
Standard rack cards start at $42.84 for 50 and list 100# silk matte among fifteen stocks. A rack card lives in a display slot and gets picked up and put back, so people often assume it needs card. The 4 by 9 inch format is narrow enough that a 100# silk text sheet still stands in a rack, and it costs less per piece.
Standard flyers run across seven stocks that include gloss, silk matte and uncoated text plus 80# and silk matte cover, so this is the product where the text versus cover decision is most visible in the configurator. Handouts and door drops go on text. Anything that gets pinned up or left on a counter for weeks does better on cover.
Standard postcards start at $16.48 for 50 and are quoted in caliper points rather than pounds, because everything in that lineup has to clear the mail minimum. If you were shopping for a 100lb postcard, 14pt or 16pt is the equivalent to compare, and the full range sits on the postcard printing and flyer printing category pages.
Specifying 100lb Without Getting the Wrong Sheet
Most stock mix-ups happen in an email, not in a press room. A designer writes "100lb" and the printer, the client and the mailing house each picture a different sheet.
Three habits stop it. Write the grade every time, so the spec reads 100# gloss text or 100# cover and never just 100lb. Add the gsm in brackets when the job is going overseas or through a broker. And when rigidity is the point, quote a caliper: 0.010 inch says something 100lb cover only implies.
Then confirm it by hand. Order a sample of the exact stock and finish before you commit to a long run, because gloss, silk and uncoated at the same weight feel like three different papers, and no spec sheet transmits that. Fold the sample if the job folds. Drop it in a rack if the job racks.
On the file side, weight changes nothing about setup. Same bleed, same safe margin, same resolution. Start from a correctly sized layout in the blank template library, and if you want the sequence from upload to delivery, our guide to how online printing works walks it through. For the stock-family picture behind all of this, cardstock versus paper stock is the wider view.
Wally explains 100lb paper
Two reams, both 100 pounds, nothing alike
Wally stacks 500 sheets of text paper cut to 25 by 38 inches and 500 sheets of cover cut to 20 by 26 inches. Both piles weigh 100 pounds. The cover sheets are far smaller, so all that weight is crammed into less paper and each sheet comes out nearly twice as heavy. That is why his 100lb text brochure folds in half without a complaint, and his 100lb cover postcard survives the mail.
Order brochures on 100lb text →Specs and pricing
Stocks, sizes, and starting prices on our 100lb products
Open the stock dropdown on each one to see the text and cover weights available, with live configuration choices and starting prices from the 4OVER4.COM configurator.
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Common Questions
Your 100lb paper questions, answered
Is 100lb paper thick?
That depends entirely on the grade printed after the number. 100lb text is a substantial but flexible sheet, about 148 gsm and roughly 0.005 inch on coated stock, which is close to a good magazine page and about twice the weight of the 20lb bond in an office copier. 100lb cover is card, about 270 gsm and roughly 0.010 inch, stiff enough to stand on its own edge. Same number, and one is nearly twice the paper of the other.
What is the difference between 100lb text and 100lb cover?
The basic size each grade is weighed at. Text and book paper is weighed as 500 sheets of 25 by 38 inches, which is 950 square inches per sheet. Cover is weighed as 500 sheets of 20 by 26 inches, which is 520 square inches per sheet. Both reams hit 100 pounds on the scale, but the cover ream spreads that weight over 45 percent less surface, so each cover sheet has to be far heavier per square inch. In practice, text folds and mails inside an envelope, cover stands up as a card.
What is 100lb paper in gsm?
100lb text is 148 gsm and 100lb cover is 270 gsm. Those are not estimates, they fall straight out of the basis weight arithmetic, and grams per square metre is the reason the metric system never has this argument. If a supplier quotes a stock only in pounds and you are not certain which grade they mean, ask for the gsm figure before you approve anything.
Can you fold 100lb cover without cracking it?
Not reliably, unless it is scored first. Coated cover has a clay layer on the surface that does not stretch, so bending it over a tight radius splits the coating and leaves a white line along the fold. Scoring crushes a channel in the fibres so the sheet hinges instead of tearing. Any folded piece we run on cover stock gets scored as part of the job. If a piece folds and does not need the stiffness, 100lb text is the easier sheet.
Can you mail a 100lb text postcard?
No. The USPS sets a minimum thickness of 0.007 inch for a mailpiece travelling on its own, and coated 100lb text comes in around 0.005 inch. It will be rejected or it will jam the sorting equipment. Anything that goes into the mail without an envelope needs a cover stock, which is why our postcards are quoted in caliper points rather than pounds and start at 14pt.
Is 100lb cover the same as 14pt cardstock?
Close, but 14pt is thicker. 100lb gloss cover measures around 0.010 inch, while 14pt is 0.014 inch by definition, since a point is one thousandth of an inch. The pound figure describes weight and the point figure describes caliper, so they are two ways of measuring, not two names for one stock. When rigidity is the thing that matters, the point number is the more honest spec to compare.
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