Difference Between

Paper Size vs GSM (Weight) | Gram per Square Meter

In earlier times when standardization of paper sizes and their weight had not been done, it was a nightmare for a person to select paper for his purposes. In general, the denser the paper, the more weighty it was. It required expertise and there were lots of instances of wrong paper selection that made the project fail after printing and binding. However, the scenario changed after standardization of paper size and paper weight (or paper density) in GSM or gram per square meter. This article will clarify the relation between paper size and GSM, for the benefit of the people who remain confused between paper size and GSM.

If you hear the word GSM in any conversation, you can be pretty certain that it is the thickness of the paper that is being discussed. For paper weights, there are two standards that are in vogue in the world. Countries that follow ISO 536 that refers to paper and board, defines Grammage, or the weight per square meter of the paper. A0 is the size being 1 square meter in area, and so any sheet of paper having 80 GSM would be 80 gram, while anotherA0 sheet having 100 GSM would be 100 gm in weight.

In offices, 70-80 GSM is the standard weight of paper that is being used in many parts of the world, though heavier paper having 100 or more GSM is preferred by some people for communication purposes. In general, any paper having more than 160 GSM is considered as card thickness. File dividers have a GSM between 180 and 200. Newspapers need to be light as much as possible, and thus, most of them have a GSM of around 45 and 50.