Printing terminology used at Doxdirect
Below is a brief guide to some of the printing terminology we use on our website at Doxdirect.
Number of pages or printed sides:
It may be a little confusing as to what we actually mean when we refer to pages, sheets, sides or leaves, as finished electronic documents always refer to a side of text as a ‘page’. In order to help clarify matters, at Doxdirect we use the following terminology to refer to the number of sheets of paper or printed sides in a document or book.
Sheet(s) of paper = leaf or leaves
Example: if you choose single sided printing, then the number of leaves in a document will be equal to the number of printed sides, but if you select double sided printing, then the number of leaves will be half the number of printed sides.
Side(s) = the number of printed sides
Example: if you choose single sided printing, then the number of sides will be equal to the number of leaves in a document, but if you choose double sided printing, the number of leaves will be half the number of printed sides.
Paper weight/paper quality = weight of paper
The quality of paper is partly determined by its weight – the heavier the weight, the better the quality. The weight of the paper is measured in ‘gsm’ which means grams per square metre. For example, 90gsm means 90 grams per square metre and 280gsm means 280 grams per square metre.
Paper sizes
At Doxdirect we work with the standard series A paper sizes, so, if possible, please ensure that any document you upload is a standard series A size. If, however, your document is not a standard series A size, it will be detected by our system on upload and you will be prompted to select which series A size you would like printed or to crop your artwork using your crop marks.
FSC paper
As part of our commitment to environmental sustainability, Doxdirect uses FSC certified paper. FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council, and they are an international, non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting responsible management of the worlds forests.