Watercolor Paper Weight Conversions

Measuring paper weight in grams per square meter commonly referred to as gsm or g m 2 is literally taking the weight in grams of 1 square meter of paper.

Watercolor paper weight conversions.

The 4 basic weights of watercolor paper is 90lb 140lb 300lb and 400lb. Lbs to gsm or gsm to lbs enter a weight then click the convert button. It is also the least expensive. Paper weight converter our easy to use paper weight conversion tool located on the resources page allows you to convert from standard american english pounds lbs to metric grams square meter gsm.

So you would see that it is also about 167 lb. In connection with different formats and paper weights grammages. Which is what we will be comparing in today s study. For a 300 gsm paper this means that if you cut a sheet of paper 1 meter long by 1 meter wide it will weigh 300 grams about 2 3 s of a pound ream 500 sheets of paper since the paper and printing industry began different businesses used different ream sizes due to the application they were making.

90 pound watercolor paper will accept a fair amount of water but is best used with less water than the average watercolorist uses and cannot survive a lot of scrubbing or abrasion of the paper. For example 500 sheets of watercolor paper 22 x30 may weigh 90 lb which is 190 gsm. It buckles when wet and can t endure much scrubbing for changes. The confusing part is when the paper gets different sizes then 22 x30.

Weight indicates the quality and usually the price of the paper. Use our weight conversion calculator to find the correct values when comparing paper weight across different scales and types. For the size 22 x30. Typical weights for watercolor paper are.

90 pound paper is a student grade and is rather thin. The three standard watercolor paper weights are 90 140 and 300 pounds. Tedious fiddling with your calculator will becomme irritants of the past. Get back to business with neenah with 20 off your favorite brands.

I have a paper 26 x40 which is 356 gsm. 140 pound paper is probably the most popular choice. So even though both drawing and aquarius ii are listed as the same weight in pounds 80lbs the master size sheets being weighed are not the same again the drawing paper basis size is 24 x 36 and the watercolor paper basis size is 22 x 30. The lighter the weight the more buckling and warping you will encounter the higher the weight the thicker the papers and less as a result less warping.