Paper Brightness

Paper brightness refers to the percentage of light reflected by a sheet of paper, and is expressed on a scale of 1 to 100 with 100 being the brightest. Paper with higher brightness produces vivid and more crisp text, images and color, and is therefore more suitable for printing photographs or colorful graphics. Paper with lower brightness, on the other hand, is best for printing letters and text with few images because extended reading on high brightness paper will strain the eyes. As such, paper brightness will factor in when a person considers whether he will be printing mostly pictures or mostly text.

If the colors of printed images are noticeably darker than their appearance on the computer screen, you might have to look at the brightness of the paper you just used. The brightness level is usually indicated on the paper packaging. Papers with 84 to 98 brightness are suitable for digital printing, and you can work within the range depending on the content of your document.