This is one of the most common questions we get, and it gets answered badly online because most of the writing is about print quality on home printers rather than about running a photocopy counter. The honest answer is that 75 GSM is the better default for you, and the difference is small enough that the decision should be made on price and availability rather than on quality. Here is the reasoning, plus what GSM is actually telling you.
What GSM actually measures
GSM stands for grams per square metre, and it measures the mass of one square metre of paper. It does not measure thickness, and it does not measure quality. A 75 GSM sheet and a 70 GSM sheet differ by roughly 7% in weight, which in practice is a difference you can feel but barely see.
- 70 GSM is the standard office copy paper weight used for internal documents, drafts and bulk photocopying.
- 75 GSM is marginally heavier and is often marketed as "premium" or "bright white" copy paper.
- 80 GSM is the international A4 standard and is what most home and school printers are calibrated for.
- 100 GSM and above is where you enter the territory of forms, reports and anything a customer expects to feel substantial.
The important thing about GSM for your counter is that it changes how your printer behaves. Heavier paper feeds more reliably, resists curling, and gives cleaner text. Lighter paper is where jams, double-feeds and toner adhesion problems start.
The direct comparison
| 70 GSM | 75 GSM | 80 GSM |
|---|
| Cost per sheet | Lowest | About 5–12% more | About 10–20% more |
| Jams on a counter printer | Most likely | Rare | Very rare |
| Text crispness | Acceptable | Good | Good |
| Show-through on the reverse | Noticeable on duplex | Minimal | Minimal |
| Feels substantial | No | Slightly | Yes |
| Best for | Internal drafts, bulk copies | The general-purpose counter default | Forms, certificates, school work |
Which one should your counter use
For a general-purpose Indian photocopy counter, 75 GSM is the right default, and the reason is not snobbery. It is that 70 GSM is cheap enough that customers assume it is what they are getting, while a shop printing on 70 GSM will produce noticeably worse duplex jobs and more jams.
- Bulk internal copies, drafts, and your own office paperwork — 70 GSM is fine here and saves you money.
- Anything the customer is paying for as a finished document — 75 GSM. This is exam papers, application forms, and general counter work.
- Certificates, project covers, anything being bound or presented — step up to 100 GSM or above.
- Duplex jobs specifically — never go below 75 GSM. Show-through is the most common complaint on duplex printing and weight fixes most of it.
The practical rule: match the paper to what the customer is paying for, not to what is cheapest on the shelf. Most counters that lose money on paper are the ones printing paid, customer-facing documents on the cheapest grade they can find.
The cost impact, honestly
The price gap between 70 and 75 GSM is usually small, but it applies to every sheet you print, so it scales. On a month where you print 20,000 sheets, moving from 70 to 75 GSM at an extra 4 paise per sheet costs you ₹800. Whether that is worth it depends entirely on how many of those 20,000 sheets were paid duplex jobs that would have looked bad.
| Monthly sheets | Extra cost at +4 paise | Break-even if it saves |
|---|
| 5,000 | ₹200 | 2 sheets a day |
| 10,000 | ₹400 | 4 sheets a day |
| 20,000 | ₹800 | 8 sheets a day |
| 50,000 | ₹2,000 | 20 sheets a day |
The other cost, which is larger and less obvious, is wastage. If 75 GSM cuts your jam rate from one in sixty sheets to one in two hundred, and a jam on a duplex job means re-running a five-page document, the saving on wasted paper and wasted labour quickly exceeds the paper price difference. This is the argument for heavier paper that actually holds up, and it is why the cheapest grade is rarely the cheapest option on a busy counter.
How to tell paper grade apart at the counter
Customers and even shop staff often cannot tell 70 from 75 from 80 GSM by looking. The wrapper states it, but loose paper on your counter may not be labelled. Three practical checks.
- Weigh it. A4 at 80 GSM weighs about 5 g, at 75 GSM about 4.7 g, at 70 GSM about 4.4 g. A kitchen scale and one sheet gives you a quick read, though the difference is small enough to need a decent scale.
- Hold it to the light. Heavier paper is noticeably more opaque. Show-through on the reverse is the fastest visual cue.
- Check the wrapper and buy labelled paper. Loose mixed-grade paper in an open tray is the root cause of most quality complaints.
Other weights worth stocking
| Weight | Use it for | What it costs you |
|---|
| 70 GSM | Internal drafts, your own paperwork, bulk quotes | Cheapest, buys in bulk |
| 75 GSM | The default for paid counter work | Slightly more, fewer jams |
| 100 GSM | Forms, reports, spiral-bound submissions | Noticeably more, holds shape |
| 170 GSM | Covers, folders, chart paper backing | Expensive, handle with care |
| 220 GSM | Business cards, ID cards, thick certificates | Highest cost, often duplexed onto heavier stock |
| 220–300 GSM | Visiting cards and premium ID cards | Print single-sided or bleed in both directions |
What to tell a customer who asks
When someone asks "which is better, 70 or 75", the useful answer is short: for anything you are keeping, use 75 or heavier, because it does not tear, curl or let ink through. For a rough draft, 70 is fine and I will use it to keep the price down. That framing gives them a reason for the price difference instead of a lecture about GSM.
Step-by-step: setting your counter up properly
- Step 1 — Buy labelled paper in at least two weights, and keep each in its own clearly marked tray.
- Step 2 — Label the trays physically. A strip of tape with "75 — default" on the tray saves an argument every single time.
- Step 3 — Set your printer driver default to the weight in that tray, so nobody has to guess at the machine.
- Step 4 — Quote your duplex price on sheets, not pages, and tell the customer the paper weight you are using.
- Step 5 — Review your paper cost per sheet every quarter against your ream price. It moves more than most shop owners assume.
Why GSM matters more for duplex than anything else
If your counter does a meaningful amount of duplex printing, paper weight stops being a minor decision and becomes the one that most affects whether a job looks acceptable. Show-through is the issue. When light strikes the back of a sheet, you see the image on the reverse if the paper is thin and loosely packed. Heavier paper is more opaque, so less light gets through.
- Duplex on 70 GSM with dense text: expect visible show-through, especially on the second side of a form.
- Duplex on 75 GSM: acceptable for body text, still visible on solid dark images or large blocks of colour.
- Duplex on 100 GSM: clean on both sides. This is the safe default when you do not know what the document contains.
- Duplex on 220 GSM card: only if your printer explicitly supports it. Check the manual before promising a customer you can double-print card.
There is a second duplex problem that people blame on paper when it is really a machine setting. If both sides come out slightly offset, or the reverse is rotated 180 degrees, that is the printer's duplex unit, not the GSM. Before blaming the paper, confirm the orientation setting matches what you loaded. If it is genuinely a machine fault on a heavy duplex load, it is usually a worn duplex roller, and no paper change will fix it.
Troubleshooting by symptom
| What you see | Most likely cause | Do this first |
|---|
| Pages feeding two at a time | Paper too light, or roller is dusty | Step up one GSM; clean the platen roller |
| Ink or toner flaking off | Paper too light for the ink being used | Move to 80 GSM or heavier for that job |
| Curling at the edges | Wrong tray, or paper stored near moisture | Use the recommended tray; store paper off the floor |
| Show-through on duplex | Paper below 75 GSM, or dense black content | Step up a grade for duplex jobs |
| Text looks patchy or streaked | Feed rollers, not paper | Run the roller cleaning cycle; check the drum if it persists |
| Blank sheet every few pages | Paper stack is loose or misaligned | Tap the stack square, reload, adjust the guides |
Where to go next
Paper is one of your two largest variable costs, and the other is ink. Our guide to calculating the real per-page print cost shows how to combine paper, ink, power and labour into one number you can quote. Our printer selection guide covers which machine suits which paper weight, so the two decisions line up instead of fighting each other.