What Weight Is 10 pt. Paper?

Card stock is a good choice for wedding announcements and yard sale signs.

"Point" is a unit used to measure paper thickness in the United States, at a thousandth of an inch, according to Russ Rowlett, Director of the University of North Carolina's Center for Mathematics and Science Education. A common thickness for card stock, which is a more durable paper used for crafts or note-taking on index cards, is 10 pt., for example.

Weight

A point equals 0.001 inch, in regards to paper thickness. A 10 pt. card is 0.010 in., which, according to conversion charts, corresponds to 219 g/m2 and 80 pounds.

Facts

Pound weight, for paper, is based on the weight of 500 sheets of the paper, in 20-inch by 26-inch sheets. The "point" is a unit of distance equal to 0.001 inch. One point equals 25.4 micrometers or microns.

Terms

A point in paper measurement is synonymous with mil and thou. "Thou" is a colloquial term for "thousandth of an inch." Paper thickness is also termed "caliper," according to Professor Rowlett.

References

• Microformat, Inc.: Conversion Chart
• DesignYourOwnCard.com: Paper Weight, Thickness, and Finish
• Russ Rowlette, UNC Center for Mathematics and Science Education: A Dictionary of Units of Measurements