I pay attention to paper that I use for printing. Trivial? Maybe, yet I do care.

I care about the paper weight, brightness, dimensions, finish, and sometimes even what the paper fibers feel like. There seems to be a variety of fibers in paper, and, my, isn’t that interesting?

Yet, although I care about these factors, I haven’t found an online purveyor of paper who appears to also care. Sigh!

This has bothered me now for years, but, dear readers, I fear that if I were to share these troubles, you would not know what I’m talking about, or, more likely, simply wouldn’t care.

Apparently, my online search for paper this evening has finally nudged me just outside that zone of tacit disappointment.

So here’s the quixotic-windmill-tilt I’ve given up on this evening.

My goal: buy a ream of white A4 sized paper, reasonably bright, just a little heavier than normal, like 24lb (90 g/m²).

Simple, right?

A Google search led me to trusty Amazon.com where I found a ream of 20lb A4 paper by Hammermill/International Paper. So, so close.

I didn’t see an obvious way of finding 24 lb A4 paper, so I went directly the Hammermill website. Surely, the paper company would present me with a lovely catalog of papers and I would find precisely what I sought, while perhaps also discovering papers that I’d also like. It would be an excellent distraction!

Alas, it wasn’t so.

Really, what I wanted was a faceted classification of papers, so I could quickly filter down the catalog of papers.

Here are some facets that come to mind.

Color: White, Beige, (and so on)

Size: International sizes like A0 to A10, US sizes like Letter (8.5X11), Legal, Tabloid, etc. And so on.

Weight: 20lb, 24lb, 32lb, and so on. These should include weights in g/m².

Brightness: 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, and so on. (I don’t know the range or increments.)

Finish: Matte, Glossy, etc.

Percent recycled: up to 100%

And maybe, uses: photo prints, standard copier or inkjet printer paper, etc.

I’m curious, does anyone know of an online paper vendor who actually has something like this in place?

Until then, I shall persevere with my ream of Staples brand multipurpose paper, 96 bright, 24 lb, letter-sized, 50% recycled.