OK, so maybe I'm being unreasonable

[rolanni]

I wonder: How many people here can pick up a piece of 70 lb bond and a piece of 20 lb bond, and feel the difference?

Special bonus question: If you wished to print something on the community printer, and you happened to notice that said printer was out of paper, would you be prone to completely overlook the full case of 20 lb printer paper under the printer table, where it's always kept, and ransack shelves where printer paper has never been kept, tearing open random reams of card stock, thesis paper, broadsheet, and colored paper in a variety of hues, until you located said 70 lb bond and loaded the printer with it?

Extra-special bonus question: Both drawers?

Comments

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

our experience is that most people can easily tell the difference when they're thinking about it, and subconciously know the difference when they're not. 70# is what you use if it's a proffesional newsletter or correspondence and the difference in the feel of the paper and it's hind-brain association of "important" make people pay more attention to the contents.

However, I've worked in marketing and print shops and the differences in cost, texture, print quality, and customer perception *might* be hard-wired by this point. ;)

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

However, I've worked in marketing and print shops and the differences in cost, texture, print quality, and customer perception *might* be hard-wired by this point. ;)

Similar situation, here, which is why I thought that I might have been expecting too much specialized knowledge. I mean, how could you not tell the difference?

[katmoonshaker.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. I've never worked in a print shop or anywhere that required me to know the difference. I've been a chef, a day care teacher, book shop worker, child development researcher using the paradigm of Piaget (that sounds so much better than house spouse), and now a graphic artist working on tests made for schools... but I do that on-line from home. My only experience with paper has been when I put out papers for various organizations, SCA & Girl Scouts or put together small books for children etc.

[lagilman]

In similar situations, I have been known to bite the offender....

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why you're upset, they said; it's only paper!

[lagilman]

Might I suggest asking them for a dollar, and then taking a tenner from their wallet, and saying the same to them when they object?

[zola.livejournal.com]

I ought to put you in touch with my friend who works for a university in England, you could commiserate...

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

Extra extra special bonus: can you tell the difference without opening the package or looking at the printing on the package of the bond paper?

[katmoonshaker.livejournal.com]

::nods:: Precisely what I said. They feel different in the package even if they have the same packaging regardless of if it's box or paper.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

can you tell the difference without opening the package or looking at the printing on the package of the bond paper?

Well, yeah; I can, but I'm probably never going to see that level of geekhood 'mong my flock. Just exercising a little short-term memory and common sense would get them by.

[katmoonshaker.livejournal.com]

You mean everyone can't tell the difference? As to if I would not use the full case of 20lb paper, it would depend on what I was going to print.

Stipulating that I were using a community printer, that paper for said printer was always in a particular place and was designated to be used for most print jobs I would use that paper. I would not search any other spot unless I had a special print job which required a particular paper, in which case I would begin my search in the last place where I had seen said paper before. Then I would spread out my search from said spot, checking the cover of various papers to see what they said that they contained since there is no point in opening them if they indicate on the front that they are not the paper which I want. Also, I can tell the difference between card stock, 20# paper, and 70# paper by picking up the ream, I don't have to open it. This is usually true of other paper as well. They have a different weight depending of the weight of the paper.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

See? Short-term memory and common sense will get you by!

[katmoonshaker.livejournal.com]

That and coffee. Coffee helps.

[adamek.livejournal.com]

I used to be able to tell 20# and 24# apart by feel. On the other hand, I worked in a paper mill.

whaaaaaat

[(Anonymous)]

Both trays on a community printer.....


is the person illerate ir just an ideot (misspelled for effect)

[claydowling.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I don't think I would have mistaken the cardstock for 20#. Everything about that feels wrong. I know that if I had 20# and 70# both in my hands, I could feel the difference. Lacking the comparison, I know I can get that one wrong. My capacity for screwing up knows no bounds.

Then again, I also know to look at the label on the paper. I spent just enough time in a print shop to know that I need to pay attention to these things.

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

sure, no problem, an easy distinction.

hey, let's talk brightness of paper too!

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I don't know the US weights, but assuming that 20lb is something like the standard copying paper in Europe (75g or 80g) that would make 70lb something like 280g. That's -- drastic. I can't always distinguish 80g and 100g (it can depend on finish) unless I have both to hand to compare directly, but even 120g is definitely easily recognisable. (I'm a programmer, I load the copier and laser printer on occasion, and I definitely know not to use 150g or heavier paper in either or I expect a jam in our somewhat elderly equipment.)

[(Anonymous)]

If #70 is Resume paper, I could tell. I would look for the stuff labeled printer paper, because cheaper is better (with the exception of resumes and similar), and paper the printer is not designed to used will jam it.

1. If #70 is has a thickness greater then or equal resume paper or construction paper, most likely yes. Certainly if it is still in the package. I think this might be a reasonable expectation.

2. I am prone to making poor choices at times, but I would think not. This is very likely a reasonable expectation.

3. If I had nothing but my own fancy paper, and really needed to print something, I would use the minimum amount necessary.

4. In regards to the Paper is Paper response. This seems unreasonably careless to me. I hope you do not work in a hazardous industrial environment, because if you do, there is a good chance that this person will kill someone.

[muehe.livejournal.com]

Why did this set you off?
Did you feel obligated to fix the problem?
Once a ream is open, I hate to leave it sitting out -- maybe the thought was. I screwed up, might as well use it all up and be done with it.

Now that the devil in me has had his say.

Don’t you hate inconsiderate people like that? No thought about their co-workers or the fact that another tree has to die just to cover thier laziness. Stupid, no good, SOB!!!

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Did you feel obligated to fix the problem?

Well, yanno, fixing this kind of thing is why I get the Big Buck$. But what set me off even more than the expense and the...lack of advertency...was the unwarranted, unnecessary, and disrespectful way in which the rest of the supplies were treated during this person's apparently frenzied search for printer paper. It looked like somebody had tossed the joint, and I had to spend an hour of time reordering and tidying up a paper supply that had been crinkle-free and in harmony last evening when I left.

But! On the bright side, though this was annoying and stupid, it was not the Day's Best. That was the person who told me that my time was Best Spent by separating the sugar packets in the faculty lounge from the splenda packets. Gosh. I've never filed sugar before...

I've never filed sugar before..

[bookmobiler.livejournal.com]

Tell them your diabetic and aren't supposed to touch sugar. If they're dumb enough to ask you to do it, they're dumb enough to believe you.

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

The printer paper I buy at the local warehouse club is 24#*. I can tell that it feels different than 20#, which is what they use at work. This extends to non-labeled distinction - if I print two copies of the same document, one at work and one at home, I can tell which one is which by checking the weight of the paper.

*I'd happily use 20# at home, too, but my choices at the club are a "super-ream"** of 24# or a case of 10 reams of 20#. A case of paper would supply our household well into the next ice age, so 24# it is.

*I don't know what they really call it, but it's 750 sheets rather than the 500 in a standard ream

[djonn]

Like most of the rest of the gallery, I've probably spent enough time around computers, laser printers, quick-copy outlets, and full service printers to be more than usually aware of differences in paper stock. Too many years back, now, I was introduced to 16 lb and 24 lb paper (both inadvertently substituted for 20 lb), and promptly decided I liked 24 lb for submission manuscripts, postage issues notwithstanding.

As someone else noted, 70# paper is going to be most frequently encountered as cardstock -- and if it isn't cardstock, it's going to be a really sturdy resumé or stationery-grade paper.

So, answers:
#1 -- Absolutely I'd feel the difference.
#2 -- Absolutely not by accident; if I loaded 70# paper, it would be because I wanted 70# paper for the particular project.
#3 -- Certainly not; it's a community printer.

The implied conclusion about the person who actually did this is essentially valid. He or she may not be bucking for a Darwin Award (yet), but neither is your subject going to win any prizes for observational ability.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Hum - easily feel the difference. Ransacking is interesting - this sounds as if they really wanted this special paper for some reason. And filling both drawers - our secretary does this, because she doesn't understand how to get the printer to do what she wants. And pulls out the manual feed and shoves paper in it, too. Then leaves the blasted thing set that way, so that when I try to print something using regular paper, it complains that it doesn't have any such, and I get to go undo her special setup for the one print job that she ran yesterday -- and all the queued jobs run out. But that's just our office peculiarities.

Um - I usually try to instill the notion that one should leave the printer (or other shared resource) in the same condition that one found it. This default standard makes it less likely that other people will get in trouble with their expectations. And the bonus is that the approach works for many situations - toilet seats and lids come to mind.

Long way to say - I agree, you are dealing with a doofus. Maybe a sign saying something about "This is a shared printer. If you need to change the paper for a special job, make sure to put the regular paper back when you are done or your budget will be charged for the wasted paper." Ignore the fact that you won't have any idea whose budget to charge -- the threat of having their budget tapped will make lots of people jump to.

Ain't life in a university office wonderful?

[(Anonymous)]

Burton from Montreal

To answer Rolanni's questions.

Of course there is a difference between 20# and 70# paper. The 70# paper is thicker, heavier, smoother and stiffer.

Always leave a community printer in the same state you found it. Usually that means you reload the upper tray with 20# letter sized paper and the lower tray with 20# legal size paper.

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

Yes I can easily tell the difference. Mind you I'm not surprised that some people can't. I get teachers who can't follow simple emailed instructions on how to use an embedded form in outlook. Gah. ... I mean how hard is it to go to the tools menu, click on forms, then choose forms. And then click open to open your form? So I can well believe you encounter people who can't tell the difference between papers.