Order of service paper weight: which gsm
Paper weight is given in gsm, grams per square metre. Here is what a funeral trade guide and three UK printers say, read on 10 November 2026.
| Who says | Inside pages | Cover | In their words |
|---|---|---|---|
| NAFD Funeral Directory guide | 120 to 160 gsm | No separate figure | “A heavier paper stock (120–160gsm) feels more substantial and premium than standard 80gsm printer paper.” |
| instantprint | 120 gsm uncoated | 120 gsm or 170 gsm uncoated | “We print orders of service on 120gsm uncoated stock, which helps give them a traditional look.” “You can either keep the cover the same as the inside pages or make it thicker by choosing the 170gsm uncoated option.” |
| Gateway | 150 gsm silk | 300 gsm silk | “Our standard stock is pure white silk with 300gsm outer and 150 gsm inside pages.” |
| orderofserviceforfuneral.co.uk | 200 gsm silk | 350 gsm silk card | Its most popular 8-page option, it says, is a “luxury 350gsm silk card cover with 200gsm silk inner pages”. |
These are what each company offers or suggests, not a standard. We are not connected with any of them and have not handled their paper.
Printing at home
- Office paper is usually 80 gsm, the figure the trade guide compares against.
- Heavier paper feels better in the hand but is harder to fold in a stack. Fold each sheet on its own first, then nest them.
- Every printer has a heaviest paper it will feed, and it is often lower for printing on both sides. The figure is in the printer’s manual; we have not tested printers.
- Whatever the paper, run the printer test page on a cheap sheet first.
What a booklet weighs
A sheet of A4 is one sixteenth of a square metre, because A0 is defined as one square metre and each size down is half the one before (Wikipedia, “Paper size”, read 10 November 2026). So a sheet weighs its gsm divided by 16, and a booklet weighs that times its sheets.
| Paper | 8 pages (2 sheets) | 12 pages (3 sheets) | 16 pages (4 sheets) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 gsm | 10 g | 15 g | 20 g |
| 100 gsm | 12.5 g | 18.8 g | 25 g |
| 120 gsm | 15 g | 22.5 g | 30 g |
| 160 gsm | 20 g | 30 g | 40 g |
That is for a booklet on one paper throughout, without staples. For the number of sheets to buy, see how many copies to print; for what the same printers charge, see printing costs.
Questions
- What paper weight is best for an order of service?
- There is no single answer. A funeral trade guide suggests 120 to 160 gsm for a booklet that feels more substantial than 80 gsm office paper. The UK printers in the table use 120 to 200 gsm inside and 120 to 350 gsm for the cover.
- Can I print an order of service on ordinary 80 gsm paper?
- Yes. It folds easily and every printer takes it. Print on both sides may show through a little more than on heavier paper. Print one copy first and look.
- How heavy is an 8-page order of service?
- Two sheets of A4. At 80 gsm that is 10 g; at 120 gsm, 15 g; at 160 gsm, 20 g.
The builder makes one file for a home printer and one for a print shop, whichever paper you choose.
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