Customers can choose from house paper grades held in stock or we can order bespoke grades as required.

Due to our stock paper sizes, it is normal Biddles' practice to produce unsewn formats 3 mm narrower than the sewn equivalents, i.e., Royal 8vo will be 234 x 156 mm sewn, 234 x 153 mm unsewn.

Our Vancouver Opaque and Bookwove 80 gsm papers can be used on either our litho or digital presses ensuring consistency of quality and appearance throughout the life-cycle of a book should it transfers from one production method to another.

Our paper range is named after Captain George Vancouver who was born in King's Lynn in 1757. He served as a midshipman in the service of Captain James Cook during Cook's second and third voyages. In later life Captain Vancouver explored the mainland of British Columbia and circumnavigated the island in Canada that now bears his name.

Glossary

Ancient forest-friendly papers
Ancient forest-friendly papers are those that maximise recycled content With any virgin fibre coming from FSC or PEFC certified sources.

Recycled paper
Paper recycling processes can use either chemical or mechanical pulp. By mixing with water and applying mechanical action the hydrogen bonds in the paper can be broken and fibres separated again. Most recycled paper contains a proportion of virgin fibre in the interests of quality.
There are three main classifications of recycled fibre:
• Mill Broke or Internal Mill Waste - this incorporates any substandard or grade-change paper made within the paper mill which then goes back into the manufacturing system to be repulped back into paper. Such out-of-specification paper is not sold and is therefore often not classified as genuine reclaimed recycled fibre. However, most paper mills have been recycling their own waste fibre for many years, long before recycling become popular.
• Preconsumer Waste - this is offcuts and processing waste, such as guillotine trims and envelope blank waste. This waste is generated outside the paper mill and could potentially go to landfill, and is a genuine recycled fibre source. Also includes deinked preconsumer (recycled material that has been printed but did not reach its intended end use, such as waste from printers and unsold publications).
• Postconsumer waste - this is fibre from paper which has been used for its intended end use and would include office waste, magazine papers and newsprint. As the vast majority of this paper has been printed (either digitally or by more conventional means such as litho or gravure), it will either be recycled as printed paper or go through a de-inking process first. Recycled Papers can be made from 100% recycled materials or blended with virgin pulp. Recycled papers are (generally) not as strong or as bright as papers made from virgin pulp.

FSC certified papers
The FSC logo identifies products that contain wood from well-managed forests, certified in accordance with the strict environmental, social and economic standards of the Forest Stewardship Council.

PEFC certified papers
PEFC stands for Pan-European Forest Certification, another scheme providing a declaration of successful completion of a system that takes into account the environmental aspects of forestry.

FSC Mixed Sources
Paper that is certified FSC Mixed Sources may include pulp that is from non-FSC certified sources, although those sources are still required to meet certain standards, such as no illegal logging.

ECF papers
Elemental Chlorine-Free papers are made from pulp that has been bleached using oxygen, chlorine dioxide or other chemicals rather than pure chlorine, which is today considered the worst bleaching method for the environment.

TCF papers
Totally Chlorine Free papers are made from pulp that has been bleached without the use of any chlorine compounds at all. There is arguably very little difference between ECF and TCF in terms of there environmental impact.

PCF
Process Chlorine Free is a term reserved for recycled content papers, indicating that the recycled paper is unbleached or bleached without the use of additional chlorine or chlorine derivatives.

GSM
Grams per square metre, the gram weight of a hypothetical square metre of a particular type of paper, a good comparative measure because it does not vary with sheet size.

Caliper
Thickness of paper measured in microns (1000microns = 1mm).

Acid Free Paper
A paper manufactured to a neutral pH reading. Used for fine art prints, limited edition printing, permanent records and to protect other materials where contact with paper acidity would be harmful.

Filler
A material such as china clay or calcium carbonate that is added to make paper smoother and increase opacity.

Lignin
Non-cellulose material found in wood and other cellulose plants; lignin in paper makes it weaker and more inclined to discolour when exposed to light; in the chemical pulp-making process most of the lignin is removed. Lignin is present in mechanical pulp.

Opacity
Property of paper that minimises the "show-through" of printing from the back side or the next sheet. A paper with low opacity is more transparent.

Woodfree
Woodfree is a description of pulp and paper meaning that they contain little or no mechanically ground fibres. Implies that fibres are chemically treated, thereby eliminating lignin (the substance that binds wood fibres together in the tree) and making the product purer, whiter and stronger. Woodfree is an historical paper-making term shortened from 'groundwood-free' and does not denote a paper or pulp made from materials other than wood.