Materials and surfaces

The reflections and glare caused by glossy or shiny surfaces have an adverse effect on legibility, so matt surfaces should therefore be used as a general rule.¹ Uncoated or matt-coated papers should be used in preference to glossy papers.

Bright white papers may also cause glare even if they have a matt coating, so slightly off-white papers should be preferred. The high greyness levels of some recycled papers reduce contrast. Only papers with low grey levels should be used.

Adequate paper opacity prevents printing on the reverse side from showing through. This means that thin printing papers are not appropriate for body text.² The use of register-true printing (i.e. lines of text have the same baseline on both sides of the paper) also prevents lines of text from showing through the paper.