"20#" in the wild
Evan Kirshenbaum
(as in "5#") isn't familiar to all, and those of us who are familiar
with it typically only see it in handwritten contexts and,
occasionally, on web sites and in grocery store ads and signs. I was
a bit surprised, therefore, when Susan brought home a ream of colored
paper to copy flyers onto and I saw that the wrapper said "Xerox 20#
Pastels". In smaller type in the bottom corner it said "20 lb., 500
sheets", but the big label said "20#".
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The Society for the Preservation of
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |Tithesis commends your ebriated and
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |scrutable use of delible and
|defatigable, which are gainly, sipid
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com |and couth. We are gruntled and
(650)857-7572 |consolate that you have the ertia and
|eptitude to choose such putably
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ |pensible tithesis, which we parage.
Tony Cooper
<kirsh...@hpl.hp.com> wrote:
>In prior discussions, it's been noted that "#" to actually mean pounds
>(as in "5#") isn't familiar to all, and those of us who are familiar
>with it typically only see it in handwritten contexts and,
>occasionally, on web sites and in grocery store ads and signs. I was
>a bit surprised, therefore, when Susan brought home a ream of colored
>paper to copy flyers onto and I saw that the wrapper said "Xerox 20#
>Pastels". In smaller type in the bottom corner it said "20 lb., 500
>sheets", but the big label said "20#".
That's been common in paper for years. I've leafed through many paper
swatch books where that is the representation.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL
Mike Barnes
>In prior discussions, it's been noted that "#" to actually mean pounds
>(as in "5#") isn't familiar to all, and those of us who are familiar
>with it typically only see it in handwritten contexts and,
>occasionally, on web sites and in grocery store ads and signs. I was
>a bit surprised, therefore, when Susan brought home a ream of colored
>paper to copy flyers onto and I saw that the wrapper said "Xerox 20#
>Pastels". In smaller type in the bottom corner it said "20 lb., 500
>sheets", but the big label said "20#".
You caused me to go Goggling to find out what "20 pounds" means, in this
context.
And I see, cutting a long story short, that it's the weight of four
reams of letter size, and translates to roughly 75 g/m2.
--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England
Donna Richoux
> In prior discussions, it's been noted that "#" to actually mean pounds
> (as in "5#") isn't familiar to all, and those of us who are familiar
> with it typically only see it in handwritten contexts and,
> occasionally, on web sites and in grocery store ads and signs. I was
> a bit surprised, therefore, when Susan brought home a ream of colored
> paper to copy flyers onto and I saw that the wrapper said "Xerox 20#
> Pastels". In smaller type in the bottom corner it said "20 lb., 500
> sheets", but the big label said "20#".
It doesn't surprise me; I've seen that sort of thing for years,
particularly back in my office-job days when I often dealt with
printers. Here's a page that compares different grades of paper, and
uses the # sign:
http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1568601158&id=6hYAfa0ZCecC&pg=PA94
&lpg=PA94&dq=%2220+lb+bond%22+paper&num=100&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=HfVBMH2hMd
N0uM-t1k3mz_hWpRo
OR
Plenty of results show up if you search on "20 * bond" or "20 * white
bond".
It's true we didn't hunt for the paper meaning before, when we tried to
track down some uses of #. Naming a grade of paper feels quite different
from naming a quantity of something, even if they both use "pounds".
--
Best -- Donna Richoux
Evan Kirshenbaum
> You caused me to go Goggling to find out what "20 pounds" means, in
> this context.
>
> And I see, cutting a long story short, that it's the weight of four
> reams of letter size
Right. That's a ream at 17x22, the "basis size" for bond paper.
Confusingly, other types of paper appear to have different basis
sizes. "Book paper", for example is based on 25x38 reams.
Typically, this doesn't cause confusion, because most people only have
to compare bond weights with other bond weights.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |If you think health care is
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |expensive now, wait until you see
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |what it costs when it's free.
| P.J. O'Rourke
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com
(650)857-7572
TakenEvent
"Evan Kirshenbaum" <kirsh...@hpl.hp.com> wrote in message
news:ejufiz...@hpl.hp.com...
> In prior discussions, it's been noted that "#" to actually mean pounds
> (as in "5#") isn't familiar to all, and those of us who are familiar
> with it typically only see it in handwritten contexts and,
> occasionally, on web sites and in grocery store ads and signs. I was
> a bit surprised, therefore, when Susan brought home a ream of colored
> paper to copy flyers onto and I saw that the wrapper said "Xerox 20#
> Pastels". In smaller type in the bottom corner it said "20 lb., 500
> sheets", but the big label said "20#".
>
Mine just uses "20 lb." It's fairly common to see the rolls of ashpalt felt
used for roofing underlayment referred to as "15#" or "30#", etc.
http://www.ebuild.com/guide/products/specifierResults.asp?catCode=109
Donna Richoux
> It's fairly common to see the rolls of ashpalt felt
> used for roofing underlayment referred to as "15#" or "30#", etc.
How is that said? "15 pound"? "Number 15"?
>
> http://www.ebuild.com/guide/products/specifierResults.asp?catCode=109
In those, the # sign goes after the number. Does that matter?
TakenEvent
"Donna Richoux" <tr...@euronet.nl> wrote in message
news:1hlmkt8.rbzbti12tbujlN%tr...@euronet.nl...
It's said, "fifteen pound". I've seen it written as "no. fifteen", but I've
never seen it written as #15 or heard it spoken that way in the roofing
trade.
According to Gaspar Lewis in his book "Carpentry",
"Asphalt-saturated felts consist of heavy felt paper saturated with asphalt
or coal tar. They are usually made in various weights of pounds per
square."
In roofing terms, a square is 100 square feet.
So a roll of felt, as it's called, weighs about sixty pounds, but if it is
15# felt it will weigh fifteen pounds for every 100 sq. ft. on the roll. It
will weigh 30 pounds per 100 sq.ft. on the roll if it's of the 30# sort.
I believe it does make a difference where the # is located.
Tony Cooper
wrote:
You find it both ways, but the meaning of 15# is that the felt part of
the product weighs 15 pounds per 100 square feet. Various coatings can
be applied to the felt.
sage
I'm sure when it cropped up last year (?), I mentioned it's use in the
paper trade as the NA unit of basis weight. In Europe, it's g/m².
Cheers, Sage
Roland Hutchinson
NA papers increasingly list their grammage as well as their basis weight on
the packaging. I, for one, welcome this, especially when trying to decide
if a particular card or cover stock is safe to put through my laser
printer. (And sometimes you find comparable papers sold in letter-sized
sheets by one vendor as card stock and by another as cover stock and I can
never remember what the fudge factor is to convert basis weights because I
don't deal with this often enough.)
Isn't "grammage" a lovely word, for those who love that sort of thing? It's
not actually used on the packaging, which says g/m² just as in Europe, but
that's the word for it, all right.
--
Roland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food.
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