What are the physical properties of paper?

The physical properties of paper include weight or grammage, caliber, opacity, strength, brightness, smoothness and amount of moisture contained in the paper, to name a few.

The properties of paper vary greatly depending on the types of material used (most are wood products) as well as production format. Handcrafted paper differs from machine-made products in that handcrafted paper tends to be rough and dull while machine-rolled paper is usually smoother and bright. Light tissue paper and heavy cardboard serves as examples of different paper properties. Tissue paper is lightweight, opaque and easily torn; cardboard is dense and hard to tear.