Album inner pages are 250 GSM matte. Magazine inner pages are 170 GSM non-glare smooth.
Eighty grams apart, and the difference is not that one is better paper. It is that the two objects do different things at the spine.
The binding decides the paper
A magazine is saddle-stitched. Folded sheets, stapled through the fold. Every page has to bend through the middle of the book, and it has to bend without cracking.
170 GSM folds cleanly. 250 GSM does not — a heavy sheet folded through the spine cracks along the fold, and after a few openings the crack shows as a white line.
An album is lay-flat. Each spread is a rigid sheet, mounted rather than folded, and the spine is built to open flat. Nothing bends, so the page can be as heavy as you like — and the weight is what makes a lay-flat spread feel like a panel rather than a page. Photo book binding types →
| Magazine | Album | |
|---|---|---|
| Inner paper | 170 GSM non-glare smooth | 250 GSM matte |
| Binding | Saddle-stitch | Lay-flat |
| Pages | Fold at the spine | Do not fold |
| Opens flat | Roughly | Completely |
| Image across a spread | Interrupted at the fold | Continuous |
| Cover | 300 GSM matte cardstock | Hardcover |
What the extra weight buys
A page that does not move. At 250 GSM a spread stays where you put it and does not need holding open — which is the whole experience of an album against a book.
Full spreads that work. A photograph running across two pages needs the two halves to sit in the same plane. On 170 GSM in a saddle-stitched book they do not quite. Designing for the full spread →
Weight, which is a cost as well. A 100-page album is a real object to hold on a lap. How heavy an album is →
What the lighter paper buys
It travels. A magazine goes in a bag, a suitcase, a post box. An album does not. Which format travels best →
It is a quarter of the price. 40 pages at ₹1,099 against a 40-page album at ₹1,599 square or ₹1,699 A4 — and the magazine holds the same number of photographs.
It gets read more. Lighter objects get picked up more often. That is not a paper property, it is a behaviour, and it is real.
Which to choose
Not on paper weight. On whether images want to run across a spread, and on whether it is being carried. When an album is the wrong choice →
Frequently asked
Why is album paper thicker than magazine paper? Because album pages do not fold. A magazine page bends through the spine and 250 GSM would crack along the fold.
Is 250 GSM better than 170 GSM? Neither is better. Each is the right weight for its binding.
Can I get a magazine on album paper? No. It would crack at the fold within a few openings.
Which holds more photographs? The same, page for page. A 40-page magazine and a 40-page album both hold about 160.
Which should I buy? An album if images want a full spread or it is being kept for decades; a magazine if it is being carried or read often.
Part of our guide to paper and printing. See also: what GSM means and photo book binding types.
Both: Photo magazines from ₹499 · Hardcover albums from ₹1,299