Six checks, any printed book, about a minute. None of them requires knowing anything about printing, and together they tell you more than a specification sheet does.
1. Hold a page up to a light
Look for show-through — the photograph on the other side, visible through the paper.
Some is normal. A dark photograph clearly readable through the page means the stock is too light for what is printed on it, and it will make every page look slightly muddled.
Our magazine inner pages are 170 GSM, which is above where show-through starts.
2. Tilt it under a ceiling light
A hard bright patch means gloss. A soft sheen means ordinary matte. Almost nothing means non-glare.
Do it with a page carrying a dark photograph — a page of white space passes any test. Non-glare paper →
3. Look at a dark area very closely
Bring it to about fifteen centimetres and look at the darkest part of a photograph.
You are looking for banding — faint stripes across the dark area — and for whether black looks black or looks like very dark grey with a colour in it.
4. Run a thumb across the surface
Texture, and whether ink sits on top. Good printing on good paper feels like paper. Heavy ink coverage on a cheap stock can feel very slightly raised or tacky.
Then check your thumb: nothing should come off.
5. Open it flat and let go
Does it stay open? A lay-flat album should. A saddle-stitched magazine mostly will. A perfect-bound book will not, and will try to close on your hand.
That is binding rather than paper, and it is the property you will notice most in daily use. Photo book binding types →
6. Look at the smallest text
Can you read a caption comfortably at normal reading distance?
Small text is where cheap printing shows first — letters fill in, thin strokes break up, and edges soften. Printing text small →
| Check | Good | Poor |
|---|---|---|
| Held to light | Faint show-through | The other page is readable |
| Tilted under a light | Little or no reflection | A bright patch you move away from |
| Dark areas close up | Even, deep | Banding, or dark grey |
| Thumb across it | Feels like paper, nothing comes off | Tacky, or ink transfers |
| Opened and released | Stays open | Snaps shut |
| Smallest text | Crisp | Filled in, soft |
Where to do the checks
Two lights, not one. Colour and glare need opposite conditions, and doing every check in the same spot gets one of them wrong.
Colour, and dark areas: daylight near a window. A warm bulb in the evening pushes every page towards orange and hides the difference between a deep black and a muddy one. Check 3 belongs here.
Glare: under a single ceiling light. A window lights the page from the side, so a glossy sheet can pass. The overhead light is the one the book will live under, which makes it the honest test for check 2.
And hold the book the way it will be held. A magazine at a comfortable reading distance, an album flat on a table with you leaning over it. Checking an album at arm’s length in the air tells you about the binding and nothing about how the spreads look to the person sitting beside you.
What to look for on each format
The six checks apply to anything printed. Each format also has one or two weak points of its own, and these are where to spend the extra thirty seconds:
| Format | Open it and check |
|---|---|
| Stapled magazine | The centre spread: staples through the fold, pages that do not pull loose when turned |
| Lay-flat album | A spread with one image across both pages: do the two halves line up at the middle? |
| Polaroid-style prints | Clean edges, an even white border, and a caption that is sharp rather than soft |
| Card deck | Corners rounded evenly on every card, and cards that slide apart when shuffled |
| Spiral diary | The spiral turns freely, and a written page does not show through to the next |
If a book fails one of these, it is usually a binding or finishing fault rather than a paper fault — worth separating, because a seller can fix one and has chosen the other.
Checking ours when it arrives
Film the unboxing before you inspect anything. A clear, unedited photograph or video of the parcel being opened is what a damage or printing-fault claim needs, and it has to reach us on WhatsApp or by email, with the order number, within 24 hours of delivery. Without it there is no claim, so record first and judge second.
Then run the checks above. What each result means:
| What you find | What it is |
|---|---|
| Paper a shade warmer or cooler than a copy you already own | Natural variation in paper tone — not a fault |
| Colours a little quieter than on your phone | Ink on paper against a lit screen — not a fault |
| A smear, a scuff, banding or a torn page | A printing or damage fault — report it with the unboxing evidence |
| A typo in words you supplied, or a low-resolution photograph, visible on the proof you approved | What was approved — not reprinted free |
A genuine fault is checked and reprinted free, within 48 hours, and sent with the next Monday dispatch. Returns, refunds and damage →
The specification that tells you least
GSM alone.
It is the number every seller quotes because it is the easiest to quote, and it tells you the weight and nothing about the finish, the binding, the ink or the printing.
A seller who says “300 GSM” and stops has told you one number out of five things that matter. What GSM means →
Doing this on a sample you cannot hold
Most photo books are bought online, so all six checks above are unavailable at the point of deciding. Three things that partly substitute:
Ask for the finish, not just the weight. “Is the inner paper matte, non-glare or gloss?” is a question a seller either answers precisely or does not.
Ask what the binding is by name. Saddle-stitch, perfect bound or lay-flat. A seller who says “premium binding” is describing nothing.
Buy the cheapest thing they make first. Ours is a ₹270 print pack on 300 GSM matte card — the weight of a magazine cover, though not of the lighter pages inside. It answers part of the paper question for less than the price of a magazine, and it takes 5 to 14 days rather than a conversation.
Judging a book that has been around a while
Some quality only shows with time, and a book already on a relative’s shelf is a free sample of it. Take one down and look for:
- Page edges far yellower than the middle of the page — a sign of paper that was never going to age gently.
- Ghost images on facing pages, where a dark photograph has transferred faintly onto the page opposite it.
- Staples with a rust stain around them, in a book that has lived through humid seasons.
- A cover that has taken a permanent curve, which says as much about the storage as about the card.
None of these can be tested on a new book in a minute. All of them tell you what the six checks above are protecting against.
What none of this measures
The design. A heavy, non-glare, beautifully bound book laid out badly is a worse object than a lighter one laid out well, and no physical check finds that. Cheap vs expensive photo books →
Frequently asked
How can I tell if photo book paper is good? Hold a page to the light for show-through, tilt it for glare, look closely at a dark area for banding, and check whether small text is crisp.
Is GSM a good measure of quality? It is the least informative single number. It gives weight and nothing about finish, binding or printing.
What is show-through? The photograph on the reverse being visible through the page. Some is normal; a clearly readable one means the paper is too light.
What is banding? Faint stripes across a dark area. It is a printing fault rather than a paper one.
Should a book stay open? A lay-flat album should. A saddle-stitched magazine mostly will. A perfect-bound one will not.
Part of our guide to paper and printing. See also: what GSM means and can I choose the paper?.
Judge ours: Photo magazines from ₹499 · All 12 keepsakes