Development of Universal Postage Stamp Paper, 1996 International Printing & Graphic Arts Conference Proceedings

Rajendra Kumar and Joseph Y. Peng

United States Postal Service

The author, Raj Kumar, made a presentation on “Characterization of Paper for Printing of Postage Stamps” at the 1992 International Printing and Graphic Arts Conference. This paper is an ongoing effort made during the last four years by stamp paper manufacturers, stamp printers and converters, and the United States Postal Service (USPS) in the development of Universal Postage Stamp Paper. A practical approach was taken to clearly define stamp paper properties in testing, printing, and finishing processes, irrespective of the type of printing method (intaglio, gravure, offset and combination thereof) and the type of ink (oil, water and solvent based) used to produce high quality (300 lines and above for gravure and intaglio and up to 250 lines for offset) printing of the United States postage stamps. The methodology used in the development of Universal Postage Stamp Paper was: analyzing fundamental...