When I’m working out a book design, I like to sit on the floor with a pile of swatch books and my big box of paper samples to figure out the right paper to use. Color, weight, price, and sheet size all contribute to the decision. I’d love to be able to afford any kind of paper for my books and get that paper in small quantities locally. But it never works out that way. Right now I’m working out the design for my 2008 calendar, and I’d like to use colored paper. There are so many choices for white and off-white paper, but colored paper — not so much. I’ve used French Paper for several books. It’s a family run paper mill in the mid-west and they sell smaller quantities of paper from their website. Recently I found out that they have several new lines of paper and I got the new swatch books this week. I’m especially excited about Pop-Tone (that’s the swatches on the right). These are colors I can’t get elsewhere, plus they sell matching envelopes too.