A number of printers said they used coatings to compensate for lower-grade paper, and to overcome problems associated with lower cost papers.

But Ian Knott, group technical manager for Robert Horne technical services, disputed the findings. Coatings are used for various things, but certainly not to compensate for the quality of the paper, he said. It sounds like they are buying paper that is not good quality and their paper selection is wrong.

Knott also felt that the current crop of papers in the market were of excellent quality.

Bousfield said it did the survey to better understand customers and the market.