When deciding on what paper stock is best for your project, the vast options of different papers can be confusing. Differences of brand, weight, and texture all come into consideration.
One of the different options to think about is whether to use coated or uncoated paper. Both have different results.
Coated paper is paper that has had an agent placed on the surface in order to change its texture. With this agent the paper becomes more smooth and bright. This coating also stops the ink from absorbing as much into the paper, which aids in creating a sharper looking image that also looks brighter. This can be beneficial for things such as brochure printing, flyer printing and poster printing.
However, with options such as plan printing, map printing, or document printing sometimes uncoated is the way to go due to cost effectiveness. If printing something that needs to be written on with pen, uncoated paper is a better option as the rough texture means it will absorb the pen ink easily. Also, uncoated paper can be good for some artworks if the artist wants to achieve a certain look with textured paper.