Construction paper's appearance is coarse. Particles of less-processed pulp may be seen in the sheets. The most common kinds of construction paper are lignin and acid free. Certain types of construction paper fade easily. This aspect of construction paper is used to make "sun prints." There are however, fade-resistant or light-stable types of construction paper. Though it's not a common feature, a few brands of construction paper are inkjet- and laser-printer compatible.
Construction paper is made first by making a pulp out of pieces of wood and hot water. At this point, recycled paper is added to the pulp. After the pulp is formed, dye is added. The pulp is sent along a wire conveyor belt. This removes water. Then the pulp is sent along heated barrels to dry the remaining water. The dried paper is rolled into large rolls and then sent to a machine that cuts it into separate sheets, called a feeder. These sheets are cut into smaller sheets and are packaged and sold.
Construction paper comes in packs of 50 or 25 sheets. These packs may be single colors or multiple colors. Common colors for construction paper include black, purple, pink, blue green, orange, yellow, brown, red and white. The shades of color for construction paper range from vivid to pastel. Other kinds of construction paper colors include two-toned, flesh tones and glitter embedded.
The common standard for comparing the weights of paper is the International Organization for Standardization paper industry standard. The standard measures paper in terms of grams per square meter. Construction paper's ISO is 120 gsm to 130 gsm. This makes it on average a heavyweight paper, as opposed to tissue paper, which is 10 gsm to 35 gsm. On average, construction paper comes in four sizes. Using inches, in descending order, the sizes are 24 by 36, 12 by 18 and 9 by 12.
Though there are some brands of construction paper that are flame retardant, most brands are not.
Because it used to be used for bags to hold sugar, construction paper is sometimes called sugar paper. Constructions paper is connected to "blue paper", a paper used for making confections used by bakers beginning in the 1600s.
The main uses of construction paper include collages, posters, weavings, baskets, bookmarks, puppets, masks and napkins. Construction paper is also used in some kinds of stop-motion animation. This is true of the shows "Blue's Clues" and "South Park."