DEAS 864: 2023 
ICS 85.080.10  
 
© EAC 2023                                                                                                                         Second  Edition 2023  
 DRAFT EAST AFRICAN STANDARD  
Photocopy paper — Specification  
EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY  
 
 
 
 
 
 
   DEAS  864: 2023 
ii © EAC  2023 – All rights reserved  
 Copyright notice  
This EAC document is copyright -protected by EAC. While the reproduction of this document by 
participants in the EAC standards development process is permitted without prior permission from EAC, 
neither this document nor any extract from it may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form for 
any other purpose without prior written permission from EAC.  
Requests for permission to reproduce this do cument for the purpose of selling it should be addressed 
as shown below or to EAC’s member body in the country of the requester:  
© East African Community  2023 — All rights reserved  
East African Community  
P.O. Box 1096 , 
Arusha  
Tanzania  
Tel: + 255 27 2 162100  
Fax: + 255 27 2162190  
E-mail: eac@eachq.org  
       Web: www.eac -quality.net  
Reproduction for sales purposes may be subject to royalty payments or a licensing agreement.  
Violators may be prosecuted . 
 DEAS  864: 2023 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  iii 
 Foreword  
Development of the East African Standards has b een necessitated by the need for harmonizing requirements 
governing quality of products and services in the East African Community. It is envisaged that through 
harmonized standardization, trade barriers that are encountered when goods and services are exc hanged 
within the Community will be removed.  
The Community has established an East African Standards Committee  (EASC)  mandated to develop and 
issue East African Standards  (EAS) . The Committee is composed of representatives of the National 
Standards Bodies  in Partner States, together with the representatives from the public and private sector 
organizations  in the community .  
East African Standards are developed through  Technical Committees that are representative of key 
stakeholders including government, ac ademia, consumer groups, private sector and other interested parties. 
Draft East African Standards are circulated to stakeholders through the National Standards Bodies in the 
Partner States. The comments received are discussed and incorporated before final ization of standards, in 
accordance with the Principles and procedures for develop ment of East African Standards.  
East African Standards are subject to review, to keep pace with technological advances. Users of the East 
African Standards are therefore expe cted to ensure that they always have the latest versions of the standards 
they are implementing .  
The committee responsible  for this document is Technical Committee EASC /TC 065, Paper and paper 
produc ts. 
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of t he elements of this document may be subject of patent 
rights. EAC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.  
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (EAS 864:2017), which has been technically revised  
 DRAFT EAST AFRICAN STANDARD  DEAS  864: 2023 
 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  1 
 Photocopy paper — Specification  
1 Scope   
This Draft East African Standard specifies requirements, sampling and test methods for photocopy paper . 
2 Normative references   
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of th eir content constitutes 
requirements of this document.  For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, 
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.  
ISO 186 . Paper and board — Sampling to de termine average quality   
ISO 187, Paper board and pulps — Standard atmosphere for conditioning and testing and procedure for 
monitoring the atmosphere and conditioning of samples    
ISO 216,  Writing paper and certain classes of printed matter — Trimmed size s — A and B series, and 
indication of machine direction   
ISO 287, Paper and board — Determination of moisture content of a lot — Oven -drying method   
ISO 534, Paper and board — Determination of thickness, density and specific volume   
ISO 535, Paper and boar d — Determination of water absorptiveness — Cobb method   
ISO 536, Paper and board — Determination of grammage   
ISO 2470 -2, Paper, board and pulps — Measurement of diffuse reflectance factor — Part 2: Outdoor daylight 
conditions (D65 brightness)   
ISO 2471, Paper and board — Determination of opacity (paper backing) — Diffuse reflectance method   
ISO 6588 -1, Paper, board and pulps — Determination of pH of aqueous extracts — Part 1: Cold extraction   
ISO 8791 -1, Paper and board — Determination of roughness/smooth ness (air leak methods) — Part 1:  
general method  
ISO 14968, Paper and board — Cut-size office paper — Measurement of curl in a pack of sheets   
ISO 21067, Packaging — Vocabulary  
3 Terms and definitions   
For the purposes of this standard, the terms and defi nitions given in ISO 21067 and the following shall apply . 
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:  DEAS  864: 202 3 
2 © EAC  2023 – All rights reserved  
 — ISO Online browsing platform: available  at http://www.iso.org/obp  
3.1  
cross direction (CD)  
direction in the paper that is at right angles to the machine direction  
3.2  
defective   
set of test pieces that fails in one or more respects to comply with the relevant requirements of the standard  
3.3  
feathering and spread  
appearance of fine lines of i nk at an angle to a line of ink drawn with a pen. Spread is the general excessive 
widening of a line of ink.  
3.4  
grammage   
mass per unit area of sheet material, in grammes per square metre  
3.5  
grammage, actual  
average grammage obtained on a sample of paper under specified test conditions and that shall normally be 
within 5 % of the nominal grammage  
3.6  
grammage, nominal   
designated grammage of paper that is used for reference purposes  
3.7  
long grain  
orientation when the machine direction of the p aper is in the long direction of the sheet  
3.8  
lot   
one or more nominally identical package of paper, the paper having been made on the same equipment under 
essentially the same conditions, from one manufacturer, and submitted at any one time for inspec tion and 
testing  
3.9  
surface resistivity  
electrical resistance between two straight edged electrodes of the same length positioned to form the opposite 
edges of a rectangle in contact with the surface on one side of a sheet of paper, multiplied by the e lectrode 
length and divided by the distance between them  
4 Requirements  
4.1 General requirements  
4.1.1  The photocopy paper shall be free from loose fibres, bits of loose paper, dust, wood splinters, dirt, 
creases and any other defects that shall impair its serviceability.  
4.1.2  The edges of the photocopy paper shall be clearly cut and straight.  
4.1.3  Each side of the photocopy paper shall accept all common writing media without undue signs of 
feathering or spread.  
4.1.4  The photocopy paper shall be wh ite or coloured and the machine direction of the photocopy paper 
shall be in the longer direction of the sheet, that is, the long grain.  DEAS  864: 202 3 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  3 
 4.2 Specific requirements  
Photocopy paper shall comply with the requirements given in Table 1 when tested in accordan ce with the 
methods specified therein.  
 Table 1 — Specific requirements photocopy paper  
S/No.  Property   Requirement  Test methodb  
i.  Grammage,  ± 5 %, g/m2   80  ISO 536  
ii.  Moisture content, %, m/m   4 - 7  ISO 287  
iii.  Opacitya, %, min.   85  ISO 2471  
iv.  Brightnessa, %, min.   75  ISO 2470 -2  
v.  pH of aqueous extract   4.5 - 9.5  ISO 6588 -1  
vi.  Thickness, mm   0.08 - 0.10  ISO 534  
vii.  Roughness, mL/min, max.   300  ISO 8791 -1  
viii.  Water absorptiveness, g/m2  18 - 24  ISO 535  
ix.    
  
Infra-red curl 
deflection, mm  
  
  .  Top side:  
• Positive, max.  
• Negative, max.     
15  
3    
ISO 14968  
  Bottom side:   
• Negative, min.  
• Negative, max.     
0  
15  
a Applicable to white paper only.  
b Conditioning shall be done in accordance with  ISO 187.    
  
5 Dimensions  
When tested in accordance with ISO 216 the size of the photocopy paper shall be A3 or A4 series.  
6 Packaging and labelling  
6.1 Packaging  
6.1.1  Photocopy paper shall be packaged in suitable material that protects it from dus t, moisture and dirt 
during transportation, storage and normal use.  
6.1.2  The sheets of photocopy paper shall not adhere to one another. The package shall contain sheets of 
the same size  and grammage .  DEAS  864: 202 3 
4 © EAC  2023 – All rights reserved  
 6.1.3  The number of sheets of photocopy paper in a r eam shall be 500 with a tolerance of ± 2 sheets .  
6.2 Labelling  
6.2.1  Each ream shall be legibly and indelibly labelled either in English, Kiswahili or French or a 
combination, with the following information  
a) name and physical address of the manufacturer ;  
b) name of the product as “Photocopy paper”;  
c) size designation of the photocopy paper;  
d) number of sheets;   
e) grammage in grams per square metre of the paper;  
f) colour (s) of the paper, if other than white;  
g) batch/code number;  and  
h) country of origin/manufacture.   
 6.2.2 Each bulk package shall be legibly and indelibly labelled either in English, Kiswahili or French or a 
combination, with the following information:  
a) name and physical address of the manufacturer  
b) name of the product;  
c) size designation of the p aper;  
d) number of reams;  
e) grammage of the paper;  
f) colour (s) of the  paper ;  
g) country of origin/manufacture. and  
h) batch/code number  
7 Sampling   
Sampling should be done in accordance with ISO 186 . 
 DEAS  864: 202 3 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  5 
 Bibliog raphy  
[1] KS 802 -2:2001, Specification for cut -size office papers - Part 2: Photocopy paper (Second Edition).  
[2] EAS 863:2017, Paper and board — Cut-size for general purposes — Specification  
 
 DEAS  864: 2023   
 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved