I use multipurpose for general use and some letters, normally the least bright I can find, and Southworth ivory 100% cotton resume paper for fancier letters, especially when I am doing them with faux vintage Photoshoppped letterhead. It depends on my mood whether I get fancy with the paper. I space out the letters with the nicer paper so the people I write to don't expect it every time, as I am not always in the mood to mess with printing the letterhead, I get really picky about errors when I use the nicer paper, and it is not cheap; though Walmart sometimes has the resume paper for 8 bucks or so for 100 sheets, if I remember correctly. So it is not horribly expensive for letters, though I can kill off several sheets on one letter with printing errors and too many typos.

Repartee wrote:

Least bright is interesting because in economy paper at least, brightness seems to correlate with overall quality.

That may be true. I just like the look of duller paper. My multipurpose paper is by no means quality.
 

JanetLand wrote:

hotel letterhead off ebay.

Now that's interesting. It must confuse the heck out of those receiving your letters!

I just looked at some fantastic vintage hotel letterhead on eBay and it would be fun to go that route, but it's a little too pricey for me.

[img]http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTE5OVgxNjAw/z/V0IAAOSwInxXL7By/$_57.JPG[/img] 

Generally, for me, I've been using this old computer-type paper someone threw away.  I've been using it for sometime for personal notes and stuff.  I use newer all-purpose office paper for my love letters to my girlfriend.  So far, she counts over 3000 such letters (musta been typing a long time).  Anyway, I've used parchment-type paper for resumes (those are computer-generated though.  You want everything to be just-so whenever you're looking for work).  I once toyed with the idea of making my own letterhead.  I typed out my name, went down to the local copy shop and enlarged that on three sheets of paper, took that home, and typed in regular size my address and other particulars.  Drew a couple of lines under that and took it back to the shop to make copies.  It worked pretty well, my own letterhead.  But that was about fifteen years ago I did this, and my telephone number has changed several times since then what with the advent of cell phones.  Was a day when you could have the same number for twenty years or longer, now, about every six months to a year, you gotta change your number because you dropped your cell phone or it just got old and quit working on you (unlike what typewriters do).  Anyway, I have thought about making another letterhead when I get some more minutes and money to myself to do that.  Wish me luck.