Onionskin

[2] It was usually used with carbon paper for typing duplicates in a typewriter, for permanent records where low bulk was important, or for airmail correspondence.

[3] It is typically 25–39 g/m2 (9-pound basis weight in US units), and may be white or canary-colored.

In the typewriter era, onion skin often had a deeply textured cockle finish[citation needed] which allowed for easier erasure of typing mistakes, but other glazed and unglazed finishes were also available then and may be more common today.

Onionskin paper is relatively durable and lightweight due to its high content of cotton fibers.

Due to its translucency, it is used as a guide in drawing the frames between key-frames.

Typewritten page of canary onionskin, 1912. Note the translucency in the upper right corner, where the red library stamp on the obverse is visible.