It looked tough on paper, but we know how good he is.

The plan looked fine on paper, and for a while it even worked.

She looked good on paper, for whatever mat was worth.

A policy that looked good on paper, they said, had not worked well in practice.

She'd been looking at blue ink on yellow paper for hours.

Before the game, the teams looked remarkably similar on paper.

While the transition looked good on paper, it did not do as well in practice.

But putting a name to the killer would look good on paper, at least.

"Two nursing homes can look very similar on paper, yet actually be quite different in their quality of care."

Basically, for all instruments that look good on paper, the problem is how to put them into practice.