I would just like to talk to you today about the importance of grain direction. When paper is manufactured the pulp is shaken by machine back and forth which encourages the fibres to lie in one direction. This is the Grain Direction.

In bookbinding it is essential to have the grain direction of the paper running parallel to the spine of the book. This ensures that the pages have drape and will open nicely. In addition when glue is applied to paper the paper will stretch with the grain, if the grain direction is correct this is not a problem however if the grain direction is wrong your paper will develop waves as part of the paper stretches. I am sure you have all picked up a book and felt that horrid wavey or lumpy text block which doesn’t open well.

So it is ESSENTIAL to get the grain direction right but how do you tell? I have made a little video for you to watch here.

There are several ways, the easiest is to feel the resistance of the paper as you fold it over. There is little to no resistance WITH the grain direction and a good amount of resistance against the grain direction.

Sometimes it is difficult to feel though so there are other ways to test for the grain. You can mark the long side of your paper with a pencil then cut a square off the corner of your paper and wet one side. The paper will curl up with the grain and you will know for sure that this is the grain direction.

I hope this helps you to check for the grain before you start making your book or adding end papers to an existing book.

By the way if you are having a book printed you must insist that the printer gets the grain direction correct. If they don’t know how to do this then you probably need another printer!

If you would like to purchase A4 paper which is short grain and ready to fold to A5 we have it available on our web shop here.