Question

What is the Grain - What does grain mean??

Accepted Answer

The majority of the fibres within a sheet or web of paper will lie in one particular direction  This direction is the    grain    and is sometimes known as the    machine direction    because  during the manufacturing process  the fibres align themselves parallel with the direction of the web as it moves through the paper making machine  When the web is cut into sheets  the fibres will lie parallel with either the longest side of the sheet  referred to as    long-grain    or    grain-long     or the shortest side of the sheet  referred to as    short-grain    or    grain-short             Paper can be handled    with the grain    or    against the grain     for example  paper may be folded  torn  or fed into a printer parallel with the direction of the grain     with the grain     or perpendicular to the direction of the grain     against the grain      Paper is strongest and most stable with the grain  which means that it is important to know the direction of the grain when working with paper  It should also be noted that the dimensional stability of paper is greatest with the grain  When the fibres in paper absorb moisture they expand in width  rather than length   which means the sheet or web will undergo a greater dimensional change against the grain  rather than with the grain         In labelling  it is especially important to know the direction of the grain when printing labels  If labels are fed into a printer against the grain  there may be issues with the quality of the print and the labels are more likely to undergo structural changes and possibly peel off the backing sheet and jam than if the labels are fed in with the grain

Wide Edge Leading (W.E.L.) - What does wide edge leading mean?

Definition of WIDE EDGE LEADING: