• Terms specific to paper qualities.
  • Air Bells - Tiny, circular, thin spots.
  • Baggy papers - Thicker middles than edges.
  • Blackening - Surface burn marks.
  • Bleach scale - Brittle pearly or light brown spots.
  • Blisters - Raised areas in a bubble shape.
  • Bristle Marks - Bristle shaped indentations in coated papers.
  • Brush Marks - Streaks made by brushes in coated paper.
  • Calendar cuts - Small wrinkles parallel to one side.
  • Cloudy papers - Papers with unevenness in look-through.
  • Cockle - Wrinkles.
  • Contraries - Any foreign substance found the in paper.
  • Couch Marks - Long, thin area parallel to one side where fibers have clumped together thickly, causing the adjacent areas to be thinner.
  • Cracking - Cracks in the surface of coated paper.
  • Craters - Small pits in coated paper.
  • Crocking - Paper with surface dyes rubbed off.
  • Crush Marks - Areas in which the pulp is pressed so tightly that it produces a crowded appearence in the fibers.
  • Curl - Paper that curls up when laid on a flat surface.
  • Dog eared - When page corners are folded over.
  • Dusting papers - Paper that flakes or produces a powder from loose fibers.
  • Feathered paper - Deckled edges that are large and thin.
  • Foul paper - Paper with dirt spects.
  • Fur - Small bits of paper from the edges that are attached to the surface of a sheet.
  • Grainy Edges - Edges that are clumpy or rough.
  • Grit - Abrasive material in papers.
  • Hair cuts - Hair-thin cuts in the surface where it appears that hairs or long fibers have been pulled out of the surface.
  • Lumps - Swellings.
  • Phozy - A featherweight paper containing fibers that are too loosly pressed, creating a weak paper.
  • Pinholes - Tiny holes in the paper.
  • Plucking - Spots on coated paper that have been rubbed or pulled off.
  • Retree - Defective hand-made paper.
  • Roping - Longitudinal wrinkles in coated paper.
  • Shiners - Tiny, light reflective particles that leave pinholes when removed.
  • Skipped coating - Sheets where the coating is lacking in places.
  • Slaps - Ruptured spots at the edges of machine-made papers.
  • Slivers - Small splinters of wood in paper.
  • Snailing - Streaks or snail-like marks on the surface.
  • Specks - Particles of foreign matter such as bronze, carbon, iron, or rosin.
  • Spongy papers - Paper that is too compressible or ink too absorbent.
  • Spots - Small discolorations caused by alum, dye, grease, oil or other foreign substances.
  • Vatman's tears - Small, circular, thin spots, thicker around the circular edges, where a drop of water has dispersed the fibers in the hand papermaking process.
  • Wild papers - Sheets with uneven, random distribution of fibers, yielding a mottled appearance on look-through.
  • Winder welts - Long, grain-direction ridges in the surface.
  • Woody papers - Translucent, hard, brittle papers.
  • Wrinkles - Small creases or ridges.

Previous     Table of Contents     Next