Has anyone else noticed that the paper used in hardback books seems to have a design in it? Why is that?

Has anyone else noticed that the paper used in hardback books seems to have a de Asked by Nut4trains 54 months ago Similar questions: noticed paper hardback books design Arts > Books.

Similar questions: noticed paper hardback books design.

I guess that what you are seeing is the results of paper-making..... Hardbacked books are often made with better quality paper. Better quality paper can be made with a watermark, and frequently it is made with a just distinguishable pattern. I have found some pages through Ask.com that give probably clearer descriptions than I can - it is over twenty years since I was a printer!

None of the quotes below give a complete description/description, so I will try to tie them together informatively, as we go. First, paper can be made from anything which provides a cellulose-based pulp - cotton rags, linen rags, hemp fibres, wood fibres. The quality of the paper made depends on the ingredients - linen, silk and good-grade cotton make the best papers.

Paper can be made by hand or by machine; I would expect that your book contains machine-made paper. Hand-made paper would probably be too thick, and definitely too expensive, to use in a mass-production book. From URL2 Machine-made Paper In machine-made paper a continuous belt brings the 'stuff' from the vat onto an endless 'mould' of finely woven wire 60-foot long belt that is about 90 inches wide with vertical 'deckle' edges so that the 'stuff' doesn't fall off.

Some machine made papers have been sized during the beating process described earlier in the article, but most are not. The usual wire cloth belt has 66 meshes per inch when writing paper is made, although a high grade 80 meshes to the inch belt is sometimes used, while for coarse papers the mesh can be less. This belt 'shakes' so that the fibres are interwoven while the water drains out below forming a continuous sheet of paper.

Towards the end of the belt, the web passes under a hollow cylinder 'dandy roll' see more just below, which impresses the watermarks and the incipient paper then proceeds through various rollers to press, dry and finish it. The dandy roll is situated between two suction boxes, which help drain the water from the web. Watermarks are thinner sections of the paper web created by the raised 'bits' on the dandy roll just as the raised wires or 'bits' attached to the mould in handmade papers create laid or batonné lines and watermarks.

They show darker in watermark fluid. From paperindustryweb.com/rivermill/rsbook.htm The Dandy Roll - A cylinder of wire which closes the surface of the paper by slight pressure. If .

Paper is to be water- marked, the design is outlined in thin wire soldered fast to the outside surface of the cylinder. The pressure of the cylinder displaces the fibres according to the design and leaves the paper infinitesimally thinner where the fibres are displaced, so that the watermark is visible when the paper is held to the light. "Laid" paper is made by a dandy roll with raised wires running the length of the cylinder at definite distances with tying wires at regular intervals.

If the tying wires run the length of the roll, it produces "reverse laid. " The plain dandy to produce un-watermarked wove paper leaves no mark. The production of clear-cut watermarks requires slower running of the machines and correspondingly increases the cost of the paper.

The second suction box is beyond the dandy roll and here more water is extracted. Moisture still remains in the web of paper, but this is the last point at which water is extracted in quantity. It seems fitting to observe that each ton of paper passing over the wire has used nearly 25,000 gallons of water to dilute it, so that this is rightly called the "wet end" of the machine.

The important part which water plays in paper manufacture cannot be overestimated. If uniform cleanliness, color and quality are to characterize its paper, a mill must have an ample supply of clean water of a temperature varying from 50° to 55°. In most mills this result is sought!

For by pumping water to a height for settling and filtration, letting it run down to the mill, where it is usually refrigerated in summer or run over steam coils in winter, but it is almost impossible to keep it uniformly clear. The right-hand dandy roll more clearly shows the wire mesh that would make a laid paper. So the paper pulp is 'pulled out' on a long, continuous, seive-like mesh, and then rolled thinner, dryer and, often, smoother by the dandy roll, which also impresses patterns in the paper.

These patterns are formed by very slightly differing thicknesses of paper. The resulting paper is classified, according to these patterns, into wove and laid papers. The dandy roll can also be used to add a watermark, generally a sign of better quality paper, though it could be added only to give the appearance of better quality.

From http://www.oldandsold.com/articles09/paper-7.shtml WOVE AND LAID PAPERS. —A so-called wove paper is made with a plain dandy, covered with fine wire cloth the same texture all over. Laid paper is really a water-marked paper, in which the whole surface is marked by a specially constructed dandy which imprints a mark in imitation of the early hand molds.

There are heavy lines running with the grain of the paper and lighter lines running across. Publishers will use a laid paper in their hardback edition to emphasise the better quality of a hardback book and, perhaps, to command an even better price. Some publishers, Dover comes to mind, use an acid-free, slightly laid paper, even in their paperback books.

But Dover is a special case. They make their books to a much higher standard than is normal for paperback book, so they will last as well as a hardback book. Dover even stitches the pages to hold them together.

Almost every other paperback publisher merely uses glue to hold the book together (which is, of course, why paperbacks so often come apart). Sources: experience and knowledge, backed up by Ask.com salamanda's Recommendations Papermaking (Dover Books on Lettering, Graphic Arts & Printing) Amazon List Price: $20.95 Used from: $3.21 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 3 reviews) Here is a book published by Dover! .

A Watermark I suspect that you are thinking of watermarks. Often the paper manufacturer will put a watermark in the paper to identify that the paper was made by that company. This is done by incorporating wire mesh in the tray in which the pulp settles during the process of papermaking.

Wikipedia has a short article about watermarks. A better article about watermarks, specifically those related to books, is in John Carter’s ’ABC for Book Collecting. ’ Another possibility, for books that are made with laid paper, is that you are seeing the chain lines.

These come from the wires holding the paper together in the tray that is used when it was made. Take a look at the Wikipedia article on papermaking, or again, look at Carter’s ’ABC. ’ By the way, if you've never made handmade paper, it's a lot of fun.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermark; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papermaking tabbycat's Recommendations ABC for Book Collectors Amazon List Price: $25.00 Used from: $25.00 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 9 reviews) .

Watermark It's called a watermark. Wikipedia has this to say about them: A watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears lighter when viewed by transmitted light (or darker when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background). A watermark is made by impressing a water-coated metal stamp or dandy roll onto the paper during manufacturing.

Watermarks were first introduced in Bologna, Italy in 1282; they have been used by papermakers to identify their product, and also on postage stamps, currency, and other government documents to discourage counterfeiting. Sources: see body of answer MissBert's Recommendations Puzzles in Paper : Concepts in storical Watermarks Amazon List Price: $55.00 Used from: $35.00 .

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I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.