Grain Direction - Xerox 6100BD - Phaser Color Laser Printer Fundamentals

Paper facts

Grain direction

Paper web - made during
paper making process
3-4
Paper properties are related to the grain direction. The grain of a
paper is the direction in which most of its fibers lie, as shown in
the following figure. Long grain papers are cut so that the fibers
are aligned with the long dimension of the cut sheet. Short grain
papers have the fibers aligned with the short dimension of the
sheet.
You can use 24 pound paper in either grain direction. If your
paper is lighter than 24 pound, use it only for documents in which
the grain is in the long dimension of the finished document. For
long grain MICR-processed documents, the minimum paper
weight is 20 pounds.
NOTE: 24 pound, long grain paper is recommended for MICR
printing.
Pulp fibers
Long grain sheet cut from
paper web
Figure 3-1. Long and short grain
The following figure shows the relationship between long and
short grain documents and the MICR processing direction. The
shaded areas represent typical documents that would be cut
from these sheets for MICR processing.
Short grain sheet cut from
paper web
Paper making
process direction
Generic MICR Fundamentals Guide