Topic: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

In a post in the thread

I mentioned the term deckle edge.

https://punster.me/serif/viewtopic.php?pid=7160#p7160

https://punster.me/serif/viewtopic.php?pid=7165#p7165

I included a link to a definition.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dicti … eckle-edge

Rather than go off on a tangent in that thread, I have started this thread.

Deckle edge paper can be handmade or machine made,

Searching on the web for

machine made deckle edge paper uk

I found the following web page.

https://www.stcuthbertsmill.com/advice-centre/?id=1008

My experience of machine made deckle edge paper is that a ream of it, sheets Large Post size, which was  was purchased and two edges opposite each other were deckled edged and the other two were straight cut as the paper was made on a roll.

Interestingly I remember, from around 60 years ago, Large Post being 16 and a half inches by 21 inches, but looking it up on the web it is listed as 15 and a half inches by 20 inches.

https://papersizes.net/imperial/large-post

I need to look into this, maybe what I remember includes bleed areas. I do not only remember the size Large Post from deckle edge paper, it was a widespread size in which paper was supplied to printers. Smaller sizes of paper being cut from it.

Anyway, something that I noticed in the article from St Cuthbert's Mill is the term "float framed".

Full imperial size pieces of work, with their deckle edges showing, look amazing float framed.

i do not remember that term, so I searched, and I found the following.

https://www.framedestination.com/blog/r … ter-frames

Going back to Large Post

https://papersdb.com/imperial

also has 15 and a half inches by 20 inches.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size

Ah, 16 and a half by 21 is listed as US usage, 15 and a half as UK usage.

Yet in that wikipedia page is a section headed

Standardised British uncut–⁠writing paper, uncut–⁠printing paper, and uncut–⁠wrapping paper sizes adopted by British Standards Institute specification number 730 of 1937

and in that section, Large Post is 16 and a half inches by 21 inches.

Re: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

I’m afraid I can’t make sense of this paragraph:

William wrote:

My experience of machine made deckle edge paper is that a ream of it, sheets Large Post size, which was  was purchased and two edges opposite each other were deckled edged and the other two were straight cut as the paper was made on a roll.

Did you accidentally omit some words and/or include some additional ones?

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
― Eckhart Tolle

Re: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

Here is a link to a video about papermaking listed as added 9 days ago and 15 views so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQUrV_75TVU

That and more videos are linked from the following page.

https://www.youtube.com/@stcuthbertsmill3194

I have also found the following.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deckle_edge

4 (edited by William 2025-06-01 19:15:00)

Re: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

Alfred wrote:

I’m afraid I can’t make sense of this paragraph:

William wrote:

My experience of machine made deckle edge paper is that a ream of it, sheets Large Post size, which was  was purchased and two edges opposite each other were deckled edged and the other two were straight cut as the paper was made on a roll.

Did you accidentally omit some words and/or include some additional ones?

No.

The linked-to web page and the video in the post after your post (which I had not seen until after I had posted the post that follows your post) has sheets of machine made deckle edge paper with four purported deckle edges, two real deckle edges from the process, two faux deckle edges from cutting.

Yet my experience (then as I wrote)

A ream of it is 500 sheets.

Large Post is a size of paper, like A3 and A4 are sizes of paper.

The term paper size is ambiguous as it may mean size of paper as above, or a type of substance used in papermaking.

So the ream of deckle edge paper that I saw and used in the 1960s was cut mechanically with a straight edge.

As the sheets were cut by me using a Dryad card cutter, some of the thus produced smaller sheets had one deckle edge, and some had no deckle edge.

These sheets were for letterpress printing upon, using an Adana 8 x 5 printing press, a hand operated purely mechanical printing press.

Does that help? I realize that you had posted before I posted the link to the video where people can be seen hand cutting the paper to produce the faux deckle edges.

Re: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

William wrote:

A ream of it is 500 sheets.

A ream of any type of paper is 500 sheets, so I’m not sure why you’re singling out this particular type of paper as if it’s unusual in that regard.

William wrote:

The term paper size is ambiguous

I’ve only ever known the additive used in papermaking to be called ‘size’, not ‘paper size’, so what the latter term clearly and unambiguously conveys to me is the sheet dimensions.

William wrote:

Does that help?

I’m afraid not! I still think the single-sentence paragraph that I quoted has some words repeated, added, or missing. You wrote:

William wrote:

My experience of machine made deckle edge paper is that a ream of it, sheets Large Post size, which was  was purchased and two edges opposite each other were deckled edged and the other two were straight cut as the paper was made on a roll.

If we strip that down a little to reveal its structure, we get something like this:

William wrote:

My experience of machine made deckle edge paper is that a ream of it … which was  was purchased and two edges opposite each other were deckled edged and the other two were straight cut ...

The word ‘was’ is duplicated, and it looks to me as though the word ‘which’ doesn’t belong in the sentence. Have I misinterpreted what you wrote?

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
― Eckhart Tolle

Re: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

Alfred wrote:
William wrote:

A ream of it is 500 sheets.

A ream of any type of paper is 500 sheets, so I’m not sure why you’re singling out this particular type of paper as if it’s unusual in that regard.

William wrote:

Does that help?

Well, some readers might not know that a ream is a quantity of paper, and that that quantity is 500 sheets regardless of the size  of the sheet, though probably each sheet nominally the same size as every other sheet in the ream. Someone might wonder if it is some vague term like "a lorry load" or if thought to be a specific quantity, wonder if it is some special purpose measure of volume or weight, like when articles have some unit such as "the size of Wales" or "the population of Skegness" in a phrase such a "The fictional town of Roseville, Kansas, has a population the same as the population of Skegness."


Continuing, Alfred wrote:

I’m afraid not! I still think the single-sentence paragraph that I quoted has some words repeated, added, or missing. You wrote:

William wrote:

My experience of machine made deckle edge paper is that a ream of it, sheets Large Post size, which was  was purchased and two edges opposite each other were deckled edged and the other two were straight cut as the paper was made on a roll.

If we strip that down a little to reveal its structure, we get something like this:

William wrote:

My experience of machine made deckle edge paper is that a ream of it … which was  was purchased and two edges opposite each other were deckled edged and the other two were straight cut ...

The word ‘was’ is duplicated, and it looks to me as though the word ‘which’ doesn’t belong in the sentence. Have I misinterpreted what you wrote?

Well, I now realize that the word 'was' is duplicated. That is an error.

I will rewrite it.

My experience of machine made deckle edge paper is that a ream of it was purchased. Each sheet was Large Post size. On each sheet, two of the edges, which were opposite each other, were deckled edged. The other two edges were straight cut, not deckled, thus neither real deckle edgednor faux deckle edged.

Re: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

William wrote:

probably each sheet nominally the same size as every other sheet in the ream

No ‘probably’ about it! Each sheet in a ream is nominally the same size as every other sheet, but in practice there may be some variation.

William wrote:

I will rewrite it.

Thank you for the helpful rewrite.

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
― Eckhart Tolle

8 (edited by GB 2025-06-02 00:12:34)

Re: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

A ream of any type of paper is 500 sheets

I had an aunt in the paper trade, and to her a ream was 480 sheets. Apparently it has now become 500 sheets, having grown toward the end of last century. I blame the EU!

Whilst "reams" can be a vague term of quantity, eg "William has created reams of threads in this forum", there is nothing vague about a "ream of paper". It is internationally accepted nowadays as 500 sheets precisely.

I don't know the population of Skegness.

Credendi non mutant facta

Re: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

GB wrote:

A ream of any type of paper is 500 sheets

I had an aunt in the paper trade, and to her a ream was 480 sheets. Apparently it has now become 500 sheets, having grown toward the end of last century. I blame the EU!

Whilst "reams" can be a vague term of quantity, eg "William has created reams of threads in this forum", there is nothing vague about a "ream of paper". It is internationally accepted nowadays as 500 sheets precisely.

Thanks for that, Geoff. I had completely forgotten about the Imperial ream if I ever knew about it.

Quire, Ream, Bundle, Bale & Pallet

For a consumer point of view, an increase in the size of a pack is a welcome change from the “shrinkflation” that we see almost everywhere nowadays.

I don't know the population of Skegness.

Ask the Germans!

https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/eas … __skegness

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
― Eckhart Tolle

10

Re: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

I had completely forgotten about the Imperial ream

Looking up "ream" in my Chambers dictionary, I see there is also a "printer's ream", which is 516 sheets. Would this be for a reason much the same as 13 being a "baker's dozen"?

https://www.sizes.com/units/ream.htm provides this information:

ream
A quantity of paper, 20 quires. Abbreviation, rm. Well into the 20th century a ream of writing paper contained 480 sheets and a ream of printing paper was 500 sheets, while suppliers of printers and publishers used a ream of 516 sheets. Today the standard ream of all types of paper is 500 sheets.

One sometimes sees it stated that 1 printer’s ream = 21½ quires.¹ If so, these are ordinary 24-sheet quires, not printer’s quires of 25 sheets.

Chambers also states that in your part of the world, "ream" also means cream or froth, derived from Old English, as opposed to the usual meaning, which is derived from Arabic. Is ream still used that way in Scotland?

Credendi non mutant facta

Re: Off on a tangent about deckle edged paper and printmaking and art etc

GB wrote:

Chambers also states that in your part of the world, "ream" also means cream or froth, derived from Old English, as opposed to the usual meaning, which is derived from Arabic. Is ream still used that way in Scotland?

If it is used that way here, I’ve never knowingly encountered it! However, I don’t think that’s hugely significant.

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
― Eckhart Tolle