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Grain Short Paper - Paper whose fibers run parallel to the short dimension of the sheet. Also called short grain paper and wide web paper. Grain is determined during the papermaking process, when fibers tend to align in one direction or the other. Paper is identified as either grain short (grain is parallel to paper's short side) or grain long (grain is parallel to the paper's long side), depending on how the paper is cut from the original roll. This is important in printing since folding against the grain will crack the paper, so folds are preferably done with the grain.