Debate: Grain direction on book cloth - obsessive or necessary?

Do you guys find grain direction actually makes or breaks your bindings, or have you gotten away with ignoring it?

2 comments

2 Comments

Grain direction matters way more than people give it credit for, even on smaller books. Seen too many covers warp or boards twist after a few months because the cloth was pulling against the grain. Softcovers aren't safe either, the spine will crack weirdly if the grain runs vertically on a paperback style binding. It's one of those things you can ignore for a while until you suddenly can't. Once you train yourself to check it becomes second nature, feels like skipping it is just asking for trouble down the line.

clark.faith10d ago

Grain direction is necessary but people get way too precious about it. You can get away with ignoring it on smaller books or softcovers, it's really the bigger case bindings where it'll mess you up if you don't pay attention.