For the general paper, the vertical expansion is much smaller than the  horizontal expansion amount, if the paper texture is not right, it is easy to lead many quality defects such as inaccurate printing overprint, laminating paper curled-bending, die-cutting position remove and labeling blistering. It can be seen that it is very important to choose the correctly texture of the paper.
The paper texture is the arrangement direction of the paper fiber structure. The paper direction is same as paper machine running direction is the vertical direction, and the paper direction is vertical with the paper machine running direction is the horizontal direction.
Now we will introduce several methods to identify the paper texture.

1. Tear method

when the paper have no creases,tear the paper in the opposite direction by two hands. The flattened straight creases is vertical direction , and the wavy crease is horizontal direction.

2. Pull method

 Pinch the sides of the paper and pull them outward. The side which is easy to pull off is the horizontal direction, and the side which is hard to pull off is the vertical direction.

3. Hand hold method

Cut a strip of about 100 mm × 10 mm in different directions of the paper, and pinch one end of the paper with a finger to let the plane of the strip hang horizontally to see its free bending state. The more curved one side is the horizontal direction, and the straighter one is the vertical direction.

4. Reversal method

On the paper stacks, reverse the paper side to the opposite side and loose the hands the paper side will recover naturally. The paper edge is kept tight is horizontal direction; on the contrary, the larger paper gap is the vertical direction.

Dripping method

For paper without gluing, place the paper flat on the table and drop a drop of water onto the paper. The shape of the water droplets spreads out and is oval. The long axis direction of the oval is the vertical direction, and the other side is the horizontal direction .

6. Wetting method

The paper is torn into round or square shapes, soaked in water, and curls rapidly when the paper absorbs moisture. The curled side is the horizontal direction, and the non curled one is the vertical direction.

7. Fingernail Sliding method

Use your Fingernail to slide the paper along the up and down direction and the left and right direction. If the up and down direction is wavy, the left and right direction does not change means the paper is vertical direction.; otherwise, it is horizontal direction.

8.Mechanical detect method

Cut the different paper strips according to the rules, detect the paper strips  ring pressure strength, folding resistance, tensile strength and so on by the instrument. Paper with a large test value is vertical direction ; otherwise, it is horizontal direction.
In fact, for skilled technicians, visual inspection is the simplest and most direct method. By visually discerning the arrangement direction of the fibers and can distinguish the direction of the paper easily.