What’s up with deckle edge?
I don’t know if I’m just noticing this or if it’s new. But it’s kind of weird — Amazon is touting books that have ‘deckle edge’. I originally thought it was an effect of when books needed the pages cut before reading, but it’s actually an effect of papermilling:
– from about.comDefinition: The ragged edge of the paper as it comes from the papermaking machine is the deckle edge. Handmade paper normally has 4 deckle edges while machinemade paper has two. Normally it is cleanly cut. Left in place, the deckle edge becomes a decorative, textured edging. An imitation or fake deckle edge can be created by tearing or sawing the edge of the paper.
Smoothing the edges is an extra cost, of course, and there have always been books — cheap pulpy, genre stuff, and higher end literary stuff — with the edges. But now it’s being called out as a feature of the book:
Right around the time eReading is set to experience another wave of growth . . . curious.
February 14th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
I like deckle edges – they actually make it easier to turn pages.
Btw it looks like that your image tag for the post has some incorrect attributes and it is currently stretched.
February 15th, 2010 at 2:06 am
fyi, comment from a friend who saw my Google Reader shared on Buzz:
“The top part of a brisket (a beef breast) is a muscle known as the deckle; that is the fatty moist part known among other things as the deckle or the burnt ends” ~ Harry Hawk
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:17 pm
My first thought was that they’ve started calling this out because people are getting books with that edge and thinking its a defect.