The purpose of creasing and scoring is to fold paper and board without fold cracking, particularly when working with thicker papers.

What does creasing mean?

“To crease“ is to create a bendable zone by shaping the paper or cardboard. The paper is displaced downwards across the crease (see figure), creating a kind of bulge. If the paper is subsequently folded, this bulge bends inwards. The paper’s stability must not be reduced in the process. Later on, due to flawless creasing, the paper can be folded at an angle of 90 degrees or 180 degrees without fold cracking. Ideally, the creasing rule should run parallel to the grain.

Which materials are common for creasing?

It is advisable to crease from a grammage of 170 g/m². However, the decisive factor is not the grammage but the thickness of the material, which ought to be between 0.17 and 0.6mm. We would therefore also recommend creasing a very bulky paper with a grammage of  150 g/m². Width and thickness of creasing need to be adjusted to the thickness of the material.

What does scoring mean?

Scoring is also used to create a bending point for optimum folding of paper or cardboard. However, scoring does not reshape the material. Material is taken off at the score, thus reducing the thickness at this point by removing a wedge-shaped or rectangular cardboard chip.

Which materials are common for grooving?

If the material is thicker – approximately from 0.65mm – creasing results are not as good as for thinner materials. If this method reaches its limits because paper cannot be displaced any more, scoring comes into its own.

What are the necessary design criteria to obtain a smart-looking print object after folding?

We recommend including the fold in the design planning process. The visibility of fold cracking is reduced if less ink and no hard varnish, e.g. UV varnish, are used for the fold. The white fibre is more visible underneath a colour.

Another method to prevent fold cracking is celloglazing. A very thin protective film is applied to the cover of magazines or booklets.