Sizing

Surface sizing solutions consist of mainly modified starches and sometimes other hydrocolloids, such as gelatine, or surface sizing agents such as acrylic co-polymers. Surface sizing agents are amphiphilic molecules, having both hydrophilic (water-loving) and hydrophobic (water-repelling) ends. The sizing agent adheres to substrate fibers and forms a film, with the hydrophilic tail facing the fiber and the hydrophobic tail facing outwards, resulting in a smooth finish that tends to be water-repellent. Sizing improves the surface strength, printability, and water resistance of the paper or material to which it is applied. In the sizing solution, optical brightening agents (OBA) may also be added to improve the opacity and whiteness of the paper or material surface.

Internal sizing chemicals used in papermaking at the wet end are alkyl succinic anhydride (ASA), alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) and rosin. By making the paper web more hydrophobic, the sizing agents influence dewatering and retention of fillers and fibers in the paper sheet. Next to paper quality, internal sizing agents' main effect is on runability of the paper machine.

While sizing is intended to make paper more suitable for printing, it also makes printing paper less durable and poses a problem for preservation of printed documents. Sizing with starch was introduced quite early in the history of papermaking.[1] Dard Hunter in Papermaking through Eighteen Centuries[2] corroborates this by writing, "The Chinese used starch as a size for paper as early as A.D. 768 and its use continued until the fourteenth century when animal glue was substituted."[2] In the early modern paper mills in Europe, which produced paper for printing and other uses, the sizing agent of choice was gelatin, as Susan Swartzburg writes in Preserving Library Materials': "Various substances have been used for sizing through the ages, from gypsum to animal gelatin."[3] Hunter describes the process of sizing in these paper mills in the following:

The drying completed, the old papermakers dipped their paper into an animal size that had been made from the parings of hides, which they procured from the parchment-makers. It was necessary to size that paper so that it would be impervious to ink, but sizing was more needed in writing than in printing papers. Many books of the fifteenth century were printed upon paper that had not been sized, this extra treatment not being essential for a type impression. The sizing was accomplished by a worker holding a number of sheets by the aid of two wooden sticks, and dipping the paper into the warm gelatinous liquid. The sheets were then pressed to extract the superfluous gelatine. This crude method of sizing the paper was extremely wasteful as many sheets were torn and bruised beyond use. The sizing room of the early paper mills, was, for this reason, known as the 'slaughter-house'.[2]

With the advent of the mass production of paper, the type of size used for paper production also changed. As Swartzburg writes, "By 1850 rosin size had come into use. Unfortunately, it produces a chemical action that hastens the decomposition of even the finest papers."[4] In the field of library preservation it is known "that acid hydrolysis of cellulose and related carbo-hydrates [sic] is one of the key factors responsible for the degradation of paper during ageing."[5] Some professional work has focused on the specific processes involved in the degradation of rosin-sized paper,[6] in addition to work on developing permanent paper and sizing agents that will not eventually destroy the paper.[7] An issue on the periphery to the preservation of paper and sizing, is washing, which is described by V. Daniels and J. Kosek as, "The removal of discolouration ... in water is principally effected by the dissolution of water-soluble material; this is usually done by immersing paper in water."[8] In such a process, surface level items applied to the paper, such as size in early paper making processes as seen above, have the possibility of being removed from the paper, which might have some item specific interest in a special collections library. With later processes in paper making being more akin to "engine sizing," as H. Hardman and E. J. Cole describe it, "Engine sizing, which is part of the manufacturing process, has the ingredients added to the furnish or stock prior to sheet formation,"[9] the concern for the removal of size is less, and as such, most literature focuses on the more pressing issue of preserving acidic papers and similar issues.