The Origami Forum

Since my first language isn't English I don't know what's the difference between "fold" and "crease" as verbs and also as nouns. Is there a difference, even if it's a small difference? I write the steps for my photo-diagrams in Spanish and English, so it would important for me to know .

Thanks in advance!

A crease is a fold that is neither a mountain nor valley, kind of like a neutral fold.

Think of fold as in a permanent fold. Or at least one that kis going to be kept [mostly] folded.
Then think of crease as in a fold for guidelines, a reference point, or a temporary fold.

Here is what I think:
a crease is a line created by a fold (just a mark, the paper is open) and a fold is when you fold the paper and it remains folded. When you unfold a fold you will see a crease.
hope it helps and it's not confusing!

Thanks! I got the idea. I think there actually isn't a word for "crease" in Spanish, although people have used (including me) the Spanish word for "scar" (cicatriz) to refer to that

I was also using the expression "crease mark" in my photo-diagrams, is that weird in English?

And what about those two words as verbs? Like in "crease the paper" or "fold the paper"?

English is not my native language too (it's Portuguese) but I think you can use "crease" like: fold and unfold, and "fold" like: fold the paper in half (it's still folded).
But I may be wrong, I don't know whether crease should be used as a verb, maybe it's just what we call a mark (cicatriz).

A crease is a physical change to the paper. Made by folding. That could mean a nice straight mountain fold. But you also can crease paper by crumpling it up, like a Floderer mushroom. The crease is the physical end result, the fold is what you do to make the crease.

I sometimes describe an entire model as a fold. As in "the Joisel rat is a great fold". But I'd never call it a great crease.

But I like the expression "crease mark".

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about it, you could use either word, and an origami person will understand.

Thanks!

Any other ideas from the other members?

For me, a crease is made by folding then unfolding.

Crease is a mark (or as noted in some steeps make a crease, or a mark) that's folding and unfolding.

In some steps, more at the begining of the sequence you can read:

"Crease both diagonal and horizontal" or "make a crease using the circled points as reference" That's fold and unfold.

A fold is actually the action that creates a crease. Most of the times a fold is not unfolded.

The creases are the consequence of a fold. (after unfolding).

Other thing interesting about creases is that some time creases are used only as references (some times must be very light to prevent showing them on the final model)

Thanks for your replies! And what about the expression "crease mark", is it too weird in English?

"Crease mark" is self descriptive, at less to me. I don't see how weird it could be.

You can use a pencil and tools to make reference points on the paper. (Some times Robert Lang suggest you to locate reference points by measuring in stead of folding)

So if I understand correctly "crease mark" and just "crease" would mean the same, right?

I guess I'll leave my former photo-diagrams as they are and start just saying crease in the future ones then

Crease is just the marks of folding and unfolding things that u use...