A hydrophilic, humectant, soft, pliant single-ply napkin product having a serpentine configuration and a basis weight of at least about 10 lbs./3000 square foot ream, said single-ply napkin formed by wet pressing of a cellulosic web, adhering said web to a Yankee dryer and creping the web from the Yankee dryer, said single-ply napkin formed from cellulosic fiber and a cationic nitrogenous softener having a melting range of about 0.degree.-40.degree., the amount of softener added is about 1 to 10 pounds per ton of furnish, but within these parameters the addition of the softener is controlled to achieve a ratio of average particle size of dispersed softener to average fiber diameter in the range of about 0.01 to 15 percent wherein the softener comprises an imidazoline moiety formulated with organic compounds having a weight average molecular weight of about 60 to 1500 selected from the group consisting of alkoxylated polyols, alkoxylated diols, aliphatic diols, aliphatic polyols, and a mixture of these compounds;
- wherein the process of adding the softener is controlled to produce a single-ply napkin having a total MD plus CD tensile strength of between 800 and 4000 grams per three inches, the ratio of MD tensile to CD tensile of between 1.0 and 4.0, a specific geometric mean tensile stiffness of between 20 and 100 grams per inch per percent strain and a friction deviation of less than 0.250.