Printed, soft, bulky single-ply absorbent paper having a serpentine configuration and low sidedness and methods for its manufacture

A printed, single-ply, embossed bathroom tissue product which has been printed before or after embossing having a low printed sidedness value of .DELTA.E of less than 2 having a serpentine configuration and a basis weight of at least about 15 lbs./3000 square foot ream having a Yankee side and an air side and wherein the bathroom tissue is printed on the Yankee side, air side or both sides of said tissue and wherein said tissue exhibits low sidedness, said single-ply tissue comprising hardwood fiber, softwood fiber, recycled fiber, or a mixture of these;

• from about 2 pounds per ton to about 25 pounds per ton of a water soluble temporary wet strength agent selected from the group of (1) uncharged aldehydes, uncharged aldehyde-containing polymers, polyols and cyclic ureas, and mixtures thereof and charged cationic starches having aldehyde moieties, and (2) from about 1 pound per ton to about 10 pounds per ton of a cationic nitrogenous softener/debonder chosen from the group consisting of imidazolines, amido amine salts, linear amido amines, tetravalent ammonium salts and mixtures thereof wherein the ratio of the temporary wet strength agent to the nitrogenous cationic softener/debonder is selected to yield a single-ply tissue product having a specific total tensile strength of between 40 and 200 grams per 3 inches per pound per 3000 square foot ream, a cross direction specific wet tensile strength of between 2.75 and 20.0 grams per 3 inches per pound per 3000 square foot ream, the ratio of MD tensile to CD tensile of between 1.25 and 2.75, a specific geometric mean tensile stiffness of between 0.5 and 3.2 grams per inch per percent strain per pound per 3000 square foot ream, a friction deviation of less than 0.250, and a sidedness parameter of less than 3.0.