The amount of filler or other material which remain in the finished paper expressed as a percentage that added to the furnish before sheet formation. Retention can occur by various mechanisms. The simplest of these is mechanical sieving by the forming fabric. Once a fiber mat begins to form, the mat itself usually can act as a much more effective and finer sieve than the forming fabric. But even then, particles less than about 10 micrometers in size are not effectively retained by sieving. Rather, retention of fine particles requires the action of colloidal forces, including polymeric bridging or a charged patch mechanism. Retention aid chemicals can be effective either by attaching fine particles to fiber fines or fibers or by agglomerating them so that they can be sieved more effectively.