What is pip alignment & does it matter ?

[Pimpled Pips]

I am told the pimples are aligned in various ways to get different effects
What does mean ?
I play with various pimples but never bothered to check
Can you help with this if imporatnt

[RGH 7]

I am told the pimples are aligned in various ways to get different effects
What does mean ?
I play with various pimples but never bothered to check

Let us an assembled racket.
The rubber description has the brand name & rubber type etc printed horizontally.
If the pips are layered vertically along the length of the blade (in a direction perpendicular to the rubber description, then the pips are aligned vertically. This is reference to the adjacent rows vertically. This is compared to horizontal alignment where there is an offset in adjacent rows & only the second row (or column) pips are lining up horizontally.
Take a look at the attached picture with yellow highlight fr Stiga Vertical 55 rubber
The horizontal alignment is sort of tricky but the easy way to remember is this > if the pips are not in vertical alignment , it is horizontal alignment.
See the second attached picture for Stiga Horizontal 55. The adjacent rows & columns are both offset by one row. That is why I said horizontal alignment is tricky compared to vertical alignment
(I have actually seen some pips in a spital alignment but are not ITTF approved and you can ignore...........I am not saying don't use unapproved equipment for not ITTF event or casual but just saying)

Can you help with this if important

I am told vertically aligned pips are suitable for blocking / hitting style of play and horizontal pips are for choppers,
But I have not completely understood why logically.
You can test it for yourself

[RGH 7]

You can understand alignment best by looking at the cool Andro Hexar design.
The logo is placed on sides (twice). As a user you can choose which alignment you want to use by cutting the rubber the way you want it by cutting off one of the two logos.
I am showing this picture however to clearly show both alignments because the rows are not offset by one row for horizontal alignment. For both vertical & horizontal alignments, the adjacent row pips are not offset by a row but are right next to each other.
Almost all other horizontal alignment rubbers have the one row offset in both directions

[James Z]

The measurement of impact of any one pip design parameter is the least known in the case of pip alignment.
Other pip design parameters may have lot more impart on overall behavior of the rubber
These other pip length (or height), Aspect Ratio, pip density , pip flexibility (or stiffness) & its relation to directional linear stability or random(ization by deliberate design), chemical content of the material used to make the rubber (top sheet in this case mostly since OX rubbers are far more important for higher length pips) ) physical geometry of individual pips and last but not the least the roughness of pips (not just the top but also the sides of each pip).

[Nicanor]

You can read more about pip design parameters at the topic below

Click link > Pip design