A pleated filter media comprising front pleats and rear pleats, with at least some of the front pleats having junctions at which local areas of adjoining front pleat walls of the front pleat are frontally joined together. The junctions may be at discrete locations that are spaced along a pleat direction of the front pleats. For any two nearest-neighbor front pleats, the junctions of one of the front pleats may be offset, along the pleat direction, from the junctions of the other front pleat.