Abstract
This review of the literature features the fundamentals of papermaking and its history. First, writing substrates other than paper, as well as similar to paper, are discussed. Then, issues related to the invention of the technology of paper and paperboard production as we know it today are presented. Subsequently, facts related to the key achievements in pulp and paper technology that enabled the mass production of these products are described. Finally, examples of papers and processed products (not only papermaking) that significantly expanded the scope of production of pulp and paper industry – also greatly improving people’s daily lives – are provided. The article concludes by highlighting the long historical journey toward obtaining a writing substrate with optimal properties ¾ namely, paper. It is proposed to divide the period of diversification of the applications of pulps, paper, and paperboards into 1st generation diversification and 2nd generation diversification, the latter corresponding to the contemporary times, i.e. the period in which due to the reduction in the production of writing and printing papers, the paper industry is intensively looking for new applications for papermaking pulps, papers, and cardboards.
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A Review on Early Writing Materials: Genesis, Evolution, Industrial Production, and Diversification of Use
Dariusz Danielewicz 
*
This review of the literature features the fundamentals of papermaking and its history. First, writing substrates other than paper, as well as similar to paper, are discussed. Then, issues related to the invention of the technology of paper and paperboard production as we know it today are presented. Subsequently, facts related to the key achievements in pulp and paper technology that enabled the mass production of these products are described. Finally, examples of papers and processed products (not only papermaking) that significantly expanded the scope of production of pulp and paper industry − also greatly improving people’s daily lives − are provided. The article concludes by highlighting the long historical journey toward obtaining a writing substrate with optimal properties ⎯ namely, paper. It is proposed to divide the period of diversification of the applications of pulps, paper, and paperboards into 1st generation diversification and 2nd generation diversification, the latter corresponding to the contemporary times, i.e. the period in which due to the reduction in the production of writing and printing papers, the paper industry is intensively looking for new applications for papermaking pulps, papers, and cardboards.
DOI: 10.15376/biores.20.4.Danielewicz
Keywords: Writing substrates; Paper; Origins; Manufacturing; Applications of paper
Contact information: Fibrous Papermaking Pulps Technology Team, Center of Papermaking and Printing, Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland; *Corresponding author: dariusz.danielewicz@p.lodz.pl
PROLOGUE
Writing substrates were invented out of the need to preserve and disseminate facts, thoughts, images, knowledge, and to obtain the possibility of correspondence between people. These possibilities played a significant role in the civilizational development of humanity as a result of enabling the implementation of education on a mass scale.
To this day, one of the best writing substrates is paper, which is produced from fibrous papermaking pulps obtained from wood, waste paper, and non-wood plants. The invention of this material and the fibrous semi-finished product used for its production was not a coincidence. Rather, it came as the result of many attempts consisting of using various other writing substrates, the characteristics of which, despite the considerable dissemination of some of them in certain periods of the past, did not allow them to be used by wide circles of human societies to such a large extent as in the case of paper.
In addition to the best suitability of paper for writing purposes, its superiority over other writing substrates also results from:
- The possibility of producing it from naturally renewable plant fibres available in many countries of the world;
- Its low price;
- The possibility of its relatively easy processing back into paper and paperboard, i.e., recycling;
- Its general biodegradability in the natural environment;
- The possibility of diversification of the use of this product to produce a number of different products and processed products (including non-papermaking) with properties and applications different from paper (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Set of contemporary processed papermaking products (author’s photo)
The above features of paper mean that the production of papermaking pulps, hundreds of types of paper and paperboards, and processed paper and paperboard products in the world remains at a high level. Contributions to this high usage of papermaking products include the high per capita consumption in highly developed countries, ongoing civilization development of societies in many countries of the world, people’s population growth, and the recognition of these products as one of the best substitutes for products made of synthetic polymers.
Therefore, knowledge of the history of the use of various writing substrates by humanity to record information and their evolution to paper, the development of technology for the production of papermaking intermediates, paper, and paperboard, and the possibility of diversifying the use of these substrates may be of great importance in the author’s opinion in the process of educating not only papermaking engineers but also engineers of innovative market products.
This study is precisely a compilation of information on these topics, presenting the information obtained mainly from articles in papermaking journals and on websites, covering a relatively wide range of educational topics.
THE FIRST NON-PAPER WRITING MATERIALS
The first writing substrates can be divided into non-portable and portable types (McGovern 1974).
Non-portable Substrates
Humans began recording information in the form of images in different parts of the world 40,000 to 50 000 years ago (Aubert et al. 2019, Oktaviana et al. 2024). At that time, popular writing surface included cave walls, which are a classic example of immobile writing surfaces (McGovern 1974).
Fig. 2. Rock art in the Altamira cave in Spain (A) (Outline Designs 2025), drawings of strange creatures from the Sego Canyon (B) (Wikipedia1 2024), and a stone table with Egyptian hieroglyphs (C) (Snyder 2024) (author’s computer painting based on references)
These written materials are of great importance, as they make it possible to obtain information about the lives of these human groups. Examples include rock drawings found in the Altamira cave in Spain, containing, for example, animal silhouettes painted by primitive people 13 to 35 thousand years ago (Fig. 2A), mysterious geoglyphs made on the Nazca plateau in Peru, and drawings of strange creatures suggesting their unearthly origin in the Sego Canyon in Utah (USA) from 7.5 thousand years ago (Fig. 2B). Much later, already in the era of the Egyptian state, and later, sandstone, limestone and marble tables, walls of columns, temples, and statues were the popular substrate for recording important texts of high seriousness requiring durability. Examples include the text of the Ten Commandments, Egyptian notes, the first parts of the Bible, and the Marmor Parium found on the Greek island of Paros engraved on these types of writing substrates (Fig. 2C). Inscriptions on this type of surface were made by stonemasons using chisels and arrowheads used to carve round letters (McGovern 1974; Meleczyńska 1974; Węgłowski and Przeździecka 1979; Szkolnictwo 2025).
Portable Substrates
Clay tablets
The driving force behind the invention of more versatile portable writing media was the invention of written language around 3300 BCE, although recent research indicates that written elements of human speech (writing signs Y, I, •) as signs of communication may have been in use as early as from 37,000 to 13,000 BC (Bacon et al. 2023).
One of the first portable writing surfaces that played a significant role in the spread of indirect forms of interpersonal communication and the archiving of historical events was rectangular clay tablets (Fig. 3) (Taylor and Cartwright 2011; Jean et al. 2024).
Fig. 3. Clay tablet with information written on it (authors’ computer painting based on Wikipedia2 2024), postage stamp showing another clay tablet (author’s photos), and a drawing showing the subsequent stages of making clay tablets (author’s drawing based on Jean et al. 2024)
This writing material began to be used in Mesopotamia around the 4th century BC. Their production consisted of clay sourcing, clay processing (levigation, folding, rolling, vegetal tempering), tablet shaping, the inscriptions’ handwriting, and drying or low- or high-firing (Taylor and Cartwright 2011; Jean et al. 2024). The text intended for writing was embossed on these plates when they were yet wet with a special triangular stylus, and after writing them down, they were dried or fired to fix them; thus, they were very durable but unfortunately disposable. These tablets were used to write documents, letters, and notes. It was inconvenient that longer texts required a whole collection of relatively heavy tablets, as well as marking their order. However, the importance of this writing material is very high. They were commonly used in large quantities. Some fragments of the Bible were written on them (Muszkowski 1947; McGovern 1974; Węgłowski and Przezdziecka 1979).
Leaves
In ancient times, leaves of broad-leaved plants were also used to record information (Fig. 4). For example, the Egyptians and Romans used leaves of the fan palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and the olive tree (Olea europaea) for this purpose, while the Hindus used leaves of the aloe vera (Aquilaria agallocha), the palmyra tree (Borassus flabellifer L.), or the talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera L.).
Fig. 4. A written, previously suitable, prepared palm leaf (author’s computer painting based on Wikipedia3 2024) and postage stamp showing palm leaves book prepared for writing (A)
In India the history of writing on palm leaves dates from the famous Sanskrit scholar Paniny-rishee, who lived approximately 4161 years ago (Anderson 1991; Padmakumar et al. 2003; Wikipedia3 2024). These leaves were prepared for writing using different methods. For example, in the case of Corypha umbraculifera, is it: drying in the sun; stripping the leaflets; cutting to size (e.g., 34 × 5 cm); rubbing with sesame oil; keeping in the shade for two to three days; boiling with rice; keeping in the shade for a week; and oiling again. By this method the leaflet will be rendered more resistant, and it will last longer. Writing can be applied then to the leaf surfaces with ink made of charcoal and oil using an iron, silver, or brass stylus, which cuts the upper cuticle of the leaf, and hence the letters remain on the leaf. Then, the printed leaves were bound at the edges into books, the covers of which were made of boards. This was a relatively fragile writing material but widely used in India (Muszkowski 1947; McGovern 1974; Padmakumar at al. 2003). Palm leaves were used from the beginning of the creation of Buddhism in India as a writing material for the Buddhist manuscripts. They were used to record actual and mythical Buddhist narratives as well as other information such as traditional medicine methods, astrological maps, prayers, ancestral legends, etc. Laos has a huge collection of palm leaf manuscripts dating back to the ancient Kingdom of Lan Xang in the 15th century. The collection is kept in 2,800 Buddhist Wats’ Ho Tai (libraries) all over Laos. In addition to religious texts, the manuscripts contain many works in fields such as history, traditional law, poetry, legends, traditional customs, traditional medicine, grammar, lexicography, etc. The “Lao-German Preservation of Lao Manuscripts Programme” works to preserve and digitise the old Lao palm leaf manuscripts (Yayasan 2025).
Tree Bark, Wooden Tablets, Metal Plates, Ivory, Fragments of Pottery, Animal Skins, Canvas, and Silk
Birch bark (Betula utilis, Himalayan birch) (Fig. 5) was used to record information in India (Padmakumar at al. 2003).
Fig. 5. Inscribed birch bark (author’s computer painting based on Wikipedia4 2024) and postage stamp showing the message from Жизномира to Mикуле written on birch bark tablet in XII century (author’s photo)
It was found to be suitable for writing short and unimportant notes. This bark was rubbed with oil from the inside and polished, which made it soft and shiny. This writing material was called bhurja. White birch bark (Betula papyrifera) was also used by American Indians to record drawings (Muszkowski 1947; Shenoy 2016; Wikipedia4 2024). As Pedieu et al. (2008) report, bark of this species has two different parts. The outer bark has a paper-like texture with several layers, while the inner bark has a granular form. The bark of some trees for writing was also used by the ancient Romans, which they called “liber,” and this is the root for the word “library” (Anderson 1991).
In many cultures (e.g., Hellenic), wooden tablets (Fig. 6A) and metal tablets (copper, brass, lead, tin, and bronze) (Fig. 6B) were used to record information (Ancient-origins 2024).
Fig. 6. Tablets for recording information: Roman wooden (A) (Judson 2021), metal (B) (MacDermott 2016), Chinese bamboo (C) (Effros 2025), and wax (D) (Judson 2021) (author’s computer paintings based on references cited)
In Greece, flat wooden boards were used for writing, which were polished and whitened with chalk. It was called “leukoma” in Greece and “album” in Rome (Muszkowski 1947). Today, leukometers are devices for determining the whiteness of paper. In Chinese culture (until 256 BC), the equivalents of wooden tablets were bamboo boards a few inches long and wide enough to write a column of text (notes, receipts, wills, reports) (Fig. 6C). Wooden tablets were used in schools as the school notebooks (lined wooden tablets) and in everyday life, while metal tablets were used to record important documents (McGovern 1974; Węgłowski and Przedziecka 1979). Wooden tablets could be slightly hollowed and filled with wax (Fig. 6D), which could be erased or melted to be written again. The inscriptions on these tablets were engraved with a type of pen called a stylus. Hence, in French, the fountain pen is called a “stylograph” or “stylo: (Judson 2021; Effros 2025). Wooden or wax tablets were bound with string. Placed one on top of the other that they formed a volume resembling a tree trunk. For this reason, such a collection was called “caudex” (originally in Latin meaning “block of wood” or “tree trunk”) (Judson 2021; Effros 2025), which, in the case of making wooden tablets from beech wood, was called in Old English “bōc codex; the term which later evolved into the word “book” (Entymonline 2025). Metal plates were used to record short or very important texts, such as spells and magical texts, e.g., those placed in the grave of the deceased, inscriptions dedicated to the Gods, military diplomas, etc., and sometimes letters (McGovern 1974; Meleczyńska 1974; Węgłowski and Przedziecka 1979).
Fig. 7. An ivory tablet from Egypt from around 3100 to 2890 BC (A) (Fernandez 2025), and an ostracon/ostraka (B) (Wikipedia5 2024) (author’s computer paintings based on references cited)
Animal skin tanned with tannin was also used to record information in various regions of the world (Central America, Assyria, Persia, India, and Cyprus). The first mentions of writing on leather come from Egypt (first half of the third millennium BC), Assyria and Greece [here books were called leather (diphtheria)], and Palestine (Jewish translation of the Holy Scripture into Greek. After recording, the long pieces of skin were rolled into rolls and tied with a strap (Fig. 8A) (Muszkowski 1947; Libiszowski 1955; Meleczyńska 1974; McGovern 1974; Outline Designs 2025). Linen was a writing material used for writing by the Etruscans (Etruscan Liber/Libri Linteus or Linen rolls), as mentioned by Licinius Macer, an author from the 2nd century BC; in Egypt (written cloths for wrapping mummies); and in ancient Rome (journals of Emperor Aurelian) (Fig. 8B). The use of this writing medium was limited, however, due to the greater popularity of papyrus for writing (Muszkowski 1947; Meleczyńska 1974; Commons 2024). Further examples of the use of fabrics to record information are those from India. Bhattacharya (2022) reports that (in the Indian context) Nearchos (4th century BC), an admiral of Alexander’s fleet, was the first to mention that the Indians used to write letters on belt-beaten cotton (pata) cloth.
Another type of fabric used to record information was thin silk fabric (fine-weave silk strips), called zhi in Chinese. It was used in China to record important official texts, speeches, and regulations (e.g., imperial decrees) due to its high price. Its advantage was its low specific weight, which made it easier to carry than wooden tablets, while its disadvantage was the need to use a brush to record information, which was inconvenient (Winczakiewicz 1957a; Pań Czi-sin 1977; Zhong 1985; Tsien 2004; Leung 2008). The inconvenience of writing on silk due to its pliability the Chinese remedied by forcing together of several such pieces in the manner of fulling, resulting in a significantly stiffer writing material called fan paper (Ling 1961; Dąbrowski 2006).
An example of the use of wooden , metal tablets, ivory and porcelain, and tanned leather is the use some of them to record fragments of the Bible, texts contained in the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Hebrew Scriptures (McGovern 1974).
Fig. 8. Prepared animal skin with text written on it (A) (Outline Designs 2025) and written strips of cloth taken from a mummy (B) (author’s computer painting based on Commons 2024)
Papyrus (Egyptian Paper – EP)
In 3rd and 4th century BC, in Egypt, a writing material called Egyptian papyrus began to be used on a larger scale to record information. It was made from the Cyperus papyrus L., Cyperus alopecuroides, and Cyperus articulates plants (Waly 2001), which grew abundantly in the Nile Delta at the time, but came from African countries located lower along the Nile, such as Sudan, Uganda, and Ethiopia. It is a marsh plant, with a triangular stem measuring 25 to 37 mm, growing to a height of 2.5 to 4.0 m, with a stem ending in a plume (Fig. 9A).