From the very beginning of the civilization, the prehistoric man used to draw symbols on rocks and bones.

Later, human beings began using boards made out of wood, metal and loam.

The Egyptians then replaced these impractical writing materials with papyrus scroll. This was much lighter and easier to use as it was derived from a special kind of cane, the cyperus papyrus, which thrives along the river Nile. The stalks were cut into thin layers, joined together, and then pressed and dried.
The word ‘paper’ is related, of course, to the Egyptian term ‘Papyrus’.
When a new material began to offer competition to it however, papyrus was used less and less frequently. This material was called parchment and it was used by the Persians and Hebrews.

This new writing material was developed in Pergamum and consisted of calf’s or goat’s leather which was washed and polished with pumice stone so that it could be written over on both sides. The individual leaves where bound into a type of pad and then into a ‘codex’, the archetype of the book.

The actual discovery of paper by the Chinese appears to date back to the year 105 AD and is generally credited to Tsaï-Lun who served as the minister of agriculture under King Hoti. Tsaï-Lun observed the true inventors of paper, namely ‘wasps’ or yellowjackets , and he succeeded in creating a mass from old cloths and cooked peelings which yielded a brilliant white sheet when it was passed through a sieve and dried.

The production of paper was kept secret in China for a long time. It finally arrived in Japan in the 7th century, where paper rapidly established itself as a writing material.

The decisive event in the history of paper was the battle of Talas in the year 751 which resulted in the defeat of China. Many Chinese people were seized by the Arabs and some of them stated their profession as being paper manufacturing.
Samarkand became the first center of paper production in the Islamic world.

The Arabs rapidly recognised the significance of this amazing invention which quickly spread throughout their kingdom, reaching Andalusia with their campaigns of conquest.

Cordoba and Seville are still home to paper mills which date back to the 11th century, whilst Toledo and Catalonia boast several which date from the beginning of the 12th century. After the Spanish, paper then reached the Italians who built their first paper factories around 1250, such as in Fabriano (1276) and around Genoa.

The first paper mill known to have existed opened near Troyes in France in the year 1348. Further mills are to be found in Corbeil-Essonnes (1354) and Saint Cloud (1376).

This new branch of industry gradually spread throughout Europe and it was given further momentum by the invention of letterpress printing by Gutenberg in 1445.

At the beginning of the 19th century, paper was being manufactured by hand. The sheets were moulded one by one which clearly reduced the levels of productivity. With the spreading of book printing, the demand for the extensive and low cost manufacturing of paper became increasingly urgent and paper was soon produced on an industrial scale with the help of water power. The first paper manufacturing machine, which was able to produce 80 sheets per day at a length of almost six meters, went into use near Rouen around the year 1800. The functional method of this machine was oriented to manual production and was relatively straightforward: the raw paper mixture was poured into a large vat, from which a bucket wheel then ladled it on to a continually running metal mesh. An initial drying of the paper mixture was achieved through vibration. The sheet which was made in this way was then fed through pressure-rollers covered with felt, before finally being twined into rolls at the end of the machine.

Paper manufacturing established itself in Europe around 1825. Around 1850 the first machine was developed for the manufacturing of multi-layer cartons. At this time there were more than 300 machines in England, about 250 in France, and almost as many in Germany. Each of these machines, although very small and slow when compared with the technology of today, was able to handle a production output of ten traditional, hand-made vats of paper mixture per day.

The machines of today can be up to 100 meters long and produce paper of significant width at a speed of several thousand meters per minute, producing and an average 100 tons of paper reels per day. In contrast, an experienced artisan would not be able to produce more than 100 kilos of sheet paper in the same period of time. The width of the reels of paper which are manufactured today can total up to eight meters.

These facilitate the production of papers which differing surfaces for watercolour painting, lithography or art prints. In addition to this they also make the production of watermarks easy which are in particularly high demand for security paper and for documents. The industrial production uses the same basic procedures as the traditional craft, although today these are all fully automated and controlled via ultra modern electronic systems. It is in this way that industrialisation has facilitated an ever more intensive form of production which guarantees both clearly improved levels of paper quality and the consistency of the product attributes.