Start here
A History of Writing Materials
A plain-language overview of clay, papyrus, parchment and paper, the pens and inks used on each, and why each material rose or faded.
Communication and Computing
Writing Materials and Paper
The surfaces and tools people used to record words.
Clay Tablets and Cuneiform Writing
How Mesopotamian scribes used reed styluses and wet clay to make cuneiform tablets, and what these durable records were mostly used for.
Ink Recipes from Soot to Iron Gall
How carbon inks and iron gall ink were made, why scribes preferred each, and how iron gall ink sometimes damaged the manuscripts it recorded.
Paper Making in China and Its Spread
How traditional papermakers turned plant fibers into sheets in China, and how the craft slowly traveled across Asia, the Islamic world and Europe.
Papyrus and Egyptian Scrolls
How papyrus sheets were made from reeds, rolled into scrolls and used across Egypt and the Mediterranean, and why papyrus later gave way to parchment.
Parchment and Vellum Manuscripts
How animal skins were prepared into parchment and vellum, and how the strong, foldable material helped replace scrolls with bound codices.
Quill Pens, Steel Nibs and Dip Writing
How writers moved from hand-cut feather quills to mass produced steel nibs in the nineteenth century, and what dip pens could and could not do.
The Ballpoint Pen and Everyday Writing
How the ballpoint pen's rolling-ball ink delivery was developed, from early patents through wartime production to the cheap disposable pens of the 1950s.
The Fountain Pen and Reservoir Writing
How inventors tackled ink flow in reservoir pens, from early ideas to the feed designs and filling systems that made fountain pens practical.
Wood Pulp Paper and the Paper Machine
How continuous paper machines and wood fiber replaced hand-made rag paper in the nineteenth century, lowering costs and also bringing new preservation problems.
Related topics
More in communication and computing
Cameras and Image Making Pinhole rooms, cameras, printing and recorded sound. Smart and Digital Devices Chips, calculators, smart homes and wearable devices. Printing and Writing Movable type, pencils and typewriters. Telephone and Telegraph Wires, switchboards and voices over distance. Radio and Television Broadcasting from wireless signals to the living room screen. The Electric Guitar Pickups, amplifiers and the instrument that changed popular music. Internet and Networks The internet, the web browser, fibre optic links and connected devices. Computer History Computers, chips, mice and early video games. Computer Security Viruses, worms, firewalls and the history of defending computers. Virtual Reality Headsets and immersive displays from laboratory prototypes to consumer products. Modern Computing Artificial intelligence, cloud, big data, quantum and connected objects.