The history of how paper is made starts in ancient Egypt in the form of papyrus, created from plant stems, alongside the use of parchment made from animal skins (certainly wouldn‘t fly today!). Fortunately, there was another ancient civilization on the case to find a better method. So how is paper made from trees? We have China to thank for this by developing a method using a watery, mishmash of bark and rags. Over time, the concept became standardized through refined production techniques. Eventually, it traveled west into Italy and then filtered into the rest of Europe.

Combined with the invention of the German Gutenberg printing press in the early 1400s and its ability to quickly and mechanically reproduce text, the demand for paper increased exponentially. With the expansion of mechanical know-how during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, paper became ever more widespread across the globe.

By the end of the Eighteenth Century, the French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet pioneered the use of chemicals to bleach paper whiter. During the Industrial Revolution in the following decades, new rapid production techniques saved more and more time in the creation of paper from bleached rags. By the mid-nineteenth Century, the mass production of wood pulp, first mechanically and then chemically, led to the development of paper as we know it today.

Moving into the Twentieth Century, innovations like electricity and automation made the whole process faster and cheaper than ever. This led to a rise in specialized grades and qualities, ranging from cheap newspaper stock to thick, high-finish card for luxury items.