paper - A mass of interlaced cellulose fibers in sheet or roll form, used as a combination ground and support in drawing, watercolor and pastel painting, and the various graphic arts techniques. Fine arts papers are made of pulped linen and cotton rags; while lower quality, impermanent papers, such as newsprint, construction paper, coated papers, and butcher paper, are made of wood pulp or a combination of wood pulp and cotton rag.

Some of the best fine arts papers are handmade, usually coming in a number of standard sizes:

Two traditional sizes of paper for Japanese prints are chuban — c. 11 x 8 inches — and oban — c. 15 x 10 inches. Writing papers contain a water-resistant substance such as rosin to prevent the spreading of ink. Kraft paper, made chemically with sulfate, is used for bags and wrapping papers because of its strength.

Crude papers were being made in China by c. 100 BCE, although a man named Tsai Lun received praise from the emperor in 105 CE for his methods of making paper from tree bark, hemp, remnant rags, and fishing nets. The forerunners of European paper were papyrus in ancient Egypt, and parchment from Roman times through the Middle Ages. The first paper mill in the Muslim world was established at Samarkand in 751 CE, two Chinese prisoners having revealed the technique of papermaking to their captors. The Moors introduced the papermaking process into Spain c. 1150. By the fifteenth century in Europe, paper mills were widely established, and paper was often used as a support for works of art, as well as for the books printed with the just-invented movable-type, and for the prints being made by the new technique called engraving.

Papers are most often joined with adhesives, staples, or tapes.

Also see blot, book, bristol board, card or cardboard, cartridge paper, Chinese art, corrugated, embossed, ephemera, fold, frisket, glassine, graphic arts, graphic design, guillotine, illustration board, incunabulum, laid, letterhead, marbling, oaktag, packaging, papermaking, papier-collé, papier- mâché, parchment, philately, positive, prints and printmaking, scissors, tissue paper, translucent, vellum, watermark, and wove.

• International Standard Paper Sizes. Standard paper sizes like ISO A10 are today widely used all over the world. This site explains the ISO 216 paper size system and the ideas behind its design.
  
  
• The article on paper in Drawing Materials and Drawing Techniques, a Guide and Glossary by Michael Miller.
  
  
• See a wonderful variety of handmade papers for sale from Handmade-Paper.us.

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