For any type of printing you need to have something to print on.  Paper is one of the most common printing surfaces.  Paper has been around since the times of the ancient Egyptians when they use to write on beaten down strips of the papyrus plant.  Paper similar the way we know it first came about around 2 A.D in China to as a cheaper alternative to silks.  Papermaking then spread from China to the Islamic world, into Europe in the 12^th century and to the rest of the world.  In the 19^th century the mechanized production of paper changed the way the world exchanged information.   Charles Fenetry and F.G Keller both invented processes and machines for pulping wood which allowed the production of newsprint.  These processes were later modified to be able to make paper the way we know it today.

Paper is produced by pressing together various moist fibers or pulp and drying them into a flexible sheet.  The pulp used in paper can come from various woods, rags and grasses.  There are three types of pulp that include chemical, mechanical and deinked.

• Chemical pulping breaks down lignin which makes it soluble so that it can be washed away from the fibers to leave you with pulp.
• Mechanical pulps come in thermo mechanical and groundwood pulp.  In TMP the wood is chipped and sent through a steam heated refiner so that the chips can be squeezed between two discs.  In GW, the logs are debarked, fed into grinders, pressed against rotating stones and fiberized.
• Deinked pulp is a product of recycling paper.

The pulp is then formed and pressed to remove excess liquid and then dried by air or heat.  The paper is then sized for various uses.  Some paper is then coated with a thin layer of calcium carbonate or china clay to give it a different finish.  Coated wide format paper is available in various finishes including matte, semi-matte or gloss.  Gloss is typically used for printed images because of it’s high optical density.  The other type of paper one could use is wove paper which can come with a textured finish, watermarks or a wire pattern.  Paper can come in a variety of colors, thickness and weights.

Choosing your paper will depend on the ink you are using, the printer you have and what you plan to print.  Different papers are used for different types of projects so it is crucial that you select the right paper for the job so that your printing comes out the way you want it to.  You also need to take into account the weight and thickness of the paper to ensure that your printer is able to print on it.

For large scale printing one would use a wide format paper which, depending on your printer, is available on rolls.  Rolls of paper are handy because you can set the length yourself once the printing is complete and they take up less space than if they were cut into sheets.  Certain printers, such as roll to roll printers, will only use wide format paper that comes on rolls.  Alternately, wide format paper is available in pre-cut sheets but this does limit the size of the prints you are able to make.