A type of tall grass called papyrus, which grew in the Nile valley in ancient Egypt, was used for writing and drawing on. Before it could be used, the leaves of the grass were soaked in water, pressed together and then dried in the sun.
The first paper was made by the Chinese two thousand years ago. In the eighth century, Arab travelers who traded with china learned how to make it, too.
At first, paper was very expensive because it was made from cotton, but later it was produced from wood and became much cheaper.

To make paper from wood, logs are broken into small pieces which are then mixed with chemicals and bleached. Water is removed from the mixture, which then passes through hot rollers to produce continuous pieces of dry paper.
Every year, millions of trees are cut down to make new paper. Fortunately, the type of tree that gives us the best wood for making paper grows very quickly, but old paper can also be recycled.
Most of today's newspapers and magazines are made from recycled paper.

For hundreds of years, an enormous quantity of paper has been used to produce books, especially very large books like encyclopedia. Now, encyclopedias and other books can be put on CD-ROMS: special computer disks which hold a huge amounts of information. sound and pictures can also be put on CD-ROMS.
Many people think that soon everybody will have a computer and we will get all our information from the internet or from CD-ROMS. They believe that public libraries will no longer be needed and the printing will become part of history.