Writing Material

Basharat
Hafeez

An ancient
hand print
on cave wall
and
incessant
print-out of
computer in
the modern
world is an
unbroken
link
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Cave painting

Clay
Mesopotamian clay tablets, Made of river mud
The tablets varied in shape (square, round

and oblong) with rounded corners.

Usually the flat on top and slightly rounded on

the bottom

Picture of some clay

tablets

Writing on Clay Tablets

The scribe used a thin pencil-like piece of

wood cut diagonally on one end.

The stick was thrust into the wet clay

where it formed wedge-shaped

characters

Witting instrument was called a cuneus

(wedge) and the characters cuneiform.

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Clay: Preservation
The tablets were then baked in the sun or

kiln.

Clay book was comprised of a series of

tablets.

In Nineveh, the capital of Babylonia 30,000

clay tablets were uncovered by

archeologists.

20,000 clay tablets preserved in British7

Map of Valley of Clay

Tablets

Clay tablet

Papyrus
Papyrus reed grew along the fertile bank of

the Nile in Egypt

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Usage of Papyrus
Fuel
Making of rope
Cooked and juiced for food
Robes (loose outer garment)
Sandals
Rafts and Boats

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The preparation of
Papyrus
Papyrus cut and loaded in bundles into boat.
An inscription, dated 1475 BC, depicts the

harvesting of the papyrus plant

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Papyrus Plant

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The preparation of
Papyrus

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The preparation of
Papyrus
Stem of the papyrus plant was cut lengthwise.

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The preparation of
Papyrus
A layer of the strips was laid vertically side by

side.
A second layer was placed horizontally, at
right angles over the first layer.

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The preparation of
Papyrus
The two layers were pounded and gulled

together either by a gummy substance or by

the water from the River Nile.
The uneven edges were trimmed and the

yellow-white sheet of papyrus was rubbed

with pumice to smooth the writing surface

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The preparation of
Papyrus

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The preparation of
Papyrus
The sheets of papyrus were pasted together into

a strip.
Strip six inches high and occasionally as much

as 100 feet long.

The strip was then rolled around a rod, usually

made of tightly compressed papyrus.

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The preparation of
Papyrus

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The preparation of
Papyrus

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The preservation of
Papyrus
The papyrus was breakable and easily torn a

cover of papyrus dyed purple was often use

to protect the role.
From the end of the roll a tag or ticket was

hung, bearing the title of the roll.

The Romans also wrote on papyrus rolls. They

called the rolls volumen, from which comes

the word volume.
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Papyrus: the scribe at

work
The scribe often worked out of door, squatting

cross-legged at a low desk.

Black and Red inks were used
Red being used to introducing a new

paragraph.

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Writing on Papyrus
The reed pen, called a calanus, was half pen

and half brush.

One end chewed into a tuft, as sharp writing

implement would have penetrated the

papyrus.

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Writing on Papyrus

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Writing on Papyrus

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Writing on Papyrus

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Writing on Papyrus

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Writing on Papyrus

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Writing on Papyrus

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Writing on Papyrus
The scribe copied in page-like on the roll.
Papyrus was used as a writing material for

thousand years. The last extant piece was

dated 1022 AD.

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Wood and the Wax Tablet

The Romans used the idea of a slate as a

writing surface when they designed

centuries ago a wax tablet.
A small block of wood was hollowed and

filled with a thin layer of yellow or black

wax.
The wooden edges of the tablet might be
decorated.
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Wood and the Wax Tablet

Wooden frame for

wax

Roman Wax Tablet

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Wood and the Wax Tablet

The writing implement was a pointed stylus of

wood or ivory, blunted at one end for

erasures.
The letter were dug into the wax.
The wax was smoothed with the blunt edge of

the stylus to reuse the tablet.

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Wood and the Wax Tablet

Wax tablets were seldom stored in

libraries.

Several wax tablets were found in the

ruins.

The Roman also used a wooden bulleting

board resembling our roadside bill board.

Painted black and white letters.

Boards were used for news, public notes35

Parchment
In Pergamum a new writing material was

used.
As the story is told, a scribe in Pergamum

made parchment out of sheep skin and

called it Pargamena in honor of his city.
Soon parchment began to replace papyrus

as a writing material.
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Parchment
Sheet
Soak the sheep skin in lye (ancient Greek U
shaped frame) for several hours.
Scrape off the wool and fatty substance with a

sharp knife.
While skin is wet, stretch it and nail it onto a

wooden frame.
When skin is dry, use pumice or an abrasive to

clean the skin.

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Parchment Sheet
Rub in chalk dust to whiten it.
Trim and cut it into small sheets

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Writing on Parchment
For writing on parchment a quill pen of goose

or turkey feathers was used.

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It was dipped into a brownish ink make from

gall nuts that grow on the bark of the oak

tree.

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Vellum
To make vellum instead of parchment, follow the same

procedure using calf skin instead of sheep skin.

Vellum is delicate, smooth and white writing surface that

takes ink perfectly.

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Paper
T Sai Lun , a Chinese, had mixed bark,

hemp, fish nets and rags with water and

invented paper.
This secret process was reported to his

emperor and TSai Lun was rewarded.

A temple was built in his honor and

Chinese sellers of paper burned incense

before his picture.
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Paper, discovery of
In 1907, Sir Aurel Stein, during an archeological

expedition arrived at a cave near the Great Wall.

A village Tun-Huang was near by.
There he discover some documents written on silk

and bamboo, and nine letters were written on

paper.
The Letter ware dated 50 years after TSai Lun

first made paper.

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The secret of paper making revealed

The Muslims advanced toward China in 8th

century AD
The art of paper making was secret of

Chinese.
Among the prisoners taken were Chinese

paper Makers, who were forced to reveal

their secret.
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The Westward Journey of

Paper
For centuries paper making flourished in

Samarkand and became a profitable commercial

product.
In Samarkand quality paper was produced.
The Muslims guarded development of paper

making for 500 Years.

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The Westward Journey of

Paper
Haroon-ur-Rasheed brought paper making art in

royal city Baghdad.

Then paper making are passed on to Damascus.
Extraordinarily fine paper was made in Damascus.
Paper was exported to Italy and Cairo.

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The Westward Journey of

Paper
Muslims taught the Egyptians the art of making

paper.
Abundant flax and linen cloth made possible an

excellent grade of paper.

Thousand of paper documents concerning Muslim

culture were preserved in this country.

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The Westward Journey of

Paper
Muslims advanced across North Africa and

conquer the Spain

Under Muslim rule, the first paper mill was built

a Jativa city of Spain in 1150 AD.

Use of paper grew at an impressive rate and the

making of paper spilled over into France.

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The Westward Journey of

Paper
In 1270 AD first paper mill was build in

Fabriano, Italy.
The Italian artisans carried the paper

making process across the Alps to

Nuremberg, Germany.
In Nuremberg, Germany very notable

paper mill the Stomer Mill was

established.
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The Westward Journey of

Paper
Then paper making process reached Cologne

and, at las, across to England.

The European were slow to adopt paper as a

writing material.
They considered parchment more satisfactory.
At that time in Europe, educational

advancement was slow and the demand for

books small.
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The Westward Journey of Paper

In new world, first mill was build

at Philadelphia, USA in late

1600s.

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Printing press & Publishing

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Web publishing
Advancement of ICTs
Web and Internet Publishing
EMaterial
EBook Readers
IPads

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