[HN Gopher] The History of Paper
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       The History of Paper
        
       Author : ogogmad
       Score  : 43 points
       Date   : 2020-07-25 04:53 UTC (18 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.papersizes.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.papersizes.org)
        
       | bigpumpkin wrote:
       | Here's a chart of the historical real price of books in England
       | which showed that paper decreased the cost of books by a factor
       | of 2.
       | 
       | https://aiimpacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/RealPrice-1...
       | 
       | Then later the printing press decreased the price by another
       | order of magnitude.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | 29athrowaway wrote:
       | Wax tablets were also a writing surface, and are worth
       | mentioning.
       | 
       | > It was from Morocco that paper spread into Europe, via the
       | Iberian penisula, in the 11th century.
       | 
       | Also known as Al-Andalus, or Islamic Spain. Perhaps the most
       | influential force in the history of Europe. The ones that brought
       | paper, philosophical and scientific literature, the scientific
       | method, higher education, secularism, free trade, their
       | architecture, etc.
       | 
       | At the time they were the torchbearers of knowledge.
        
         | felipemnoa wrote:
         | >>Wax tablets were also a writing surface, and are worth
         | mentioning.
         | 
         | Not paper
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | keiferski wrote:
       | I was reading _In Praise of Shadows_ (1933) by Japanese author
       | Jun 'ichiro Tanizaki recently, and his comments on paper made me
       | want to go out and buy some vellum or other expensive paper to
       | use for mundane, everyday notes and to-do lists.
       | 
       |  _Paper, I understand, was invented by the Chinese; but Western
       | paper is to us no more than something to be used, while the
       | texture of Chinese paper and Japanese paper gives us a certain
       | feeling of warmth, of calm and repose. Even the same white could
       | as well be one color for Western paper and another for our own.
       | Western paper turns away the light, while our paper seems to take
       | it in, to envelop it gently, like the soft surface of a first
       | snowfall. It gives off no sound when it is crumpled or folded, it
       | is quiet and pliant to the touch as the leaf of a tree._
       | 
       | It's a really good essay, I highly recommend reading it if you
       | have any interest in architecture, art, or the differences
       | between traditional Japanese culture and the (circa 1933) West.
       | 
       | https://misfitsarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/I...
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Shadows
        
         | justincormack wrote:
         | A good art shop will have a nice selection of hand made papers,
         | including Japanese ones.
        
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       (page generated 2020-07-25 23:00 UTC)