Acid Free - Acid free refers to papers without acid (pH) in the pulp at the time of manufacture. Acidity in the paper can decrease its longevity.

Archival Paper - A paper that is acid free, lignin free, sulfur free, and usually with good color retention. The paper may also be buffered to protect it from environmental factors. Archival papers have long-standing qualities and are usually considered safe for preservation purposes.

Bast- The long strong fibers from the inner bark of woody plants such as kozo, mitsumata, and gampi, also the outer layer of herbaceous plants such as flax, hemp, and jute. The fiber is stripped and beaten in order to separate the fibers used to make paper. The longer the fiber, the stronger the paper. High quality papers are made from long fibers.

Bamboo - A fiber used for papermaking.

Batik - Fabric or paper that has been treated with wax before dyeing, so that the areas treated do not pick up the color.

Buffering – The addition of alkaline substances, usually calcium carbonate or magnesium carbonate, into the paper pulp during manufacturing. Buffering gives protection from the acid in the paper and also helps to protect against environmental pollutants.

Bleach - A chlorine solution often used in paper making to whiten.

Chiri - A Japanese term for mulberry bark. Chiri is commonly used to refer to any paper with inclusions of mulberry bark in it.

Cotton - Also referred to as rag or linters, cotton is one of the most commonly plant fibers used in western paper making.

Deckle Frame - The wooden frame that sits on top of a wire mesh mold during the paper making process. It acts as a guard to keep the paper pulp with in the mold.

Deckle Edge - The feathered edge of a sheet of paper, created as a result of the natural thinning of wet pulp towards the edge of a deckle frame when making handmade and mould made paper. A deckle edge is simulated in machine made papers by cutting them with a stream of water while they are still wet.

Die-Cut Paper - Paper cut made with a special punching blade rather than a conventional rotary blade.

g/m2 - The most accurate and most common way of measuring decorative paper. Measurements are in read in grammage (expressed as g/m2). The weight in g/m2 refers to the weight of the paper in grams of exactly one square meter.

Gampi - The rarest of the major sources of bast fiber. Bast fiber comes from the gampi tree, found only in the wild. Used in Japanese paper making it produces a smooth, strong sheet.

Hemp - Not to be confused with cannabis or marijuana, Hemp is an older name for abaca. Related to the banana plant, the leaf fiber is often used in paper making

Kozo - The most widely used bast fiber in Japanese paper making. Kozo is a long, tough fiber from the mulberry tree that produces strong absorbent sheets of paper. the most common fiber used in Japanese papermaking. Commonly referred to as paper mulberry.

Linters - Linters are the short fibers left on the cotton seed after the longer fibers have been removed. Although the fibers are too short for spinning or cloth making, they are useful in paper pulp. The fibers are cleaned and processed into pulp sheets. The pulp sheets can be rehydrated into wet pulp for paper making.

Machine-made - Paper that is produced on rapid moving machines which form, dry, size, and press the sheets of paper. This process yield uniform and consistent quality sheets of paper.