In Shakespeare’s time, paper was made from rags that were fermented in large vats at the paper mill. The fermentation allowed the rags to break down and turn into a slurry mix called “stuff,” which is the technical term for the broken down fibers. Paper mills often employed beating or stamping the stuff to assist the rags in breaking down. Because of the large amounts of water and power needed for making paper, paper mills were often located near a source of running water.

The size differences in books are based on how many times each piece of paper is folded. Each sheet of paper could have two, four, eight, or sixteen pages printed on each side, depending on the layout of the text. For example, the First Folio contains sheets of paper folded once, which accounts for the large size of the book.