[originaltext] No major changes in writing materials were to come for about

No major changes in writing materials were to come for about 3,000 years. The person credited with inventing paper is a Chinese man named Ts’ai Lun. He took the inner bark of a mulberry tree and bamboo fibers, mixed them with water, and pounded them with a wooden tool. He then poured this mixture onto a flat piece of coarsely woven cloth and let the water drain through, leaving only the fibers on the cloth. Once dry, Ts’ai Lun discovered that he had created a quality writing surface that was relatively easy to make and lightweight.  This knowledge of papermaking was used in China before word was passed along to Korea, Samarkand, Baghdad, and Damascus.
    By the 10th century, Arabians were substituting linen fibers for wood and bamboo, creating a finer sheet of paper. Although paper was of fairly high quality now, the only way to produce written work was by hand, a painstaking process.
    By the 12th century, papermaking reached Europe. In 1448, Johannes Gutenberg, a German, was credited with inventing the printing press.(It is believed that moveable type was actually invented hundreds of years earlier in Asia.) Books and other important documents could now be reproduced quickly. This method of printing in large quantities led to a rapid increase in the demand for paper.