The majority of machine made papers are made from a mixture of fibers of hardwood and softwood, while papers made from fibers of cotton, linen, jute, ramie, and esparto are a different quality and more expensive. Cotton fibers yield a pure cellulose. Cotton linters and cotton rags are the types of material available to the papermaker from the cotton plant. Cotton linters are the principle fibers used in hand and mouldmade papers today. Cotton rags are longer, tougher fibers than cotton linters, but are rarely used in papermaking today.
Linen covers a variety of raw materials known as flax or linen.
The long, tubular fibers impart a strong, smooth, silky feeling paper. Jute is a fiber which does not fibrillate or bleach easily. It is native to India and the Far East. Hemp from China, produces a hard, course paper. Kozo, Mitsumata, and Gampi are native papers of Japan.