History of Text Technologies

• Scrolls
• Quipus
• Accordion Folding
• Artists' Books
• Other

A scroll is a length of papyrus, parchment, paper, or leather that is stored in rolled form. Most often - but not always - scrolls are constructed by adhering multiple pieces of the substrate that are stitched, glued, or otherwise adhered together. Scrolls were the standard format for texts intended for longevity in the ancient world and would continue to hold that position until they were replaced by the codex in the 4th century.

Quipu/Khipus were used by the Inca Empire for recordkeeping. Khipus (Quechua: "knot") are made of cotton or wool strings hanging from a main cord. The knots on the strings convey meaning through their location, direction, and type.

Accordion binding uses a single sheet of paper or other substrate, which is folded in a zigzag pattern to create a series of connected pages. Similar accordion styles of binding developed in East Asia around the 8th or 9th century and in pre-Columbian Mexican and Central American cultures. Accordion binding reached Western Europe later, with the first known example not appearing until 1330.

Artists' books often use non-traditional binding techniques that push against the idea of what a book is and how it is created.