Traditional vellum is made from animal skin, most often calfskin. The word itself comes from the French “veau,” meaning calf. While the term is sometimes used loosely to describe any animal-skin writing surface, true vellum specifically refers to prepared calfskin, distinguishing it from broader parchment, which can also come from goat or sheep.
Today, “vellum” also refers to a translucent plant-based paper sold in craft and stationery stores, which has nothing in common with the original material beyond the name. Understanding which type you’re dealing with matters, because the two could not be more different in composition, durability, or purpose.
How Animal Vellum Is Made
The process of turning a raw calfskin into a smooth writing surface has changed remarkably little over the centuries. Skins arrive salted to preserve them, with fur still intact. The first step is soaking them in a lime solution, which loosens the hair and begins breaking down the outer layers. After soaking, the hides are drained and the hair is removed.
Next, excess flesh is scraped from the underside. Traditionally, makers used a two-handled knife for this. Modern operations sometimes use a fleshing machine, but the principle is the same. The cleaned skin is then clipped to a wooden frame and allowed to dry under tension. This stretching is critical: it’s what gives vellum its characteristic smooth, taut surface rather than the stiffness of leather. Unlike leather tanning, which uses chemical agents to permanently alter the hide, vellum production relies on lime treatment and physical tension to transform the skin.
Once stretched and partially dried, the skin is scraped thinner using a curved knife called a lunellum. Makers may sand the surface afterward for additional smoothness. For calfskin specifically, the process sometimes involves drying the skin first, then rehydrating it before the final stretching and scraping stages. The result is a pale, slightly translucent sheet with a remarkably fine surface for writing or printing.
Why Vellum Lasts for Centuries
Vellum’s extraordinary durability is its defining advantage over paper. Parchment documents that are hundreds of years old remain in good condition today. Some of the most famous documents in English history, including the Magna Carta and the Domesday Book, survive because they were written on vellum. During a UK parliamentary debate over whether to continue printing laws on vellum, one MP put it plainly: “We know that vellum lasts 500 years, but we do not know that any other material will last 500 years.”
This longevity comes from the protein structure of the skin itself. The collagen fibers, reorganized through the lime treatment and drying process, create a stable matrix that resists degradation far better than wood-pulp paper. Vellum is sensitive to humidity and temperature swings (it can warp, cockle, or become brittle in poor conditions), but when stored reasonably well, it outlasts virtually every other common writing surface.
Vellum vs. Parchment
The two terms are often used interchangeably, but there is a technical distinction. Parchment is the broader category: any animal skin prepared for writing, typically from calves, goats, or sheep. Vellum is a specific type of parchment made from calfskin, which tends to produce a finer, smoother, and more uniform surface. In practice, many people (including some in the bookbinding and archival trades) use “vellum” and “parchment” as synonyms. If precision matters for what you’re buying or researching, ask whether the material is calfskin specifically.
How Ink Works on Animal Vellum
Writing on vellum is not the same as writing on paper, and the wrong ink will fail entirely. Carbon-based inks, including traditional Chinese and Japanese ink sticks, sit on the surface of vellum without bonding to it. The writing can be rubbed off with minimal effort. This is because vellum’s surface is denatured protein, not absorbent plant fiber, so pigment particles have nothing to grip.
The ink that works on vellum is iron gall ink, which was the standard writing ink across Europe for centuries. It bonds permanently to the protein structure of the skin through a chemical tanning reaction, essentially locking itself into the collagen matrix at a molecular level. This is why medieval manuscripts written in iron gall ink on vellum remain legible after 500 or more years. If you’re doing calligraphy or any serious work on real vellum, iron gall ink is the historically proven choice.
Modern Paper Vellum
Walk into a craft store and ask for vellum, and you’ll get a translucent paper product made from plant fibers. This modern vellum is typically wood pulp or cotton processed to be semi-transparent, and it comes in a range of weights. Lightweight versions (around 17 lb) feel similar to high-quality tissue paper. Medium weights (21 to 30 lb) handle more like wax paper. Heavier options (48 lb and above) feel closer to lightweight cardstock. These papers are used for wedding invitations, overlay designs, and scrapbooking. They share none of the durability or material properties of animal vellum and are an entirely different product that simply borrowed the name.
Where Real Vellum Is Still Used
Animal vellum never fully disappeared. It remained the preferred surface for important legal documents and diplomas well into the early twentieth century. The UK Parliament printed all record copies of public Acts on vellum continuously until 2015, when the last Act printed entirely on vellum was the Modern Slavery Act. After a heated debate about cost, tradition, and durability, Parliament compromised: since 2015, record copies of Acts are printed on archival paper but bound with front and back vellum covers.
Beyond government use, vellum remains in demand among calligraphers, bookbinders, and conservators restoring historical documents. A small number of parchment makers, particularly in the UK, continue producing it by hand or with minimal mechanization. The supply chain is tiny compared to centuries past, but the material itself is still very much alive as a working medium.