Parchment is a material made from processed animal skin and used—mainly in the past—for writing on. Parchment is most commonly made of
calfskin,
sheepskin, or
goatskin. It was historically used for writing documents, notes, or the pages of a
book. Parchment is
limed, scraped and dried under tension. It is not
tanned, and is thus different from
leather. This makes it more suitable for writing on, but leaves it very reactive to changes in
relative humidity and makes it revert to
rawhide if overly wet.