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Watermarks
Watermarks were originally used to identify the product of an individual papermaker, with European makers being first to use them beginning about 1280 CE. Among the first uses was to authenticate church documents (Papal Cross), but papermakers adapted the idea and began using them as trademarks and to distinguish different grades or batches of paper. In the American colonies notables such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin designed their own watermarks (see examples).

Watermarks took many different shapes, such as natural things (e.g., birds, hands, flowers, mountains); tools and weapons (e.g., anvils, hammers, arrows, rifles); household implements and clothing (e.g., vases and pots, scissors, hats, gloves or gauntlets); mythological beings (e.g. dragons, mermaids, unicorns); religious symbols (e.g., angels, crosses, paschal lambs, chalices); and heraldic symbols (e.g., crests, monograms, crowns, trophies). As the use of watermarks became standardized, so did their location in the sheet of paper. The watermark was normally situated in the center of one half of the sheet, so that when the sheet was folded to form two folios, the watermark would appear approximately in the center of one of the folios. Sometimes this usage was varied; for example, papers were sometimes made with double watermarks so that when the sheet of paper was folded, each folio showed a watermark in the center.

The watermark is formed by attaching a wire pattern (filigree designs) to the mesh of a paper mold. When the paper slurry is drained of its water, the layer of residual fibers over the raised wire pattern is thinner than the rest of the sheet. When pressed and dried, these thinner areas result in patterns that only show clearly when held up to the light. Papermakers still use watermarks, usually reserved for their higher quality bond and stationery products (see Cranes Crest example).

Light and shade watermarks are formed from relief sculptures impressed into the woven wire fabric of the paper mold. The image to be duplicated is first carved in wax, and the wax model is used to cast male and female plates. Heated wire fabric is placed between the two plates, which are pressed together; this causes the wire fabric to conform to the shape of the image. Paper cast on this type of mold is thinner in the raised areas of the image and thicker in the recessed areas, which creates a light and shade design.