Linen and paper, such as bond and vellum, for reason of the organic origins like cotton, may shrink due to humidity and changes in the temperature.
Nowadays it is almost invariably made of transparent biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate, which should last several centuries under normal storage conditions, with one or two translucent matte surfaces provided by a coating.
[2] Because non-etching ink doesn't penetrate the surface of the film the way it penetrates paper, it is often possible to remove inked lines from drafting film when drawing on it by hand; an abrasive-free vinyl drafting eraser is the preferred tool for this,[3] although a scalpel works too.
[5] Different matte coatings (generally consisting of amorphous silica particles dispersed in a resin) are better suited for graphite or for polyester leads.
[6] Manual drawing on drafting film requires special care with cleanliness, because oil from the illustrator's hands can form skid patches on the film's nonporous surface, where ink and pencil will not adhere to the matte surface, while drafting paper will absorb the oil.