High-quality cotton fiber paper is known to last hundreds of years without appreciable fading, discoloration, or deterioration,[1] so it is often used for important documents, such as the archival copies of dissertations or theses.
As a rule of thumb, for each percentage point of cotton fiber, a user may expect one year of resisting deterioration by use (the handling to which paper may be subjected).
100% cotton paper may contain small amounts of acids, and should be tested or certified before use for archival documents.
Second-cut cotton linters have a normal average fiber length of 1.45 μm, and have similar properties as a short softwood pulp.
[citation needed] Cotton was first used with a mixture of silk to make paper called Carta Bombycina.