羊皮纸是制作书本或提供书写的一种材料。事实上并不仅由小羊皮做成，有时也用小牛皮来做。公元前170年左右，帕加马国王欧迈尼斯二世率先使用羊皮纸。以羊皮经石灰处理，剪去羊毛，再用浮石软化，便成了这种新的书写材料。羊皮纸的英文名称“Parchment”就是由这个城市的名字而来的。把这些羊皮订成小册子，称为手抄本，再合订成册，使成为留传后世的羊皮典籍。此后，手稿一直使用羊皮纸。

羊皮纸之所以会逐渐取代莎草纸的原因在于，它两面都能书写（莎草纸较粗糙的那一面通常不会拿来书写文本，且有助于防止墨水渗透纸张），而且能够让鹅毛笔的书写呈现饱满的色彩，拿来折成书本也没有问题。唯一问题是它相当昂贵，制作也比较耗时耗工。

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.