古罗马时代,抄写员用金属铅条或铅片在精制羔皮纸上画线,以便再用蘸水笔在上面书写。但铅片无法留下又深又黑的印迹,鹅毛笔和墨水虽然弥补了这一缺点,但又不便于携带;粉笔和木炭很适于在石板上写写画画,但其印迹无法久留,而且也不适于书写笔划较细的字母和数字。显然,人们对于铅笔的需要早在铅笔问世之前就存在了。最早的铅笔是在中世纪时开始使用的。12世纪时,一位名叫西奥菲勒斯的德国修士写了一部有关他那个时代材料工艺的专著,其中不但提到“拜占庭羊皮 In Roman times, the scribes used metallic lead or lead to draw lines on refined vellum for writing on the dip pen. However, lead sheets cannot leave deep, dark prints. Although quill pens and inks make up for this shortcoming, they are not easy to carry. Chalk and charcoal are very suitable for writing on the slate, but their imprints cannot stay for long. It is also not suitable for writing letters and numbers with fine strokes. Obviously, people’s need for pencils existed long before pencils came out. The earliest pencils were used in the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, a German monk named Theophilus wrote a monograph about the material craftsmanship of his time, which not only mentioned "Byzantine sheepskin.