Current as of Minecraft Bedrock v26.1 and Java Edition 26.1 — Updated April 2026
TL;DR
- Paper is crafted from 3 sugar cane placed in a horizontal row on a crafting table — gives you 3 paper
- Sugar cane grows naturally next to water on dirt or sand in almost any biome
- You cannot make paper with bamboo — only sugar cane works
- Paper is used for books, maps, firework rockets, cartography tables, and banner patterns
- You can also trade paper to villagers for emeralds — one of the easiest early-game emerald farms
- Paper can also be found in loot chests inside shipwrecks, strongholds, and villages
How to Make Paper in Minecraft
Paper is one of the simplest crafts in the game, but also one of the most important. Without it you cannot make books, which means no enchanting table, no bookshelves, and no enchantments. You also cannot make maps for navigation, firework rockets for elytra travel, or the cartography table. Pretty much every mid-to-late game system in Minecraft eventually touches paper at some point.
The good news is it is cheap to make, fast to farm, and the recipe has not changed since paper was first added to the game back in 2010. Let’s walk through it.
What You Need
Just one ingredient:
- 3 Sugar Cane
That’s it. No crafting tools needed beyond a crafting table. Three sugar cane gives you three paper — a perfect one-to-one ratio. The more sugar cane you have, the more paper you can make in bulk.
Step 1: Find Sugar Cane
Sugar cane is a tall, green plant that grows naturally on dirt or sand blocks directly next to water. It looks similar to bamboo but is lighter green and thinner. You’ll find it along riverbanks, ocean coastlines, lake edges, and swamp borders.
It can appear in almost any biome, but the most reliable spots are:
- Rivers — the most consistent source. Walk or boat along any river and you’ll spot it quickly
- Desert biomes — sugar cane grows wherever sand meets water, and deserts have plenty of that combination
- Swamps and jungles — plenty of water contact means plenty of sugar cane
- Ocean shores — check the shoreline where sand meets the sea
Sugar cane naturally grows up to 3 blocks tall. The bottom block is rooted to the ground — break from the middle or top to harvest while leaving the base in place to regrow automatically.
Quick tip: Boat along any river for 30 seconds and you’ll almost certainly find enough sugar cane to get started. It’s one of the most common natural plants in the Overworld.
Step 2: Craft the Paper
Open your crafting table and place all 3 sugar cane in a horizontal row — top, middle, or bottom row all work fine. The position within the row doesn’t matter either, as long as all three are in the same row.
[ Empty ] [ Empty ] [ Empty ]
[S.Cane ] [S.Cane ] [S.Cane ]
[ Empty ] [ Empty ] [ Empty ]Three paper appear in the output slot. Drag them into your inventory.
That’s the entire recipe. It also works in your 2×2 inventory crafting grid — place the sugar cane across all three squares in a single row using the top row only.
Can You Make Paper Without Sugar Cane?
No. Sugar cane is the only ingredient for paper. Bamboo looks similar and grows near water too, but it cannot be used to make paper. Bamboo has its own uses — fuel, scaffolding, sticks, and bamboo wood — but paper is not one of them. Only sugar cane works.
Where to Find Paper Without Crafting It
If you don’t have sugar cane handy yet, paper can also be found in loot chests scattered across the world:
- Shipwreck map chests — nearly 90% chance to contain 1–10 paper. Shipwrecks are very common underwater and are one of the best early-game sources
- Stronghold library chests — roughly 89% chance to contain 2–7 paper
- Shipwreck supply chests — around 46% chance for 1–12 paper
- Village cartographer’s chest — can contain 1–5 paper
These are useful to grab in passing, but for any meaningful supply of paper you’ll want to grow your own sugar cane rather than rely on loot.
How to Farm Sugar Cane
A small sugar cane farm is one of the best early investments you can make. Here is the simplest setup that works immediately:
- Dig a trench 1 block deep and fill it with water
- Place dirt or sand blocks along the edge of the water on both sides
- Plant sugar cane on the dirt/sand blocks directly next to the water
- Wait for it to grow to 3 blocks tall, then break the top 2 blocks and leave the bottom in place
Each bottom block regrows automatically without replanting. One block of water can support 4 sugar cane plants (one on each side). A small 1×4 water channel with sugar cane on both sides gives you 8 plants and a steady passive supply.
Note: Bone meal does not speed up sugar cane growth in Java Edition. In Bedrock Edition it does work, but only once per application. Don’t waste bone meal on sugar cane in Java — just plant more of it instead.
Scaling up: The bigger your farm, the more paper per run. For bulk enchanting setups you’ll want at minimum 16–32 plants running. For a serious emerald trading operation you’ll want even more.
Everything Paper Is Used For
Paper by itself does nothing — you cannot place it, eat it, or use it as a tool. Its entire value is as a crafting ingredient. But it is an ingredient in some of the most important items in the game.
Books
Recipe: 3 paper + 1 leather (in any arrangement in the crafting grid)
Books are the gateway to the enchanting system. You need them to:
- Craft an enchanting table (1 book + 2 diamonds + 4 obsidian)
- Craft bookshelves (3 books + 6 wooden planks) — you need 15 bookshelves surrounding your enchanting table to unlock level 30 enchantments
- Create enchanted books directly at the enchanting table for storing specific enchantments
- Make a book and quill (1 book + 1 ink sac + 1 feather) for writing in-game
If you want to enchant your tools, armour, and weapons properly, you need a lot of paper. A full 15-bookshelf enchanting room requires 45 books, which means 135 paper and 45 leather. Start building your sugar cane farm early.
Our enchanting table guide covers the full setup for getting level 30 enchantments and the best books to target first.
Maps
Recipe (Java): 8 paper surrounding 1 compass in the crafting grid → empty map
Recipe (Bedrock): 9 paper in a 3×3 grid → empty map, OR 8 paper + 1 compass → empty locator map
Maps are how you track your surroundings in Minecraft. An empty map fills in with terrain as you explore, showing the landscape, water, and structures around you. You can clone maps, expand them using a cartography table, and place them in item frames to create a wall map of your world.
Maps are essential if you’re exploring far from your base, especially when heading into new biomes or hunting for specific structures. See our full guide on how to make a map in Minecraft for the complete breakdown on map types, compasses, and scale.
Firework Rockets
Recipe: 1 paper + 1 to 3 gunpowder (+ optional firework stars for explosion effects)
Firework rockets have two uses: they look pretty when they explode, and more importantly, they are the fuel for elytra flight. When you’re gliding with an elytra equipped and use a firework rocket, it boosts your speed and altitude significantly. Without a supply of firework rockets, elytra travel is slow and limited to gliding downward.
One paper and one gunpowder make 3 rockets. A basic sugar cane farm combined with a creeper farm gives you an essentially infinite supply of both ingredients and therefore unlimited elytra travel. Rockets made with more gunpowder fly higher and burn longer — use 3 gunpowder for the maximum boost from each rocket.
Cartography Table
Recipe: 2 paper + 4 wooden planks (of any type)
The cartography table is a utility block with several map-related functions:
- Zoom out a map to cover a larger area (uses 1 paper per zoom level, up to 4 times)
- Clone a map to duplicate it
- Lock a map so it no longer updates as you explore
- Acts as a job site block for unemployed villagers, turning them into cartographers
Zooming maps using a cartography table is 8 times more paper-efficient than doing it with a crafting table. If you’re building a map wall or exploring at scale, always use the cartography table for zoom.
Banner Patterns
Paper is used to craft several banner patterns that you can apply to banners using a loom. Each pattern requires 1 paper plus a specific item:
- Paper + Creeper head → Creeper Charge pattern
- Paper + Wither skeleton skull → Skull Charge pattern
- Paper + Oxeye daisy → Flower Charge pattern
- Paper + Enchanted golden apple → Thing pattern (Java only)
- Paper + Vines → Border pattern (Bedrock only)
- Paper + Brick → Field Masoned pattern
Banner patterns let you add intricate designs to banners and shields that aren’t available through the basic loom dye options. If you want unique flags or emblems for your base or server, paper is the starting point.
Book and Quill
Recipe: 1 book + 1 feather + 1 ink sac
The book and quill lets you write text inside the book, sign it, and share it with other players. It’s mostly useful on multiplayer servers for notes, lore writing, or information boards. Once signed, the text cannot be changed.
Trading Paper for Emeralds
This is one of the best early-game emerald strategies in Minecraft, and paper makes it possible.
Cartographer villagers — at the novice level, cartographers always offer to buy 24 paper for 1 emerald in Java Edition. In Bedrock Edition this trade is also available at novice level.
Librarian villagers — in Java Edition, about 2 out of 3 novice librarians offer the same trade of 24 paper for 1 emerald. In Bedrock Edition, librarians offer this trade consistently.
Here’s why this matters: sugar cane is infinite. You can grow unlimited sugar cane, convert it to paper, and trade it to cartographers or librarians for a steady stream of emeralds. Emeralds then unlock enchanted books, armour, tools, and other high-value items from other villagers.
This paper-to-emerald pipeline is one of the smoothest wealth systems in the game. Set up a sugar cane farm next to a village with a cartographer, and you effectively have an infinite emerald source with no fighting required.
Pro Tip: Cure a zombie villager to get massive discounts on all trades. A cured cartographer will buy paper for 1 emerald at heavily reduced quantities — sometimes as few as 1–2 paper per emerald. Pair this with a big sugar cane farm for obscene emerald output.
Paper in the Enchanting Pipeline
Paper sits at the very start of the enchanting progression chain. Here’s how it flows:
Sugar cane → Paper → Books → Bookshelves → Level 30 enchantments
Every enchanted piece of gear you ever make traces back to paper. The enchanting table needs books to be crafted. The 15 bookshelves you need around it require 45 books. Getting the best enchantments — Mending, Fortune, Efficiency V, Protection IV — all require a stocked enchanting room that demands paper as its foundation.
Start your sugar cane farm early. You’ll thank yourself when you’re mid-game and need to crank out bookshelves quickly.
Paper for Elytra Travel
Late-game Minecraft mobility runs on firework rockets. The elytra is one of the most powerful movement tools in the game, letting you glide across hundreds of blocks in seconds. But it loses altitude quickly without fuel. Firework rockets fix that.
One paper + one gunpowder = 3 firework rockets. A large sugar cane farm running alongside a creeper farm gives you both ingredients in bulk, making long-distance elytra flight essentially free once the farms are set up. Our guide on how to find and get to the Nether in Minecraft covers Nether travel, where an elytra combined with a Nether highway makes exploration dramatically faster — and for that you’ll want a lot of rockets.
Quick Reference: All Paper Crafting Recipes
| Item | Recipe | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Paper | 3 sugar cane in a row | 3 paper |
| Book | 3 paper + 1 leather | 1 book |
| Enchanting Table | 1 book + 2 diamonds + 4 obsidian | 1 table |
| Bookshelf | 3 books + 6 planks | 1 bookshelf |
| Map (Java) | 8 paper + 1 compass | 1 map |
| Empty Map (Bedrock) | 9 paper | 1 map |
| Firework Rocket | 1 paper + 1–3 gunpowder | 3 rockets |
| Cartography Table | 2 paper + 4 planks | 1 table |
| Book and Quill | 1 book + 1 feather + 1 ink sac | 1 book |
Common Questions
Can you make paper with bamboo? No. Bamboo and sugar cane look alike but are completely different items. Only sugar cane makes paper.
Does bone meal work on sugar cane? In Java Edition, no — bone meal has no effect on sugar cane. In Bedrock Edition, it applies one growth stage at a time but does not instantly max the plant out.
How much paper do I need for a full enchanting setup? A complete 15-bookshelf enchanting room needs 45 bookshelves → 135 books → 405 paper. That’s a lot, but a medium-sized sugar cane farm can produce that in just a few in-game days.
Where is the easiest place to find sugar cane? Rivers. Boat along any river for a minute or two and you’ll collect enough to start a farm immediately.
Note
Paper is one of those items that seems basic on the surface but quietly powers huge portions of the game. Books, bookshelves, enchanting, maps, elytra rockets, emerald trading — all of it connects back to sugar cane and your crafting table.
The recipe couldn’t be simpler: 3 sugar cane in a row, 3 paper out. But the impact of having a steady paper supply is enormous. Set up even a small sugar cane farm in your first few days and you’ll remove a bottleneck that holds back a lot of players from progressing efficiently.
Once your paper supply is sorted and your enchanting setup is running, check out our guide on how to get honeycomb in Minecraft — another simple renewable resource that unlocks a surprising number of useful crafting and building options. And when you’re ready to push into harder content with your enchanted gear, our guide on how to brew potions in Minecraft is the next logical step for rounding out your survival toolkit.
