When I first started playing Minecraft back in beta, I spent three in-game days wandering around looking for paper because I didn’t realize I could craft it myself. I kept checking dungeon chests and village libraries with no luck, until a friend told me all I needed was sugar cane. That’s the exact frustration I want to help you avoid with this guide, especially if you’re a new player trying to make your first map, books for an enchantment setup, or even fireworks to fly with elytra. If you’ve been asking how do i make paper in minecraft, you’ll be happy to know it’s one of the simplest crafting recipes in the entire game, with no rare materials or complicated steps required.
How Do I Make Paper in Minecraft: Exact Crafting Recipe
The paper crafting recipe hasn’t changed in over a decade of Minecraft updates, so this method works for both Java and Bedrock editions, no matter what version you’re playing. All you need to make 3 pieces of paper is 3 sugar cane items and a standard 3x3 crafting table. That’s it, no extra ingredients, no fuel, no special tools needed.
To craft it, place your 3 sugar cane items in any horizontal row of the 3x3 crafting grid. It doesn’t matter if you use the top, middle, or bottom row, as long as all three sugar cane are next to each other in a straight horizontal line. You’ll see 3 paper pieces pop up in the result slot on the right, which you can move to your inventory.
For example, I’ve seen dozens of new players place sugar cane vertically in the crafting grid and wonder why no paper pops up – that’s the most common mistake people make with this recipe. Also, you can’t craft paper using the 2x2 inventory crafting grid, since it only has 2 slots per row, so you’ll need to make a crafting table first if you don’t already have one. It takes just 4 wood planks to make, so it’s a very low barrier to entry.
Where to Find Sugar Cane for Paper Fast
Now that you know the recipe, the only thing standing between you and paper is getting enough sugar cane. Sugar cane has very specific spawn rules, so you don’t have to wander aimlessly through biomes looking for it. It only generates on water-adjacent grass, dirt, sand, or mud blocks, so you only need to check the edges of rivers, lakes, oceans, and small ponds to find it.
If you’re having trouble tracking it down quickly, use these three proven tips to find sugar cane in minutes:
- Head to warm biomes first: Deserts, jungles, and mangrove swamps have way higher sugar cane spawn rates than cold taigas or snowy plains, so prioritize these areas if they’re nearby.
- Check village farm plots: Many agricultural villages have dedicated sugar cane rows planted near water sources for easy harvesting, so you can grab a full stack in seconds without searching shorelines.
- Search shorelines at eye level: Sugar cane spawns up to 3 blocks tall, so scanning the edge of any body of water from a short distance will help you spot it fast, even if it’s partially hidden behind grass or other blocks.
But what if you’re in a frozen biome with no warm areas nearby, and no villages within walking distance? You can also buy sugar cane from wandering traders, who usually offer 6 sugar cane for 1 emerald. It’s a bit pricey early game, but it’s worth it if you need paper right away to make a map and avoid getting lost. You can also find paper already crafted in loot chests in shipwrecks, abandoned mineshafts, and stronghold libraries, but crafting it yourself is far more reliable.
Pro Tips to Farm Paper Efficiently
Once you’ve found your first few pieces of sugar cane, you’ll want to set up a small farm to avoid having to run back to shore every time you need more paper. Paper is used in so many mid-game recipes that you’ll go through hundreds of pieces before you know it, so a steady supply is non-negotiable for most survival playthroughs.
The simplest early-game farm takes 2 minutes to build: dig a 10-block long trench, fill it with water, and plant sugar cane on every grass or sand block adjacent to the water. Wait for it to grow to 3 blocks tall, then harvest the top 2 blocks, leaving the bottom block planted. Never break the bottom sugar cane block when harvesting, or you’ll have to replant it and wait for it to grow all over again, which wastes a ton of time.
So how long does it take for sugar cane to grow? It takes an average of 18 minutes for a sugar cane block to grow one level, so a full 3-block tall plant takes around 36 minutes to be ready for harvest. If you want to speed things up, you can use bone meal on sugar cane in Bedrock Edition to make it grow instantly, though this doesn’t work in Java Edition. Once you have access to redstone components, you can build an automatic sugar cane farm that uses observers and pistons to harvest crops for you, so you never have to tend to it manually again.
Creative and Practical Uses for Paper in Minecraft
You might be wondering why you’d need that much paper in the first place, and the answer is that paper is one of the most versatile early-to-mid game crafting materials in the game. The most common use is making books, which require 3 paper and 1 leather each. You’ll need 45 pieces of paper to make the 15 bookshelves required for a level 30 enchantment setup, which is a must-have for any late-game survival base.
Paper is also used to make empty maps, which require 8 paper and 1 compass. Maps are essential for keeping track of your base, marking out villages and rare biomes, and avoiding getting lost when you’re exploring thousands of blocks from home. You can also use paper to make cartography tables, which let you clone, zoom out, and lock maps to keep them from updating as the world changes.
Other useful things you can make with paper include book and quills for writing notes and sharing messages with friends on multiplayer servers, firework rockets for elytra flight, and custom banner patterns. You can also sell paper to novice-level librarian villagers for emeralds – they’ll buy 24 pieces of paper for 1 emerald, which is one of the easiest and fastest ways to farm emeralds early game, even before you have a wheat or carrot farm set up.
Paper is such a simple material, but it unlocks so many core Minecraft features that you’ll rarely play a survival world without needing to make it at some point. Now that you know how do i make paper in Minecraft, you can start building up your supplies for all your future projects, whether that’s a fully enchanted netherite armor set, a full map of your entire world, or a fireworks show for your friends on a multiplayer server. Next time you’re near a body of water, grab a few extra pieces of sugar cane to start your farm – you’ll thank yourself later when you don’t have to go searching for it last minute.