Documents are sometimes classified as secret, private or public.

They may also be described

as a draft or proof. When a document is copied, the source is referred to as the original.
There are accepted standards for specific applications in various fields, such as:

Academic: thesis, paper, journal.

Business and accounting: Invoice, quote, RFP, Proposal, Contract, Packing
slip, Manifest, Report detailed & summary, Spread sheet, MSDS, Waybill, Bill of
Lading (BOL), Financial statement, Nondisclosure agreement (NDA) or sometimes referred to
as; Mutual nondisclosure agreement (MNDA).
Law and politics: summons, certificate, license, gazette.

Government and industry: white paper, application forms, user-guide.

Media and marketing: brief, mock-up, script.
Such standard documents can be created based on a template.

Developing documents[edit]
The page layout of a document is the manner in which information is graphically arranged in
the document space (e.g., on a page). If the appearance of the document is of concern, page
layout is generally the responsibility of a graphic designer. Typography deals with the design
of letter and symbol forms, as well as their physical arrangement in the document
(see typesetting). Information design focuses on the effective communication of information,
especially in industrial documents and public signs. Simple text documents may not require a
visual design and may be handled by an author, clerk or transcriber. Forms may require a
visual design for the initial fields, but not to fill out the forms.

History[edit]

A birth certificate from 1859.

Traditionally, the medium of a document was paper and the information was applied to it
as ink, either by hand (to make a hand-written document) or by a mechanical process (such
as a printing press or, more recently, a laser printer).
Through time, documents have also been written with ink on papyrus (starting in
ancient Egypt) or parchment; scratched as runes or carved on stone using a sharp apparatus
(such as the Tablets of Stone described in the bible); stamped or cut into clay and then baked
to make clay tablets (e.g., in the Sumerian and other Mesopotamian civilisations). The paper,
papyrus or parchment might be rolled up as a scroll or cut into sheets and boundinto a book.
Today short documents might also consist of sheets of paper stapled together.
Modern electronic means of storing and displaying documents include:

Desktop computer and monitor (or laptop, tablet PC, etc.); optionally with a printer to obtain
a hard copy.
Personal digital assistant (PDA).

Dedicated e-book device.

Electronic paper, typically, using the Portable Document Format PDF.
Information appliances.
Digital audio players.
Radio and television service provider.
Digital documents usually have to adhere to a specific file format in order to be useful.
That documents cannot be defined by their transmission medium