It is believed that the history of paper making has been continued for more than two thousand years. For a long time, the recording function, which is one of the major functions of paper, has been playing the important role in the development of human culture. Furthermore, paper became more functional in these fifty years by inducing the several products bestowed by modern science and technology, such as synthetics, new ceramics and so on. The relationship between the substantial structure of the paper and its functions, the past and future of functional papers and the methods of conversion for functionalizing the paper were reviewed.