The history of true paper happened in China. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually fifty centuries ago, invented a type of pictographic writing. The Egyptians too had been making use of various types of things to scribe on, most usually lengths of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they made for other reasons from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of also.
Legend points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker by the name of Tsai Lung, brought out usable paper, though it is clear from archaeological discoveries that it was in fact around in South East Asia for more than likely two hundred years before him.
Way back during olden times scribing was mainly on some derivative of bamboo or occasionally on strips of silk, which were then called ji. Nonetheless the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being weighty, these two materials were not of great use. Around then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of utilizing bark, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor about the process of making paper and received many accolades for his inventions. Since that time paper has been in use every place and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this title is relevant, will likely never be uncovered! But the important thing must be that it was found that if they pounded certain plant-derived substances in to a mache, purge impure materials, put the mache in water, filter it onto textile sheets giving it enough time to dry out. After the drying process was complete, it compressed into a hard, robust sheet that was very light, and providing it did not get damp or wet, turned out to be particularly tough.
This the most simple of papermaking techniques is still in use in precisely a similar way around Tibet and Nepal, the first countries to pick up the technolgies from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame utilises a cloth made from cotton stretched over one side, very watery paste is poured into the other side and spread around until it has reached an even state. Then it is left hanging so that it will enable the liquid to leave it and the mush to dry into a paper sheet which will be able to be stripped off.
Eventually a very clever individual worked out that making a frame with ribbing and placing a fine replaceable bamboo mat across this, would allow the process to be speeded up enormously. Rather than utilizing a single mold for every sheet of parchment, therefore severely limiting the number of sheets that are able to be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved pulp was able to be built up layer upon layer, with only a piece of cotton thread between them to help with separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed lightly, and each layer of grume transferred to a dry board.