The history of genuine paper began in South East Asia. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly 5000 years in the past, developed a form of pictographic writing. The Egyptians too had been utilizing various kinds of things to write on, usually pieces of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they made for other unconnected purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was also used.
History leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ an official by the name of Tsai Lung, created papyrus, although it seems from archaeological finds that it was actually being used in China for probably two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Back in ancient times setting down words was usually done on some derivative of bamboo or occasionally on strips of silk, which were known as Ji then. Nonetheless silk was expensive and bamboo being very weighty, these two materials were not convenient. Then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark, fish nets, rags, and hemp. In 105AD he made a report to the emperor about the process of paper manufacture and was endowed with much praise for his inventions. Consequently, since then paper has been utilized in almost every place on earth and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this particular claim is Tsai's entitlement, will probably never be known! However, what is important is that they discovered that they could grind some plant-derived substances in to a mash, expel impure substances, put the mash in liquid, filter it out onto cloth sheets and allow it to dry. When it dried, it consolidated into a firm, robust sheet that was particularly light, and providing it did not come into contact with water, turned out to be surprisingly tenacious.
It's a fact that this simple of paper making technologies is even now still being used in exactly the same way around Tibet and Nepal, the very first places to make use of the craft from what is now the People's Republic of China. A basic frame makes use of a type of cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, diluted grume is emptied into the far end and moved around until it has become even. Then it is left hanging somewhere to enable the water to drain out of it and the mache to dry in to a parchment sheet which may be removed by stripping off.
At some point in time an extremely talented developer worked out that making a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and putting in place a fine removable bamboo mat over it, would allow the paper-making procedure to be speeded up enormously. Instead of tying up one mould for every paper sheet, therefore severely limiting the number of sheets that could be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved pulp could be built up layer upon layer, with just a strip of cotton thread between them to facilitate later separation. The stack would then be pressed very lightly, and each sheet of mush transferred to a dry board.