The origins of true paper began in China. Similar to the Egyptians, the Chinese had, nearly 5,000 years ago, developed a style of writing that used pictures. They too had been making use of several types of things to scribe on, most usually pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they were making for other uses from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of also.
History leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ an official going by the name of Tsai Lung, brought out papyrus, although it is almost certain from archaeological discoveries that it was actually being used in what is now the People's Republic of China for at least two centuries prior to him.
In times gone by setting down words was usually done on some form of bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were then called ji. Nonetheless the great price of silk and bamboo being too weighty, these two materials were not convenient. Due to these factors Tsai Lun thought of utilizing bark, rags, fish nets, and hemp. In 105AD he submitted a report to the emperor about the process of paper manufacture and received many accolades for his idea. From those distant days paper has been used all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this accolade is accurate, will likely not ever be known! But the most important thing has to be that they found that if they pounded some substances taken from plant material into a mash, throw out unwanted substances, put the mash in water, sieve it out onto textile sheets giving it time to dry. When it dried, it calcified into a firm, durable sheet that turned out to be astonishingly light, and providing it did not get wet, proved extremely robust.
It's a fact that this very simple of paper making technologies is still in use in precisely a similar way in and around Nepal and Tibet, the initial areas to make use of the techniques from South East Asia. A simple frame utilizes a cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, watery pulp is situated in to the far end and spread around until it is smooth. After which it is left suspended that will allow the liquid to drain and the paste to dry in to a parchment sheet which can be removed by peeling.
By and by a talented developer worked out that building a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and placing a fine bamboo mat that is replaceable across it, would let the procedure to be accelerated enormously. Instead of tying up one mould for every sheet of parchment, severely restricting the number of sheets that may be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved grume could be built up a layer at a time, with just a length of cotton thread between them in order to enable later separation. The stack would then be squeezed gently, and each layer of mush transferred to a place to dry.