The story of true paper happened in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, virtually 5,000 years in the past, invented a style of writing that used pictures. They too had been using various objects to write on, usually strips of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they were making for other reasons from the Paper. Mulberry was also used.
Legend leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ an official named Tsai Lung, developed papyrus, although it seems from archaeological digs that it was actually in existence in South East Asia for at least two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Back in times gone by scribing was usually done on bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. But the cost of silk and bamboo being very heavy, these materials were not convenient. Due to these factors Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of the bark from trees, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105AD he put an idea to the emperor about the process of paper making and received much praise for his thoughts. Consequently, from those distant days paper has been used in almost every place on earth and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this accolade is accurate, will likely not ever be known! However, the major consideration is that the discovery was made that if they ground particular plant derived substances into a grume, purge impure materials, float the grume in water, sieve it out onto textile sheets allowing it to dry. After drying, it congealed into a firm, robust sheet that was astonishingly light, and provided that it did not get wet, turned out to be extremely firm.
This most simple of papermaking technologies is even now practised in precisely the same way around Nepal and Tibet, the first regions to pick up the technolgies from China. A simple frame utilises a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over one side, watery paste is emptied in to the far end and moved around until it is even. After which it is suspended in order for it to allow the liquid to drain and the pulp to dry in to a sheet of paper which will be able to be removed by peeling.
Eventually a developer with great skills came to the conclusion that making a frame with ribbing and placing a fine replaceable bamboo mat over this, would enable the process to be speeded up incredibly. Rather than using a single mold for each sheet of parchment, severely restricting the amount of sheets that could be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved mush was able to be built up layer upon layer, with merely a length of cotton thread between them which would help with later separation. The stack would then be squeezed very lightly, and every layer of mache moved to a dry place.