The origins of proper paper began in South East Asia. Similar to the Egyptians, the Chinese had, virtually five thousand years in the past, brought out a type of writing that used pictures. They also had been utilizing various things to write on, most usually strips of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they were using for other unconnected purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
History points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker called Tsai Lung, created paper, although it seems from archaeological finds that it was in fact being worked with in China for probably two hundred years prior to Tsai Lung.
Way back during ancient times gone by writing was generally done on bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were then called ji. Nonetheless the great price of silk and bamboo being very heavy, these materials were inconvenient. Then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark, hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor on the process of paper making and was endowed with high accolade for his idea. Consequently, since those distant days paper has been availed of every place and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this title is accurate or not, will very likely never be known! However, the important factor has to be that the discovery was made that if they ground certain substances derived from plant matter into a mache, bstract impure materials, float the mache in water, filter it out onto cloth sheets giving it enough time to dry out. After the drying process was complete, it dried into a firm, firm sheet that turned out to be really light, and providing it was not allowed to get wet, proved surprisingly tenacious.
This most straightforward of paper making technologies is still being used in precisely a similar way in Nepal and Tibet, the very first countries to learn the techniques from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame has a kind of cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, thin mash is situated in to the opposite side and spread around until it has become even. After which it is left hanging in order for it to let the liquid to drain and the grume to dry in to a paper sheet which may be removed by stripping off.
By and by a developer with great skills worked out that making a frame with ribbing and putting a delicate replaceable bamboo mat across this, would allow the process to be accelerated enormously. Instead of tying up one mold for every sheet of parchment, therefore severely limiting the number of sheets that are able to be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved pulp could be built up layer upon layer, with merely a piece of cotton thread between them to enable later separation. The stack would then be squeezed very slightly, and each sheet of paste moved to a board to dry.