The history of true paper happened in South East Asia. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost 50 centuries ago, invented a pictographic type of writing. The Egyptians too had been making use of many different things to write upon, most usually lengths of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they made for other reasons derived from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
History tells us that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government going by the name of Tsai Lung, brought out paper, although it is almost certain from archaeological digs that it was actually around in what is now the People's Republic of China for more than likely two hundred years prior to him.
Way back during ancient times gone by setting down words or pictograms was usually on some form of bamboo or on strips of silk, which were known as Ji then. Nonetheless the cost of silk and bamboo being weighty, these two materials were not convenient. Then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using the bark from trees, rags, fish nets, and hemp. In 105AD he made a report to the emperor on the process of paper manufacture and got high praise for his ideas. Consequently, since that time paper has been in use all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed the above title is correct or not, will very likely never be known! However, the most important factor is that they found that if they pounded certain substances taken from plant matter in to a mush, discard spume, put the mush in liquid, filter it out onto fabric sheets allowing it to dry. After the drying process was complete, it conglomerated into a firm, tough sheet that turned out to be extraordinarily light, and providing it was not allowed to get wet, turned out to be surprisingly resilient.
This the most simple of paper making techniques is still being used in precisely a similar way around Tibet and Nepal, the first areas to pick up the craft from China. A basic frame has a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over a single side, thin grume is emptied into the opposite end and spread about until it has reached an even state. After which it is suspended that will allow the water to leave it and the mache to dry in to a sheet of parchment which can be taken off.
As time passed a talented developer worked out that building a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and placing a delicate bamboo mat that is removable across this, would let the procedure to be speeded up to a great degree. Rather than tying up one mold for every sheet of paper, severely limiting the number of sheets that may be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved pulp could be built up a layer at a time, with only a piece of cotton thread between them which would help with separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed gently, and each layer of paste moved to a dry place.