The history of real paper happened in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, almost 50 centuries ago, brought out a type of writing that used images. They too had been making use of many different objects to scribe upon, notably lengths of bamboo and processed silk and possibly the barkcloth they were using for other unconnected purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
History tells us that in 105AD a government worker by the name of Tsai Lung, invented paper, though it seems from archaeological digs that actually it was being worked with in China for probably two centuries before him.
Back during ancient times scribing was generally on bamboo or occasionally on pieces of silk, which were known as Ji then. Nevertheless the great price of silk and bamboo being too heavy, these two materials were inconvenient. At this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark from trees, fish nets, hemp, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor on the process of making paper and was endowed with high accolade for his thoughts. Since then paper has been used everywhere and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this accolade is Marquis Tsai's entitlement or not, will probably never be uncovered! However, the major consideration is that it was discovered that they could pound particular plant derived substances in to a pulp, expunge unwanted materials, float the pulp in water, screen it out onto textile sheets giving it enough time to dry out. When it dried, it consolidated into a hard, tenacious sheet that was very light, and provided that it did not come into contact with water, turned out to be particularly robust.
This easiest of papermaking technologies is still in use in exactly the same way around Tibet and Nepal, the initial countries to take the technolgies from South East Asia. A basic frame makes use of a type of cotton cloth made to stretch over a side, thin mache is poured into the far side and moved around until it has become even. It is then left in order for it to let the liquid to drain out of it and the mush to dry into a sheet of parchment which will be able to be removed by stripping off.
As time went by an extremely talented individual came to realize that manufacturing a frame with ribs and placing a delicate removable bamboo mat over this, would enable the paper-making process to be quickened enormously. Rather than tying up one mold for every sheet of paper, severely restricting the number of sheets that are able to be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved mash could be built up layer upon layer, with just a strip of cotton thread between them which would enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed very gently, and each sheet of grume moved to a dry board.