The history of real paper began in China. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 5000 years in the past, brought out a style of writing that used images. They also had been making use of several types of objects to write on, notably strips of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they utilized for other reasons from the Paper. Mulberry was used as well.
Legend leads us to believe that in 105AD an official going by the name of Tsai Lung, created usable paper, although it seems from finds by archaeologists that it was in fact around in South East Asia for at least two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
During ancient times scribing was mainly done on bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. Nonetheless the cost of silk and the weight of bamboo, these materials were inconvenient. At this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using the bark from trees, fish nets, rags, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he made a report to the emperor on the process of making paper and was endowed with high accolade for his creativity. Consequently, from that time paper has been utilized every place and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this particular claim is accurate or not, will likely not ever be known! However, the important thing is that the discovery was made that if they pounded certain substances taken from plant matter into a grume, evacuate impure materials, put the grume in liquid, sieve it out onto textile sheets allowing it to dry. When it dried, it dried into a firm, robust sheet that turned out to be extraordinarily light, and provided that it was not allowed to get damp or wet, turned out to be surprisingly dense.
It's a fact that this very easy of papermaking techniques is even now in use in precisely a similar way around Nepal and Tibet, the very first countries to pick up the techniques from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame utilises a cloth made from cotton stretched over one side, thin mush is poured in to the other side and moved around until it is even. It is then left so that it will let the water to leave it and the pulp to dry in to a sheet of paper which can be peeled off.
There came a time when an extremely talented developer came to realize that making a frame with ribs and placing a delicate bamboo mat that is removable over this, would enable the process to be quickened incredibly. Instead of using a single mould for each sheet of parchment, severely restricting the amount of sheets that could be made at one time, a stack of sieved mash could be built up a layer at a time, with only a length of cotton thread between them which would facilitate later separation. The stack would then be pressed very lightly, and every sheet of paste moved to a dry board.