The history of real paper happened in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost 50 centuries in the past, brought out a pictographic form of writing. The Egyptians also had been using various objects to write on, most notably lengths of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they used for other reasons derived from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of also.
History points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ an official called Tsai Lung, developed papyrus, though it seems from archaeological digs that actually it was around in South East Asia for at least two centuries before Tsai Lung.
Way back during olden times setting down words or pictograms was usually done on some derivative of bamboo or occasionally on strips of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. However, the cost of silk and bamboo being too weighty, these two materials were not of great use. Due to these factors Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of tree bark, hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105AD he made a report to the emperor on the process of paper making and received much praise for his idea. From those days paper has been availed of in almost every place on earth and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether the above title is correct or not, will probably not ever be known! Nevertheless the important factor has to be that they discovered that they could pound certain compounds taken from plants into a mash, extract impure substances, float the mash in liquid, screen it out onto textile sheets giving it enough time to dry out. When it dried, it compacted into a firm, dense sheet that turned out to be really light, and as long as it was not allowed to come into contact with water, turned out to be astonishingly firm.
This the easiest of paper making technologies is still being used in precisely a similar way within Nepal and Tibet, the first areas to take the craft from China. A simple frame utilizes a kind of cotton cloth stretched over a single side, watery paste is emptied in to the far side and spread about until it has reached a level. It is then left suspended somewhere to enable the water to drain out of it and the grume to dry in to a paper sheet which can be taken off.
Eventually a very clever individual figured that manufacturing a frame with ribs and placing a delicate replaceable bamboo mat over this, would allow the paper-making process to be accelerated enormously. Rather than tying up a single mould for each sheet of paper, therefore severely restricting the number of sheets that are able to be made at the same time, a stack of sieved mush 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 slightly, and every layer of pulp transferred to a dry board.