The story of true paper started in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly 50 centuries ago, developed a pictographic style of writing. They too had been using many different objects to scribe on, most commonly strips of bamboo and processed silk and possibly the barkcloth they used for other unconnected purposes derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
Legend points to the fact that in 105AD an official going by the name of Tsai Lung, invented usable paper, though it is almost certain from archaeological digs that it was actually around in South East Asia for probably two hundred years before him.
Back during ancient times setting down words was mainly done on some form of bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji then. Nonetheless the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these materials were inconvenient. Due to these factors Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of the bark from trees, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he made a report to the emperor about the process of paper making and got much praise for his abilities. From those days paper has been used all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this particular claim is correct, will probably not ever be known! But the most important consideration has to be that the discovery was made that they could grind particular compounds derived from plants in to a pulp, bstract impure substances, place the pulp in water, sieve it onto fabric sheets giving it enough time to dry out. After drying, it compacted into a hard, durable sheet that turned out to be really light, and as long as it did not get damp or wet, turned out to be incredibly dense.
It's a fact that this very simple of papermaking techniques is even now practised in precisely the same way in and around Nepal and Tibet, the initial regions to pick up the technolgies from China. A simple frame has a type of cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, very watery mash is emptied into the opposite side and spread about until it is smooth. After which it is left somewhere to let the liquid to leave it and the paste to dry in to a sheet of paper which can be removed.
Eventually a very talented individual figured that making a frame with ribs and putting a fine removable bamboo mat over this, would allow the paper-making procedure to be speeded up enormously. Rather than utilizing a single mold for each parchment sheet, severely limiting the amount of sheets that are able to be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved mache was able to be built up a layer at a time, with merely a strip of cotton thread between them to facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed lightly, and every sheet of grume shifted to a board to dry.