The origins of proper paper began in South East Asia. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost 50 centuries ago, created a pictographic style of writing. The Egyptians too had been using many different objects to write on, usually lengths of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they used for other unconnected purposes derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was used as well.
Legend points to the fact that in 105AD a government worker named Tsai Lung, developed paper, though it appears from archaeological discoveries that actually it was in existence in China for more than likely two centuries before Tsai Lung.
Way back in times gone by writing was usually done on some form of bamboo or sometimes on strips of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. But silk being expensive and bamboo being too weighty, these two materials were not of great use. Then 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 put an idea to the emperor on the process of making paper and got high praise for his inventions. Consequently, since then paper has been utilized everywhere and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether the above title is correct, will probably never be uncovered! However, the most important consideration must be that they discovered that they could pound particular substances taken from plants in to a paste, shed spume, place the paste in water, filter it out onto cloth sheets and give it time to dry out. When it dried, it dried into a firm, firm sheet that was extraordinarily light, and provided that it was not allowed to come into contact with water, turned out to be incredibly tough.
It's a fact that this simple of papermaking techniques is even now still being used in exactly the same way around Nepal and Tibet, the first regions to make use of the craft from what is now the People's Republic of China. A basic frame utilizes a cotton cloth made to stretch over a side, diluted grume is situated into the other end and spread about until it has reached a level. Then it is left hanging so that it will let the liquid to leave it and the mush to dry into a sheet of paper which may be removed by stripping off.
Eventually a very clever individual came to the conclusion that manufacturing a frame with ribs and putting in place a delicate replaceable bamboo mat over it, would enable the paper-making process to be quickened to a great degree. Instead of tying up one mould for every parchment sheet, severely restricting the number of sheets that can be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved mash was able to be built up a layer at a time, with merely a strip of cotton thread between them to enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed lightly, and each sheet of pulp transferred to a board to dry.