The history of real paper happened in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually fifty centuries ago, developed a type of writing that used images. The Egyptians too had been using various kinds of objects to scribe on, most notably lengths of bamboo and processed silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they used for other unconnected purposes derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
Historical documentation tells us that in 105 years after the birth of Christ an official going by the name of Tsai Lung, invented papyrus, though it seems from archaeological discoveries that in fact it was being worked with in China for more than likely two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
During olden times setting down words or pictograms was usually on some form of bamboo or occasionally on pieces of silk, which were then called ji. Nonetheless silk being expensive and bamboo being weighty, these materials were not of great use. Then Tsai Lun thought of making use of bark from trees, hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor with regard to the process of making paper and got high praise for his abilities. Since those distant days paper has been used all over and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed the above title is relevant, will probably never be uncovered! But what is important is that they discovered that if they ground some plant derived substances in to a mash, shed impurities, put the mash in liquid, screen it onto cloth sheets and give it time to dry out. After the drying process was complete, it dried into a hard, dense sheet that was very light, and as long as it was not allowed to come into contact with water, turned out to be particularly robust.
It's a fact that this most simple of paper making techniques is still in use in exactly a similar way around Nepal and Tibet, the very first places to take the craft from South East Asia. A basic frame utilizes a cloth made from cotton stretched over one side, very watery paste is put into the other side and moved around until it has reached a level. Then it is suspended so that it will allow the water to drain and the mush to dry in to a paper sheet which will be able to be removed by peeling.
There came a time when an extremely talented individual realized that building a frame with ribbing and putting in place a fine replaceable bamboo mat across this, would let the paper-making procedure to be speeded up incredibly. Rather than utilizing one mold for every parchment sheet, therefore severely limiting the number of sheets that can be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved pulp could be built up a layer at a time, with merely a length of cotton thread between them which would enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed very lightly, and each layer of grume moved to a place to dry.