The origins of true paper happened in China. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost five thousand years in the past, developed a style of pictographic writing. The Egyptians too had been using various objects to write on, most commonly strips of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they utilized for other uses derived from the Paper. Mulberry was used as well.
Historical documentation tells us that in 105AD an official by the name of Tsai Lung, invented paper, although it is almost certain from archaeological digs that actually it was around in what is now the People's Republic of China for more than likely two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
Way back in ancient times gone by setting down words was generally on bamboo or occasionally on pieces of silk, which were called Ji in those days. But silk was expensive and bamboo being too heavy, these two materials were not convenient. Due to this Tsai Lun thought of utilizing the bark from trees, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he made a report to the emperor regarding the process of paper making and received much praise for his idea. From those distant times paper has been used universally and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this particular claim is Tsai's entitlement or not, will likely never be uncovered! However, the important consideration is that they found that if they pounded some compounds derived from plant material into a paste, shed impure materials, put the paste in liquid, sieve it onto cloth sheets giving it time to dry. When it dried, it conglomerated into a firm, firm sheet that turned out to be very light, and provided that it was not allowed to get damp, proved incredibly dense.
This most simple of papermaking technologies is still being used in precisely the same way around Nepal and Tibet, the initial countries to pick up the technolgies from South East Asia. A basic frame has a cotton cloth made to stretch over a side, diluted mash is poured in to the opposite end and moved around until it is level. Then it is left hanging so that it will let the water to drain out of it and the mache to dry in to a paper sheet which can be removed.
It eventually came to pass that an extremely clever individual realized that manufacturing a frame with ribs and placing a delicate removable bamboo mat over this, would enable the process to be accelerated enormously. Rather than utilizing one mold for each sheet of paper, severely restricting the amount of sheets that can be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved pulp could be built up a layer at a time, with just a piece of cotton thread between them in order to facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed gently, and every layer of grume transferred to a place to dry.