The story of real paper happened in South East Asia. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 50 centuries in the past, invented a pictographic form of writing. The Egyptians also had been utilizing various types of things to scribe on, most commonly lengths of bamboo and processed silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they used for other purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
Legend leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government by the name of Tsai Lung, brought out papyrus, although it appears from finds by archaeologists that it was actually being worked with in what is now the People's Republic of China for at least two centuries before him.
Way back in olden times setting down words or pictograms was generally on bamboo or on strips of silk, which were then called ji. Nevertheless the prohibitive cost of silk and the weight of bamboo, these two materials were inconvenient. About this time Tsai Lun thought of making use of bark from trees, fish nets, hemp, and rags. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor on the process of paper making and was endowed with many accolades for his creativity. From those days paper has been in use all over the world and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this historical reference is correct or not, will probably never be uncovered! But the major factor has to be that the discovery was made that if they ground certain compounds derived from plant material in to a grume, cut out unwanted materials, place the grume in liquid, filter it out onto fabric sheets and give it time to dry out. After drying, it consolidated into a firm, durable sheet that was really light, and as long as it did not get damp or wet, turned out to be decidedly tough.
This most straightforward of paper making technologies is still being used in exactly the same way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the first places to pick up the technolgies from China. A basic frame has a cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, thin pulp is situated into the far side and spread around until it has become even. After which it is left hanging that will enable the water to drain and the mache to dry in to a parchment sheet which will be able to be removed by peeling.
At some point in time a developer with great skills came to realize that manufacturing a frame with ribbing and putting a fine replaceable bamboo mat across this, would let the process to be speeded up fantastically. Instead of utilizing a single mould for each sheet of parchment, therefore severely restricting the amount of sheets that could be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved mush could be built up layer upon layer, with merely a strip of cotton thread between them which would facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed slightly, and every sheet of paste shifted to a dry place.