The history of proper paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually fifty centuries ago, created a pictographic type of writing. They also had been utilizing several types of objects to write upon, most usually pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they utilized for other uses from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of as well.
History tells us that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker named Tsai Lung, brought out papyrus, though it is almost certain from archaeological digs that it was in fact being used in South East Asia for at least two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
During olden times setting down words was mainly on some derivative of bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji then. But the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being heavy, these materials were inconvenient. Around then Tsai Lun thought of making use of the bark from trees, hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105AD he made a report to the emperor regarding the production of paper and got many accolades for his ideas. Consequently, since those days paper has been availed of globally and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this accolade is Tsai's entitlement or not, will very likely never be known! Nonetheless the major factor is that the discovery was made that they could grind certain substances taken from plant material in to a mache, oust impure materials, put the mache in water, screen it out onto fabric sheets giving it enough time to dry out. When fully dried, it compacted into a firm, tenacious sheet that turned out to be really light, and providing it did not get wet, turned out to be exceedingly robust.
This the easiest of papermaking techniques is even now still being used in precisely a similar way around Nepal and Tibet, the initial regions to learn the craft from China. A simple frame has a cloth manufactured from cotton pulled and held over a single side, diluted mush is emptied into the other end and moved around until it is level. After which it is left hanging somewhere to let the liquid to drain out of it and the mash to dry into a parchment sheet which can be removed by stripping off.
At some stage an extremely talented developer worked out that constructing a frame with ribbing and placing a fine bamboo mat that is removable over this, would allow the process to be quickened to a much greater degree. Instead of tying up a single mould for each sheet of paper, therefore severely limiting the number of sheets that may be made at one time, a stack of sieved grume could be built up a layer at a time, with merely a length of cotton thread between them in order to facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed very gently, and every sheet of pulp shifted to a dry place.