The history of real paper happened in South East Asia. Similar to the Egyptians, the Chinese had, almost five thousand years ago, created a kind of writing that used pictures. The Egyptians also had been using various types of things to write upon, most notably pieces of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they used for other reasons from the Paper. Mulberry was used as well.
History points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government by the name of Tsai Lung, invented usable paper, though it is clear from finds by archaeologists that it was actually around in China for more than likely two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
In ancient times gone by setting down words was mainly done on some form of bamboo or occasionally on strips of silk, which were called Ji in those days. But the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these two materials were not of great use. At this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of utilizing tree bark, rags, fish nets, and hemp. In 105AD he submitted a report to the emperor about the process of paper manufacture and received much praise for his creativity. From this time paper has been availed of all over and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this particular claim is deserved, will likely not ever be known! However, the important consideration is that it was found that they could pound particular substances derived from plants in to a mash, discard impure substances, put the mash in water, filter it out onto cloth sheets giving it enough time to dry out. After the drying process was complete, it conglomerated into a firm, robust sheet that turned out to be surprisingly light, and providing it did not get wet, turned out to be astonishingly tough.
This simplest of paper making technologies is even now still being used in precisely the same way within Tibet and Nepal, the very first places to learn the technolgies from what is now the People's Republic of China. A basic frame makes use of a type of cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, diluted grume is put into the opposite end and moved around until it has reached an even state. It is then left hanging so that it will let the liquid to leave it and the mush to dry in to a paper sheet which may be removed.
Eventually a developer with great skills figured that building a frame with ribs and putting in place a fine bamboo mat that is removable over it, would enable the paper-making procedure to be quickened greatly. Rather than utilizing one mold for every sheet of parchment, severely limiting the number of sheets that could be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved paste could be built up a layer at a time, with just a length of cotton thread between them to enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed gently, and each sheet of mache transferred to a board to dry.