The origins of real paper started in South East Asia. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, virtually fifty centuries in the past, developed a style of pictographic writing. The Egyptians also had been using several types of objects to write upon, notably strips of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they used for other uses from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
Historical documentation tells us that in 105AD an official going by the name of Tsai Lung, created paper, although it is almost certain from archaeological digs that in fact it was being used in what is now the People's Republic of China for at least two centuries before him.
In ancient times scribing was mainly done on some form of bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were called Ji in those days. Nevertheless silk being expensive and bamboo being too heavy, these materials were inconvenient. About this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of bark, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor on the process of paper making and received high praise for his creativity. From this time paper has been availed of all over and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this historical reference is correct, will very likely not ever be known! However, the important factor has to be that the discovery was made that they could grind certain compounds taken from plants in to a pulp, displace impure materials, put the pulp in water, screen it out onto cloth sheets allowing it to dry. When it dried, it compacted into a firm, resilient sheet that was surprisingly light, and provided that it was not allowed to get damp, proved very durable.
This most simple of paper making techniques is even now still being used in exactly the same way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the initial countries to make use of the craft from China. A simple frame utilizes a cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, watery mash is situated into the far side and moved around until it has reached a level. It is then suspended in order for it to enable the liquid to drain out of it and the grume to dry into a parchment sheet which may be stripped off.
At some stage a developer with great skills worked out that making a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and putting a fine bamboo mat that is replaceable over this, would let the paper-making process to be accelerated enormously. Instead of utilizing a single mold for each sheet of parchment, therefore severely restricting the amount of sheets that could be made at the same time, a stack of sieved paste could be built up layer upon layer, with merely a piece of cotton thread between them in order to enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed lightly, and every sheet of mush shifted to a board to dry.