The story of true paper started in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 5000 years in the past, developed a form of pictographic writing. The Egyptians too had been making use of various objects to write on, notably pieces of bamboo and processed silk and possibly the barkcloth they utilized for other uses derived from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of as well.
Legend points to the fact that in 105AD a government worker going by the name of Tsai Lung, created paper, although it appears from archaeological discoveries that in fact it was being worked with in South East Asia for more than likely two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
Way back during times gone by scribing was usually done on some form of bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were then called ji. Nevertheless the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these materials were inconvenient. Then Tsai Lun thought of using bark, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he put an idea to the emperor regarding the process of making paper and received high praise for his idea. From those distant days paper has been used in almost every place on earth and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether the above title is correct, will very likely never be uncovered! Nonetheless the major factor is that the discovery was made that if they pounded some plant-derived compounds into a grume, evacuate impure substances, put the grume in liquid, screen it onto cloth sheets giving it time to dry. After drying, it compacted into a hard, tough sheet that was remarkably light, and provided that it did not come into contact with water, turned out to be particularly tenacious.
It's a fact that this most simple of papermaking techniques is even now still being used in exactly the same way around Tibet and Nepal, the first areas to take the technolgies from China. A basic frame utilizes a cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, very watery paste is emptied in to the far end and spread around until it has reached an even state. Then it is suspended somewhere to enable the water to drain and the mush to dry in to a sheet of paper which can be removed by stripping off.
At some point in time a talented developer figured that building a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and putting in place a delicate replaceable bamboo mat across it, would allow the paper-making procedure to be quickened to a great degree. Rather than tying up one mould for each parchment sheet, severely restricting the number of sheets that are able to be made at one time, a stack of sieved mash could be built up a layer at a time, with just a strip of cotton thread between them in order to help with later separation. The stack would then be pressed very gently, and every sheet of pulp moved to a place to dry.