The history of proper paper started in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the Egyptians, the Chinese had, virtually 5000 years in the past, invented a style of writing that used images. The Egyptians also had been using various kinds of things to scribe upon, most commonly lengths of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they utilized for other reasons derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was also used.
Historical documentation tells us that in 105AD a government worker called Tsai Lung, created paper, although it is clear from archaeological discoveries that it was in fact in existence in South East Asia for probably two hundred years prior to him.
Way back in times gone by writing was usually on some form of bamboo or occasionally on pieces of silk, which were then called ji. But silk being expensive and bamboo being weighty, these materials were not of great use. Due to these factors Tsai Lun thought of making use of bark from trees, fish nets, hemp, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he made a report to the emperor on the process of making paper and was endowed with high accolade for his creativity. Consequently, from those days paper has been availed of every place and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this title is Marquis Tsai's entitlement, will probably not ever be known! However, the most important consideration must be that they found that they could grind some plant derived substances into a mash, bstract impure materials, put the mash in water, screen it onto fabric sheets and allow it to dry. After the drying process was complete, it conglomerated into a hard, robust sheet that was very light, and providing it did not come into contact with water, turned out to be extraordinarily resilient.
It's a fact that this extremely simple of paper making technologies is even now practised in exactly the same way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the first areas to take the technolgies from China. A simple frame makes use of a cloth manufactured from cotton pulled and held over a single side, diluted mush is emptied in to the far side and spread about until it is smooth. After which it is left so that it will allow the liquid to drain out of it and the mache to dry in to a sheet of parchment which may be taken off.
There came a time when a talented developer figured that making a frame with ribbing and putting in place a fine replaceable bamboo mat over this, would enable the procedure to be accelerated to a great degree. Rather than utilizing a single mold for each paper sheet, severely restricting the amount of sheets that could be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved grume could be built up a layer at a time, with just a length of cotton thread between them in order to help with later separation. The stack would then be squeezed very slightly, and every sheet of paste transferred to a dry board.