The history of proper paper started in China. Similar to the Egyptians, the Chinese had, almost 50 centuries in the past, developed a pictographic style of writing. They too had been using many different types of objects to write upon, most notably strips of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they utilized for other reasons derived from the Paper. Mulberry was also used.
History tells us that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government by the name of Tsai Lung, brought out usable paper, though it is almost certain from finds by archaeologists that in fact it was being used in South East Asia for probably two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
In ancient times gone by setting down words or pictograms was generally on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were then called ji. Nevertheless the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being too weighty, these two materials were not of great use. Then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of utilizing bark from trees, hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105AD he put an idea to the emperor on the process of paper making and got many accolades for his abilities. From those distant times paper has been in use in almost every place on earth and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed the above historical tag is Marquis Tsai's entitlement or not, will probably never be uncovered! However, the major factor is that they discovered that if they pounded some plant-derived substances in to a mache, cut out unwanted materials, put the mache in water, sieve it onto cloth sheets allowing it to dry. After the drying process was complete, it calcified into a hard, dense sheet that was astonishingly light, and providing it did not get damp or wet, proved particularly tenacious.
This the most simple of papermaking techniques is still being used in exactly a similar way in Tibet and Nepal, the very first regions to pick up the technolgies from what is now the People's Republic of China. A basic frame makes use of a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over a single side, watery mash is poured into the far end and spread around until it has reached an even state. It is then left in order for it to let the liquid to drain out of it and the grume to dry into a parchment sheet which will be able to be stripped off.
As time went by an extremely talented developer worked out that building a frame with ribs and putting in place a fine bamboo mat that is replaceable over it, would enable the paper-making process to be speeded up greatly. Rather than using a single mold for every paper sheet, severely limiting the number of sheets that could be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved mush could be built up layer upon layer, with merely a length of cotton thread between them in order to facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed gently, and each layer of pulp shifted to a dry place.