The origins of proper paper started in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost 5,000 years in the past, brought out a style of writing that used images. The Egyptians also had been making use of many different kinds of things to scribe upon, most usually lengths of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they used for other reasons from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of as well.
History leads us to believe that in 105AD an official called Tsai Lung, created papyrus, though it is almost certain from archaeological digs that actually it was around in South East Asia for probably two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Way back in olden times scribing was generally done on some form of bamboo or occasionally on pieces of silk, which were known as Ji then. Nevertheless silk was expensive and bamboo being heavy, these two materials were not convenient. Around then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he made a report to the emperor about the process of paper making and received high accolade for his ideas. Consequently, from that period paper has been in use every place and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this title is relevant, will very likely never be known! But the main consideration must be that it was discovered that if they ground certain substances taken from plant material in to a mache, bstract impure materials, float the mache in liquid, sieve it onto cloth sheets giving it enough time to dry out. When fully dried, it dried into a hard, robust sheet that turned out to be remarkably light, and providing it did not come into contact with water, proved decidedly durable.
It's a fact that this very straightforward of papermaking techniques is even now in use in exactly the same way in Tibet and Nepal, the first regions to learn the techniques from China. A simple frame makes use of a cloth made from cotton stretched over one side, very watery grume is emptied into the far end and spread around until it has reached a level. After which it is left in order for it to let the water to leave it and the mash to dry in to a sheet of parchment which may be removed by peeling.
As time went by a very talented individual figured that building a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and putting a fine replaceable bamboo mat across it, would allow the procedure to be speeded up to a great degree. Rather than tying up one mould for every parchment sheet, consequently severely limiting the amount of sheets that could be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved pulp was able to be built up a layer at a time, with just a piece of cotton thread between them to facilitate later separation. The stack would then be pressed lightly, and each sheet of paste shifted to a dry board.