The story of real paper began in South East Asia. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly 50 centuries in the past, created a type of pictographic writing. The Egyptians too had been making use of various things to write on, notably strips of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they used for other unconnected purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
History leads us to believe that in 105AD a member of the government by the name of Tsai Lung, developed papyrus, though it is almost certain from archaeological finds that actually it was around in China for at least two centuries before Tsai Lung.
Way back in times gone by setting down words was generally done on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji then. However, the cost of silk and the weight of bamboo, these two materials were not convenient. Around then Tsai Lun thought of utilizing tree bark, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he made a report to the emperor with regard to the production of paper and received high praise for his creativity. From that time paper has been in use all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this title is deserved, will very likely not ever be known! Nevertheless the important thing has to be that they discovered that if they pounded certain substances derived from plant material into a pulp, remove impure materials, place the pulp in liquid, sieve it onto textile sheets giving it time to dry. When it dried, it consolidated into a hard, tenacious sheet that was particularly light, and providing it was not allowed to get damp or wet, turned out to be incredibly firm.
This easiest of paper making techniques is still in use in exactly a similar way in and around Nepal and Tibet, the very first regions to take the craft from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame has a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over one side, very watery mush is poured in to the opposite side and spread about until it is smooth. Then it is left so that it will enable the water to drain out of it and the mash to dry in to a paper sheet which may be taken off.
It eventually came to pass that a very talented individual worked out that manufacturing a frame with ribs and putting in place a fine bamboo mat that is replaceable over it, would let the process to be speeded up to a much greater degree. Instead of using a single mould for every sheet of parchment, severely limiting the number 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 piece of cotton thread between them to facilitate later separation. The stack would then be pressed slightly, and each layer of mache transferred to a place to dry.