The origins of real paper started in China. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost fifty centuries ago, created a pictographic style of writing. The Egyptians also had been utilizing many different kinds of things to scribe upon, most notably pieces of bamboo and processed silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they were using for other reasons from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
Legend leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker called Tsai Lung, invented usable paper, although it is clear from archaeological finds that it was in fact being worked with in what is now the People's Republic of China for more than likely two centuries before Tsai Lung.
In times gone by setting down words or pictograms was usually on bamboo or occasionally on strips of silk, which were called Ji in those days. But the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very heavy, these materials were not convenient. At this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark from trees, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105AD he put an idea to the emperor about the process of paper manufacture and received many accolades for his idea. Since those distant days paper has been availed of universally and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether the above title is correct, will very likely not ever be known! Nonetheless the major consideration must be that it was found that they could pound some compounds derived from plants into a grume, eliminate spume, place the grume in liquid, filter it out onto cloth sheets and give it time to dry out. After drying, it calcified into a hard, robust sheet that turned out to be really light, and provided that it was not allowed to get wet, proved extremely tough.
This most simple of paper making technologies is even now still being used in exactly a similar way in Tibet and Nepal, the very first areas to pick up the technolgies from South East Asia. A basic frame has a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over a single side, very watery mush is poured in to the opposite side and spread around until it has reached an even state. Then it is suspended so that it will let the water to leave it and the pulp to dry into a sheet of parchment which may be peeled off.
It eventually came to pass that a developer with great skills came to the conclusion that manufacturing a frame with ribbing and putting in place a delicate bamboo mat that is replaceable across it, would enable the paper-making process to be speeded up fantastically. Rather than utilizing a single mould for each sheet of paper, therefore severely restricting the amount of sheets that could be made at one time, a stack of sieved mash could be built up a layer at a time, with merely a piece of cotton thread between them in order to help with later separation. The stack would then be pressed very lightly, and every layer of mache shifted to a board to dry.