The story of real paper happened in South East Asia. Like the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly 5,000 years ago, created a pictographic type of writing. The Egyptians also had been using various things to scribe upon, most commonly lengths of bamboo and processed silk and possibly the barkcloth they used for other purposes derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
Historical documentation points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government by the name of Tsai Lung, developed usable paper, although it appears from finds by archaeologists that it was in fact around in China for probably two centuries prior to him.
Way back during olden times setting down words or pictograms was generally done on some derivative of bamboo or on strips of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. However, the cost of silk and the weight of bamboo, these two materials were inconvenient. Due to this Tsai Lun thought of utilizing the bark from trees, hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105AD he made a report to the emperor with regard to the process of paper manufacture and was endowed with many accolades for his thoughts. Consequently, since those days paper has been used globally and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether the above historical tag is accurate, will probably not ever be known! Nonetheless the most important thing has to be that it was discovered that they could pound some compounds derived from plant matter in to a paste, bstract impurities, float the paste in liquid, screen it out onto fabric sheets giving it time to dry. When fully dried, it conglomerated into a firm, resilient sheet that turned out to be extraordinarily light, and providing it did not get damp or wet, proved very firm.
This the easiest of paper making techniques is still practised in exactly the same way around Nepal and Tibet, the initial regions to pick up the techniques from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame utilises a kind of cotton cloth stretched over one side, watery grume is put into the other side and spread about until it is smooth. Then it is left hanging somewhere to enable the water to drain and the mash to dry in to a paper sheet which may be peeled off.
As time went by an extremely clever individual figured that manufacturing a frame with ribs and placing a fine bamboo mat that is removable across it, would let the process to be accelerated greatly. Rather than utilizing one mold for each parchment sheet, severely limiting the amount of sheets that could be made at one time, a stack of sieved mache could be built up layer upon layer, with just a strip of cotton thread between them which would facilitate separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed very lightly, and every layer of mush moved to a board to dry.