The origins of proper paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly 5000 years in the past, brought out a pictographic style of writing. The Egyptians too had been utilizing several types of objects to scribe upon, most usually pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they were using for other unconnected purposes derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was made use of also.
Legend points to the fact that in 105AD a member of the government called Tsai Lung, invented papyrus, though it is almost certain from archaeological digs that it was in fact in existence in South East Asia for more than likely two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
Back during ancient times gone by setting down words or pictograms was mainly done on bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji then. But the cost of silk and bamboo being too heavy, these materials were not convenient. Due to this Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of bark, fish nets, hemp, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he made a report to the emperor on the process of paper making and got much praise for his ideas. From those days paper has been utilized all over and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this particular claim is deserved or not, will probably never be uncovered! However, what is important is that the discovery was made that they could pound certain substances derived from plants in to a mache, depose unwanted substances, place the mache in water, screen it out onto textile sheets and allow it to dry. After the drying process was complete, it compacted into a hard, tough sheet that was really light, and providing it was not allowed to get wet, proved particularly resilient.
This easiest of papermaking techniques is even now still being used in exactly a similar way around Nepal and Tibet, the initial regions to learn the craft from China. A simple frame makes use of a kind of cotton cloth made to stretch over a side, diluted mush is put into the other side and spread about until it is level. It is then suspended in order for it to allow the liquid to drain and the paste to dry in to a parchment sheet which will be able to be peeled off.
Eventually a very talented individual came to realize that manufacturing a frame with ribbing and placing a fine bamboo mat that is replaceable across this, would enable the process to be speeded up to a great degree. Rather than tying up a single mould for every sheet of parchment, severely restricting the number of sheets that can be produced at one time, a stack of sieved pulp could be built up a layer at a time, with merely a length of cotton thread between them in order to enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed lightly, and each sheet of mash moved to a place to dry.