The origins of genuine paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost 50 centuries ago, developed a form of pictographic writing. The Egyptians too had been using several types of things to scribe on, most notably pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they used for other uses from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of also.
History leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker called Tsai Lung, brought out paper, though it is clear from archaeological finds that it was in fact around in South East Asia for more than likely two hundred years prior to him.
In ancient times setting down words or pictograms was mainly done on bamboo or occasionally on strips of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. Nonetheless the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being weighty, these two materials were not convenient. Due to these factors Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of the bark from trees, hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105AD he made a report to the emperor on the process of paper making and was endowed with many accolades for his ideas. Consequently, from those distant days paper has been availed of every place and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this particular claim is correct or not, will very likely never be uncovered! But the most important factor is that they discovered that if they ground some compounds taken from plant material into a paste, remove spume, float the paste in water, filter it out onto cloth sheets allowing it to dry. After drying, it compacted into a hard, robust sheet that turned out to be incredibly light, and providing it did not get damp or wet, proved remarkably firm.
This simplest of papermaking technologies is still practised in exactly the same way within Tibet and Nepal, the first countries to pick up the technolgies from China. A basic frame has a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over one side, diluted pulp is situated in to the opposite end and spread about until it is level. Then it is left hanging somewhere to enable the liquid to leave it and the grume to dry into a sheet of parchment which can be peeled off.
As time passed a clever developer worked out that making a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and putting a delicate removable bamboo mat across it, would allow the process to be quickened incredibly. Instead of using a single mold for every sheet of paper, severely limiting the number of sheets that are able to be made at the same time, a stack of sieved mash could be built up layer upon layer, with just a piece of cotton thread between them in order to enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed very gently, and each sheet of mache moved to a board to dry.