China is credited with inventing paper around 105 CE.
Traditional Chinese accounts associate the invention of improved paper with Cai Lun, a court official during the Eastern Han dynasty. Around 105 CE, he is said to have presented a method using materials such as bark, hemp waste, rags and fishing nets, producing a practical writing material.
Earlier paper-like materials have been found in China, so Cai Lun is better understood as an important improver and promoter rather than necessarily the first person ever to make paper. Chinese papermaking spread westward over centuries through trade and cultural contact.
Paper reached the Islamic world after the Battle of Talas in 751, according to a traditional account, and later spread into Europe. Papyrus, used in ancient Egypt, is a different material made from the papyrus plant and is not the same as true paper.