History of the Printing Press! - Printing | HuePrint

Love those delicious looking prints on your cereal box? Or the tempting wrappers over your favourite chocolate bar? And wait; let us not forget the appetising photos on the takeout boxes. Hungry yet?

Click here.

Just kidding…...

Ok, we deviated. But the point is. Almost all things printed (attention-grabbing or otherwise) are products of the invention of the Printing Press.

Look around you and just imagine a world without printed materials. The list of everyday printed items is exhaustive. They include your favorite wearables such as clothes & shoes, books you love to read, business cards that you use for work, and even the organic products are sold in printed packets. Do not judge us here! Just saying.

The Printing press has come a long way since it was first use around 3000 BC by the Mesopotamians. Yes, you read that right.

Granted, the ‘machine’ is in no way comparable to even Gutenberg’s simple printing press (built-in 1440 A.D.) – It, however, did an impressive job of engraving images onto objects using simple materials such as clay, wax, natural pigments, etc.

Although many devices resembled a printing tool, it was not until the 8th century that a printing press was used to print text on papers.

Before this revolutionary invention, manuscripts, books, documents, and other types of print materials were hand-scribed by highly skilled and educated scholars who –mostly worked in monasteries, privileged institutions, and, aristocratic bureaus. These were very expensive to make and only the nobles of the upper society had access to them.

The invention of the Printing Press and why was it important?

The invention and progressive development of the Printing Press not only changed the way materials were printed but also our society as a whole. It was the first step towards access to education and news for the larger section of the population.

Before the printing revolution, sharing of any sort of information would take days, weeks, and sometimes even over years. There is a wise saying, Knowledge is power, and the invention of the Printing press allowed the people of that time to quickly-share data in huge numbers and to a wider audience.

This revolution could aptly be named as the Knowledge renaissance. Prominent lost works by brilliant and distinguished historical figures like Plato and Aristotle were republished. Scientific data and research were shared between great thinkers who were separated by geography and language.

Subjects and Philosophy of politics, legal rights, politics, governance, etc were now in the hand of the common people. The list, as such, is exhaustive.

Disputed Claims of Inventions: Who invented the Printing Press?

Yes, we all know Johannes Guttenberg is popularly known as the inventor of the Printing Press - the– credit goes to our history books but it is time that we dig deeper. Shall we?

Woodblock Printing – 200 AD source

The Chinese are credited for inventing the Woodblock Printing tool, a simple yet ingenious machine. The earliest surviving samples of the woodblock printing are dated before 220 A.D. The technique was initially used for printing text, patterns, or images on a cloth, which was later done on paper too.

Woodblock Printing – 8th Century source

By the 8th century, printing on paper had started, and the first book ever “The Diamond Sutra" (published – 868 AD). Interestingly, the book was discovered inside a cave near Dunhuang, China in 1907. There are similar documents and text from Japan and Korea too - From the same time period too!

Printing was quickly picking up and by the 10th-century china (Tang Dynasty), nearly 400,000 copies of chants and pictures were printed.

Tidbit Facts: A skilled printer during this period could print almost 2000 double-pages per day!

Movable Type Printing Press - 11th Century source

In the 11th century, BI Sheng a Chinese peasant developed the first movable type. More information about him is limited and could only be found in the book Dream Pool Essays. The book was written by an innovative scholar and scientist named Shen Kuo.

Bi Sheng carved the movable type press into clay and baked into hard blocks. These blocks were then placed on an iron frame that pressed against an iron plate. He did not use wood because the texture was inconsistent and absorbed a lot of moisture. This presented the problem of sticking in the ink while the baked clay washed up cleaner for reuse.

This ingenious method of printing hundreds of individual characters set the stage for the progress of modern printing machines.

Despite the leap in the printing method from the 8th to 11th century, the Bi Sheng’’’ invention took a few more centuries to popularize in China. ”

Metal Movable Type Printing Press - 13th Century source

While the Chinese were still experimenting with wooden and clay moveable types, Korea had already taken a leap and pioneered the first moveable type in the 13th Century! The Koreans had already built a woodblock press in the 8th century and this was a considerable leap in the printing technology.

Tidbit Facts: The oldest surviving woodblock printed book was published in Korea before 751 A.D

The metal movable type press was primarily built with Bronze by using sand casting methods. Although Korea invented the metal movable press, it never witnessed the printing revolution comparable to Europe’s. This was because the Royalty kept a monopoly on this new technique and it was only used to print royal documents and Buddhist religious text.

Tidbit Facts: The credit was building the first moveable type goes to Choe Yun-UI in 1234

Gutenberg’s Printing Press built in– Germany – 15th Century source

In Europe, the metal printing press was not built until 200 years later than the Koreans did. We all know about the famous Goldsmith and inventor Johannes Gutenberg, who created the first modern printing press. He was politically exiled from Germany when he began experimenting with printing. After his return to Mainz several years later, he has his printing machine perfected and ready for commercial use!

The Gutenberg Press - His Design and Innovation source

Gutenberg replaced the traditional wood material with bronze. He applied the concept of replica, a method where the letters are created in reverse. Another ingenious secret that led to the printing machine’s success was that Gutenberg made his own ink!

Gutenberg Bible -1452 source

In 1452, Gutenberg produced the only book that came out of his shop - The Bible. He printed almost 180 copies with 1300 pages each and as many as 60 of them were on vellum. He chose the Gothic type text and each page had 42 lines of text. Today, there are 21 complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible, and 4 complete copies in the vellum version.

Fust and Peter Schoffer – 1455 source

In 1455 after an ensuing lawsuit, all of Gutenberg’s printing equipment went to Fust and Peter Schoffer. Peter was a former calligrapher and immediately made use of Gutenberg’s press. Within two years of seizing the press, he produced an acclaimed version of The Book of Psalms. It featured a three-color title page and varying types of fonts within the book.

The Printing Obsession Spreads in Europe – 16th Century source

By 1500, printing presses throughout Europe had printed twenty million volumes of books. Better versions of the Gutenberg press drastically reduced the cost of printing books. By the end of the century, the output rose tenfold – estimated to around 150 to 200 million copies.

The European Renaissance and Era of Literacy – 17th Century source

The arrival of the printing press introduced the era of mass communication, which in turn went on to permanently alter the structure of our society. Information and literature, which was accessible to the elite few, was suddenly available to the masses. These revolutionary ideas transcended borders capturing the attention of the common public and lead to a reformation that threatened the power of political and religious authorities.

Literacy rose hundreds of folds and broke the monopoly of the literate elite. This is also the era when the concept of a middle-class family emerged – Before this transformations, it was either a Peasant or a Lord.

Relation, the first official newspaper was printed and distributed in 1605, Strasbourg. This made more waves of literacy, education, and information spread rapidly across Europe.

Offset Printing – 20th Century source

The 20th century saw the steady development of innovations in mass production, speed, and economy due to the introduction of the offset technique.

Ira Rubel, an American printer, accidentally discovered that printing from a rubber impression roller, rather than a stone plate, produced clearer and sharper pages. This process went through more customizations & transformations and became an industry standard worldwide.

Digital Printing – Late 20th Century source

The first companies to introduce digital printing were Indigo (HP Inc.) and Xeikon. While Indigo used ElectroInk, an ink that can be rubbed off the paper, Xeikon developed toners for their digital printing process.

Time to Wrap up!!!

The printing press literally annihilated the Anarchist control and censorship of printed materials.

The printing revolution also led to the expansion and advancement of the global economy by creating different types of professions such as artists, proofreaders, ‘ME’, and also the graphic designer who made this page!

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