History of print

Printing is a process for reproducing text and images, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.

Woodblock Printing

The earliest form of printing was woodblock printing, with existing examples from China dating to before 220 A.D.^[1] and Egypt to the fourth century. Later developments in printing include the movable type, first developed by Bi Sheng in China,^[2] and the printing press, a more efficient printing process for western languages with their more limited alphabets, developed by Johannes Gutenberg in the fifteenth century.^[3]

1. ^ Shelagh Vainker in Anne Farrer (ed), "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas", 1990, British Museum publications, ISBN 0-7141-1447-2
2. ^ ^{a b} "Great Chinese Inventions". Minnesota-china.com. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
3. ^ Rees, Fran. Johannes Gutenberg: Inventor of the Printing Press

Printing press

Johannes Gutenberg's work on his printing press began in approximately 1436 when he partnered with Andreas Dritzehen – a man he had previously instructed in gem-cutting – and Andreas Heilmann, the owner of a paper mill.^[12] It was not until a 1439 lawsuit against Gutenberg that an official record exists; witness testimony discussed type, an inventory of metals (including lead) and his type mold.^[1]

The Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type for western languages, and printing presses rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. Today, practically all movable type printing ultimately derives from Gutenberg's innovations to movable type printing, which is often regarded as the most important invention of the second millennium.^[2]

1. ^ ^{a b} Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1998. (pp 58–69)
2. ^ In 1997, Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg's invention to be the most important of the second millennium.