Through the printing press, writing made humankind literate and it enabled thoughts to be recorded more efficiently. The printing press, invented by Gutenberg, made multiple copies of pages in books. Such a blessing that ideas of great thinkers were communicated through books, which until then, were rare and expensive produced in limited quantities mainly for the clergy and nobility, since they were written by hand and usually in Latin.
Wooden Blocks
The first printing press was made of wood and used movable wooden letters. The blocks were arranged in a specific order inside a frame and inked, and a sheet of paper was pressed against the blocks. When the paper was removed, an inked copy of the letters remained.
The advantage of this movable type was that it enabled one person to produce what would take for a scribe to manually do but the problem with wood engraving was that over time and use, the wood began to disintegrate and new ones had to be made.
The Printing Press Invented by Johannes Gutenberg
German goldsmith, printer and inventor Johannes (or Johann) Gutenberg greatly improved the use of wooden blocks by inventing a mold of an individual letter out of a metal alloy that lasted and was reusable. His invention of this screw-press that could print on paper sheets using movable pieces of type and arranged to make words, were less time consuming than its wood block predecessor. His method of reproduction of printed material was so significant that no development in printing was practically done in 500 years.
Gutenberg's Printing Press was most significant. For the first time, Thousands of copies for one page were produced, Book production speed was increased, Printing made books cheaper, Books were printed not just in Latin but vernacular languages such as English, French and German, Enabled people to read, and no longer limited for the clergy and nobility.
In 1455, the Forty-two Line Bible (now famously known as Gutenberg Bible) was published in Mainz. It is considered to be the first significant publication that took him two years to complete. His invention allowed the printer to make words of the individual letter molds, and also to arrange them in even lines and lock them together in a single template.
The advent of the mechanical movable type printing press invented by Gutenberg introduced mass communication and therefore a significant birth of literacy, with proliferation of information and ideas, and the formation of a more structured society.
Printing spread across Europe. Over time, the most significant development in printing was the creation of different type styles.
One that became very common was the extended use of Roman type in the second half of the 16th century, which became the accepted type replacing the earlier Gothic styles throughout most of Europe.
19th Century to Modern Times
Although some printers continued to print books the Gutenberg way, others started to use typesetting. In recent times, the original typesetting used was replaced by computer typesetting programs, which is more efficient.
Through the years, the hand-operated Gutenberg style printing press has undergone improvements by replacing it with steam-powered rotary press, allowing printing on an industrial scale. Although it has been essentially unchanged, new material construct has been used for efficiency.
Gutenberg's design has been altered in two ways:
In running the machinery, instead of being hand-operated, a more efficient steam power has taken over.
Printing Flatbed has been replaced with the rotary printing press, in the form of rotary motion of cylinders. This was invented by American inventor Richard March Hoe in 1843, allowing mass production of printed works in a day.
Jobbing presses have also proliferated which came as a separate development in mid-19th century. These are small presses capable of printing small-format pieces such as letterheads, business cards, and envelopes. They are also capable of quick set-up, for example, an average time set-up for a small job could be less than 15 minutes.
From the late 1930's, platen printing presses have increased in efficiency, capable of performing around 3,000 impressions per hour. This has gone a long way from Gutenberg's pioneering years of around 240 impressions per hour.
Today, professional printing services usually avail of offset printing presses where the color pages of books and magazines are printed. A computer software is used to convert designed pages into flat metal printing plates.
Milestones
888 The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture, was the first dated example of block printing.
1041 Bi Sheng in China invented movable clay type
1423 Europeans use xylography (art of engraving on wood, block printing) to produce books.
1430 Gutenberg moved from his native town of Mainz to Strasburg
1436 Gutenberg begins work on his printing press.
1437 Gutenberg was sued for "breach of promise of marriage" by a young lady of Strasburg
1440 Gutenberg completed his wooden press which used movable metal type.
1440 Laurens Janszoon Koster (Coster) is credited, by some, with inventing movable metal type
1444 Gutenberg returns to Mainz and sets up a printing shop
1446 Gutenberg prints the "Poem of the Last Judgment"
1448 Gutenberg prints the "Calendar for 1448"
1450 Gutenberg' formed a partnership with the wealthy Johann Fust
1450 Gutenberg begins work on a Bible, the first is 40 lines per page.
1452 Gutenberg begins printing the 42-line Bible in two volumes.
1454 Gutenberg prints indulgences (notes sold to Christians by the Pope, pardoning their sins)
1455 First block-printed Bible, the Biblia Pauperum, published in Germany.
1455 Gutenberg completed work on what is estimated to be 200 copies of the Bible
1455 Gutenberg was effectively bankrupt. Investor Johann Faust gains control of print business
1457 First known color printing, a Psalter (a collection of Psalms for devotional use) by Faust.
1460 Gutenberg reestablished himself in the printing business with the aid of Conrad Humery
1461 Albrecht Pfister printed the first illustrated book Edelstein which featured a number of woodcuts.
1465 Gutenberg is appointed to the court of Archbishop Adolf of Nassau
1476 Two hundred woodcuts were used in a edition of Aesop's Fables
1476 First use of copper engravings instead of woodcuts for illustration
1476 William Caxton sets up his printing press in Westminster, England.
1499 Printing had become established in more than 2500 cities around Europe.
1499 An estimated 15 million books have been press printed, representing thirty thousand book titles
