Offset printing is a widely used printing technique where the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. Today, practically all movable type printing ultimately derives from Gutenberg's movable type printing, which is often regarded as the most important invention of the second millennium. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type, and printing presses rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. The metal type pieces were sturdier and the lettering more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. Johannes Gutenberg's work on the printing press began in approximately 1436 when he partnered with Andreas Dritzehen - a man he had previously instructed in gem-cutting-and Andreas Heilmann, owner of a paper mill. It was not until a 1439 lawsuit against Gutenberg that official record exists witnesses testimony discussed type, an inventory of metals (including lead) and his type mold.Ĭompared to woodblock printing, movable type page setting and printing using a press was faster and more durable. Movable type printingĪ case of cast metal type pieces and typeset matter in a composing stick. There is still some controversy among scholars as to whether their introduction preceded or, the majority view, followed the introduction of movable type, with the range of estimated dates being between about 14. These were all short heavily illustrated works, the bestsellers of the day, repeated in many different block-book versions: the Ars moriendi and the Biblia pauperum were the most common. These prints were produced in very large numbers from about 1425 onwards.Īround the mid-century, block-books, woodcut books with both text and images, usually carved in the same block, emerged as a cheaper alternative to manuscripts and books printed with movable type. Images printed on cloth for religious purposes could be quite large and elaborate, and when paper became relatively easily available, around 1400, the medium transferred very quickly to small woodcut religious images and playing cards printed on paper. Woodcut print dated 1423 of St Christopher from Buxheim on the Upper Rhineīlock printing first came to Christian Europe as a method for printing on cloth, where it was common by 1300. Block printing later went out of use in Islamic Central Asia after movable type printing was introduced from China. Though Europe adopted woodblock printing from the Muslim world, initially for fabric, the technique of metal block printing remained unknown in Europe. However, the techniques employed are uncertain and they appear to have had very little influence outside of the Muslim world. There is some evidence to suggest that the print blocks were made from non-wood materials, possibly tin, lead, or clay. Block printing, called tarsh in Arabic was developed in Arabic Egypt during the 9th-10th centuries, mostly for prayers and amulets. Woodblock printing on cloth appeared in Roman Egypt by the 4th century. However, unlike the diffusion of paper, printing techniques never spread to the Islamic world. Printing spread early to Korea and Japan who also used Chinese logograms but the techniques were also used in Turpan and Vietnam using a number of other scripts. A skilled printer could print up to 2,000 double-page sheets per day. The earliest surviving woodblock printed fragments are from China and are of silk printed with flowers in three colours from the Han Dynasty (before 220 AD), and the earliest example of woodblock printing on paper appeared in the mid-7th century in China.īy the 9th century printing on paper had taken off, with the first extant complete printed book, the Diamond Sutra in 868, and by the 10th century, 400,000 copies of some sutras and pictures were printed and the Confucian classics. Main article: History of printing in East Asia
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