The History of Printing

The Beginning of Printing

It is typical to start the history of printing from the time of Gutenberg in 1439, but printing actually predates him. The Chinese regularly used carved wood blocks to print on fabric as early as 400 A.D. Block printing was used in Islam by the eighth and ninth centuries. The first movable type was developed in China around 1040 using porcelain. By 1230 the Koreans had replaced the porcelain with metal. Movable type probably didn’t become popular in Asian culture because there were so many characters required.

The explosion of learning in Europe, known as the renaissance, can be credited to Johannes Gutenberg. His system of metal type pieces, combined with the availability of paper, and his development of an oil based ink created a business that hadn’t existed before. Not only could he print books at a speed never imagined before, but he could also print fliers and small pamphlets. The rise of the middle class is linked to the printing press.

Gutenberg’s printing system, also known as a flatbed printer, remained significantly untouched for almost 400 years. The most significant improvement up until this date was converting from manpower to steam power in 1810. Then in 1833 American Richard Hoe invented the rotary press. Also around the same time small presses were developed to print small format pieces such as business cards, letterheads, and envelopes. In 1886 the invention of the linotype composting machine meant that a printer no longer had to put individual letters into the type block. Whole words or sentences could be cast in one piece. This was a major advancement.

Modern Printing Emerges

The next significant change in printing came with the development of the offset printer in 1910. This type of printer continues to be the main workhorse in the printing industry. This process uses the principle that oil and water do not mix. A plate is burned so that it has the image that you want to print. The plate is placed on the cylinder of the printer. Water, then ink is passed over the plate, and then the plate is pressed against a rubber sheet on an opposing cylinder. Next, the rubber sheet transfers the impression the ink leaves onto a piece paper.

In 1928 the development of the teletypesetter made it possible to convert a telegraph message into type. This was a major advancement for newspapers.

Phototypesetting came into existence in 1940, but really exploded in popularity in the 1970s. The rising cost of metal, the bulkiness of linotype machines, and their other limitations made the photo typesetter very economical. The photo typesetter was able to print fonts in an infinite array of sizes and could print whole blocks of text. The print shop could paste up a page of copy, shoot a picture of the page, and then produce a plate for his offset printer. It was messy work though, requiring precision as the page was laid out.

Computer Printers Arrive

The need for the photo typesetter disappeared with the invention of the personal computer. Today, much of the prep work for a print job will be done on a computer. But the actual printing of that work will be done on a physical printer.

In the 1980s inkjet technology entered the print scene as a way to reproduce fine art. Archival, museum quality inks were developed to reproduce copies of superior quality, even surpassing the quality of lithography. This new digital technology is known as giclée. The copies are almost indistinguishable from the original art work.

This brief history of printing shows how far printing has come from its beginnings. New innovations are still being developed today.

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