The History and Impact of the Printing Press

Block Printing

The printing press itself was designed in the mid 1400s, but there is a long past of printing before then. For starters, the oldest printed book we still have is a copy of The Diamond Sutra from the Tang Dynasty in China in 868 A.D. 

Back then, they used a method called ‘block printing’ which uses hand-carved, static wood blocks that were carved in a mirror-image of what would be printed on the page. It was an inefficient way to print unless it was being used for a multitude of prints due to the permanence of the carvings. Alongside printing, paper was also invented in China around 2000 years ago, making it the origin of both printing and paper.

Movable Type

A few hundred years later, around 1000 A.D. in China, Bi Sheng developed moveable type, which replaced block printing. Moveable type used individually carved characters, which could be laid out in any combination and were therefore reusable, improving upon the fully carved pages of block printing. 

For even more reusability, Bi Sheng chose to use clay instead and moved away from wood, which soaks in the ink and is too soft to be consistent. The hardness of the clay made the prints clearer and overall improved their quality. This was only possible because of his creation of individual characters, because making a whole sheet would be significantly more difficult with clay then wood.

Another few hundred years later in Germany, around the mid 1400s, Johannes Gutenberg developed the printing press. He began development in 1436 and was able to finish a prototype around 1450. Its first commercial use was in 1454 for Church indulgences and Bibles.

Printing Press

The design was based on the screw press which was used to mint coins. The printing press itself used pre-made and movable metal characters. Alongside these characters, Gutenberg invented an oil-based ink that printed better and was more compatible with metal than the water-based inks that were otherwise used. These inventions allowed for much faster and clearer printing than any other method at the time.

Gutenberg’s printing press was able to print 250 sheets per hour, but that is nothing compared to the rotary press which was invented by Richard M. Hoe in New york in the 1800s. The cylinder press was power-driven and was able to print 8000 sheets per hour, which is 32x the printing press’ efficiency. The rotary press was used largely for printing newspapers.

Rotary Press

Next, the offset press was invented, allowing large-scale color printing by stretching content along a large rubber wheel and rolling paper across it. Until the 21st century, offset printing was the best way to print in color. It was eventually replaced by ink-jet and laser printing.

As for the impacts of the printing press, it allowed news to become much more widespread and easily accessible. At the time of Gutenberg’s printing press, its invention made it so that ships could take a copy of current news and transport it to their destination, allowing different countries to stay updated on events across the world. 

Second, the Renaissance saw a resurgence because they were now able to (relatively) mass produce famous historical works such as those of Plato and Aristotle. It allowed for knowledge and ideas, both new and old, to be easily shared. Furthermore, it also gave scientists a chance to collaborate and spread their findings, significantly speeding up the advancement of science.

Offset Press

Lastly, it was the first example of machines ‘stealing jobs’ from workers. Suddenly, scribes were much less useful due to the sheer efficiency of Gutenberg’s printing press by comparison. Although, it also created jobs such as booksellers and those who worked the presses.