History of printing

Printing was first conceived and developed in China. Primitive Woodblock printing was already in use by the 6th century BC. The oldest surviving book printed using the more sophisticated block printing dates from 868 AD (The Diamond Sutra of AD 868, a Buddhist scripture). The movable type printer was invented by Pi Sheng in 1040. The movable type metal printing press was invented in Korea between 1234 and 1241. By the 12th and 13th century many Arabic and Chinese libraries contained tens of thousands of printed books.

There is little direct evidence, but it is highly probable that Chinese printing technology diffused into Europe through trade links that went through India and on through the Arabic world. Johann Gutenberg, of the German city of Mainz, developed European printing technology in 1440. Basing the design of his machine on a wine press, Gutenberg developed the use of raised and movable type, and from the start used oil-based inks.

This development of the printing press revolutionized the spread of knowledge: a printing press was built in Venice in 1469, and the city had 417 printers by 1500. In 1476, a printing press was developed in England by William Caxton; in 1539, the Italian Juan Pablos set up an imported press in Mexico City, Mexico. Stephen Day built the first printing press in North America at Massachusetts Bay in 1628, and helped establish the Cambridge Press.

In Prints and Visual Communication, William Ivins offers the following concise history of a series of rapid innovations in image and type printing at the end of the eighteenth century:

At the end of the eighteenth century there were several remarkable innovations in the graphic techniques and those that were utilized to make their materials. Bewick developed the method of using engraving tools on the end of the wood. Senefelder discovered lithography. Blake made relief etchings. Early in the nineteenth century Stanhope, George E. Clymer, Koenig and others introduced new kinds of type presses, which for strength surpassed anything that had previously been known.