What is Printing Press ?

To speed up the printing process, he introduced a movable undertable with a plane surface on which the sheets could be swiftly changed

Some other texts have survived from Dunhuang as well, including a printed calendar from around 877 A.D., mathematic charts, vocabulary guidance, etiquette instruction, funeral and wedding guides, children’s educational material, dictionaries and almanacs

The printing press is a device that allows for the mass production of uniform printed matter, mainly text in the form of books, pamphlets and newspapers. Created in China and revolutionizing society there, the press was further developed in Europe in the 15th Century.

The concept of movable type was not new in the 15th century; movable type printing had been invented in China during the Song dynasty, and was later used in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty, where metal movable-type printing technology was developed in 1234

No one knows when the first printing press was invented, or who invented it, but the oldest known printed text originated in China during the first millennium A.D.

It was during this period of early printing that rolled-up scrolls began to be replaced by book-formatted texts.

In Europe, sporadic evidence that the typographical principle, the idea of creating a text by reusing individual characters, was well understood and employed in pre-Gutenberg Europe had been cropping up since the 12th century and possibly before. The known examples range from Germany (Prüfening inscription) to England (letter tiles) to Italy.

The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist book from Dunhuang, China, dating to around 868 A.D. during the Tang Dynasty, is said to be the oldest known printed book.

Woodblock printing was also used in Japan and Korea at the time, and metal block printing was also developed at some point during that period, typically for Buddhist and Taoist texts.

However, the various techniques employed (imprinting, punching and assembling individual letters) did not have the refinement and efficiency needed to become widely accepted.

Gutenberg greatly improved the process by treating typesetting and printing as two separate work steps. A goldsmith by profession, he created his type pieces from a lead-based alloy which suited printing purposes so well that it is still used today

The Diamond Sutra was created with a method known as block printing, which utilized panels of hand-carved wood blocks in reverse.

The mass production of metal letters was achieved by his key invention of a special hand mould, the matrix

A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the cloth, paper or other medium was brushed or rubbed repeatedly to achieve the transfer of ink, and accelerated the process.

Some other texts have survived from Dunhuang as well, including a printed calendar from around 877 A.D., mathematic charts, vocabulary guidance, etiquette instruction, funeral and wedding guides, children’s educational material, dictionaries and almanacs.

The Latin alphabet proved to be an enormous advantage in the process because, in contrast to logographic writing systems, it allowed the type-setter to represent any text with a theoretical minimum of only around two dozen different letters.

Typically used for texts, the invention and global spread of the printing press was one of the most influential events in the second millennium

It was during this period of early printing that rolled-up scrolls began to be replaced by book-formatted texts. Woodblock printing was also used in Japan and Korea at the time, and metal block printing was also developed at some point during that period, typically for Buddhist and Taoist texts.

Another factor conducive to printing arose from the book existing in the format of the codex, which had originated in the Roman period.

Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed, circa 1439, a printing system by adapting existing technologies to printing purposes, as well as making inventions of his own.

Moveable type, which replaced panels of printing blocks with moveable individual letters that could be reused, was developed by Bi Sheng, from Yingshan, Hubei, China, who lived roughly from 970 to 1051 A.D.

Considered the most important advance in the history of the book prior to printing itself, the codex had completely replaced the ancient scroll at the onset of the Middle Ages (500 AD).

The first moveable type was carved into clay and baked into hard blocks which were then arranged onto an iron frame that was pressed against an iron plate.

The codex holds considerable practical advantages over the scroll format; it is more convenient to read (by turning pages), is more compact, less costly, and, in particular, unlike the scroll, both recto and verso could be used for writing − and printing.

The earliest mention of Bi Sheng’s printing press is in the book Dream Pool Essays, written in 1086 by scientist Shen Kuo, who noted that his nephews came into possession of Bi Sheng’s typefaces after his death.