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Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation marks) usually on the medium of paper.
3 days ago · A printing press is a machine by which text and images are transferred from movable type to paper or other media by means of ink. Movable type and paper were first developed in China, and printing first became mechanized in Europe during the 15th century. The printing press subsequently evolved through multiple forms into the 21st century.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Overview
- Origins in China
By the end of the 2nd century ce, the Chinese apparently had discovered printing; certainly they then had at their disposal the three elements necessary for printing: (1) paper, the techniques for the manufacture of which they had known for several decades; (2) ink, whose basic formula they had known for 25 centuries; and (3) surfaces bearing texts carved in relief. Some of the texts were classics of Buddhist thought inscribed on marble pillars, to which pilgrims applied sheets of damp paper, daubing the surface with ink so that the parts that stood out in relief showed up; some were religious seals used to transfer pictures and texts of prayers to paper. It was probably this use of seals that led in the 4th or 5th century to the development of ink of a good consistency for printing.
A substitute for these two kinds of surfaces, the marble pillars and the seals, that was more practical with regard both to manageability and to size, appeared perhaps by the 6th century in the wood block. First, the text was written in ink on a sheet of fine paper; then the written side of the sheet was applied to the smooth surface of a block of wood, coated with a rice paste that retained the ink of the text; third, an engraver cut away the uninked areas so that the text stood out in relief and in reverse.
To make a print, the wood block was inked with a paintbrush, a sheet of paper spread on it, and the back of the sheet rubbed with a brush. Only one side of the sheet could be printed.
The oldest known printed works were made by this technique: in Japan about 764–770, Buddhist incantations ordered by Empress Shōtoku; in China in 868, the first known book, the Diamond Sūtra; and, beginning in 932, a collection of Chinese classics in 130 volumes, at the initiative of Fong Tao, a Chinese minister.
By the end of the 2nd century ce, the Chinese apparently had discovered printing; certainly they then had at their disposal the three elements necessary for printing: (1) paper, the techniques for the manufacture of which they had known for several decades; (2) ink, whose basic formula they had known for 25 centuries; and (3) surfaces bearing texts carved in relief. Some of the texts were classics of Buddhist thought inscribed on marble pillars, to which pilgrims applied sheets of damp paper, daubing the surface with ink so that the parts that stood out in relief showed up; some were religious seals used to transfer pictures and texts of prayers to paper. It was probably this use of seals that led in the 4th or 5th century to the development of ink of a good consistency for printing.
A substitute for these two kinds of surfaces, the marble pillars and the seals, that was more practical with regard both to manageability and to size, appeared perhaps by the 6th century in the wood block. First, the text was written in ink on a sheet of fine paper; then the written side of the sheet was applied to the smooth surface of a block of wood, coated with a rice paste that retained the ink of the text; third, an engraver cut away the uninked areas so that the text stood out in relief and in reverse.
To make a print, the wood block was inked with a paintbrush, a sheet of paper spread on it, and the back of the sheet rubbed with a brush. Only one side of the sheet could be printed.
The oldest known printed works were made by this technique: in Japan about 764–770, Buddhist incantations ordered by Empress Shōtoku; in China in 868, the first known book, the Diamond Sūtra; and, beginning in 932, a collection of Chinese classics in 130 volumes, at the initiative of Fong Tao, a Chinese minister.
Dec 30, 2014 · He is the inventor of Movable-Type Printing. Image source. Without the importation of paper and printing from China, Europe would have continued to copy books by hand for much longer, in a painstaking and slow process that could take more than a year for each book. His printing system was invented between 1041 and 1048 during the Song dynasty.
- Dave Roos
- A Global News Network Was Launched. Johannes Gutenberg’s first printing press. Gutenberg didn’t live to see the immense impact of his invention. His greatest accomplishment was the first print run of the Bible in Latin, which took three years to print around 200 copies, a miraculously speedy achievement in the day of hand-copied manuscripts.
- The Renaissance Kicked Into High Gear. Sketch of a printing press taken from a notebook by Leonardo Da Vinci. The Italian Renaissance began nearly a century before Gutenberg invented his printing press when 14th-century political leaders in Italian city-states like Rome and Florence set out to revive the Ancient Roman educational system that had produced giants like Caesar, Cicero and Seneca.
- Martin Luther Becomes the First Best-Selling Author. Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg castle church. There’s a famous quote attributed to German religious reformer Martin Luther that sums up the role of the printing press in the Protestant Reformation: “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.”
- Printing Powers the Scientific Revolution. Tables from Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' pioneering text “De revolutionibus orbium caelestium” (On the revolution of heavenly spheres), 1543, which represents his complete work.
Dec 2, 2017 · China’s traditional printing — movable type printing technology. The video is Mandarin, but it is easy to see how the movable type works in this video. Video posted by Warson Printing.
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Oct 2, 2024 · Johannes Gutenberg (born 14th century, Mainz [Germany]—died probably February 3, 1468, Mainz) was a German craftsman and inventor who originated a method of printing from movable type. Elements of his invention are thought to have included a metal alloy that could melt readily and cool quickly to form durable reusable type, an oil-based ink ...
