printing

Printing and The Printing Press

Print - to press, mark, stamp or index letters, characters, forms or figures
Printing - the act, art, or practice of impressing letters, characters or figures on paper, cloth, or other material; the business of a printer; typography

HISTORY OF PRINTING

Printing originated in China about A.D. 175
The three necessary elements for printing are paper, ink, and surfaces bearing texts carved in relief (marble surface or seals used to transfer pictures and texts of prayers to paper)
Steel plate or Copper plate, the artistic method

        --the subject is printed from an etching or engraving below the
           surface of a plate of steel or copper
        --cut below the surface which receives the impression
        --the reverse of typography printing
        --largely used for bank-notes, portraits, fine book illustrations,revenue
           and postage stamps
        --unfit for the printing of books

Lithography, the scientific method

        --the subject is printed from a transferred engraving on the surface
           of a prepared stone
        --put on the smooth surface of the stone
        --it imitates and reproduces with accuracy a line engraving on steel,
           a drawing in crayon, the manuscript of a penman or the painting in
           oil of an artist
        --does not make books or newspapers but is useful in printing

Typography, the useful method

        --printed from a combination of movable metal types cast in high relief
          or above the surface
        --has a superior adaptation to impression and facility for combining its mobility in its type and its construction for combining letters
        --"the art that make books" as Bernard has defined
        --printing is typography

The Gutenberg 42-line Bible, printed in Mainz, Ger., in 1455. Rare Books and Manuscripts Division, The New York Public Library; Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

Xylography, the primitive method

        --printed form a design engraved on a block of wood of high relief or
           above the surface
        --engraving of letters only, of pictures only, or both letters and pictures
        --In all cases engraving is fixed on the block

People, Places, and Events involved in the printing process

Pi Sheng (1041-48 AD)

        *a Chinese alchemist
        *conceived of movable type- made of an amalgam of clay and glue hardened by baking
        *composed text- placed the typed sides on an iron plate and then letting the plate cool
          solidified the type. Once the impression was made, the type was detached by reheating
        *found an overall solution to many problems of typography: the manufacture, the assembling, and
          the recovery of the indentifiable reusable type

Wang Chen (1313)

        *had a craftsman carve more than 60,000 characters on movable wooden blocks so that a
          treatise on the history and technology could be published
        *credited with inventing horizontal compartmented cases
        *his inventions were not followed up in China

King Htai Tjong (13th Century)

*stimulated the development of typography
* ordered the first of 100,000 pieces of movable type to be cast in bronze

Maso Finiguerra (1452)

*invented the steel plate or copper plate method
*goldsmith of Florence

Alois Senefilder (1798)

*actor of Munich
*invented the lithography method

John Gutenberg(15th century)

        *invented printing before the middle of the 15th century
        *constructed the apparatus for making movable metal letters or type and for using these
          to produce many copies
        *native of Mainz
        *retired to Strassburg where his experimental work was done
        *the only extant printing known for certain to be Gutenberg's is the Forty-two-Line Bible
          completed in 1456. The Forty-two-Line Bible had no title page, no page numbers, no
          innovations to distinguish it from the work of a manuscript copist. Within 15 years of the
          Forty-two-Line Bible, the printing press had been established in all of western Europe except
          Scandinavia.

Black-letter type as used in the 42-line Bible, issued at Mainz, 1456
(actual size)

A page from the Gutenberg 42-line Bible, 1456. By courtesy of the Newberry Library, Chicago The Impact of the Printing Press

Note: Before the printing press, every book and document was a manuscript.

*Wood-cut printing:
--began in Europe during the twelfth century

--the process was very time consuming and a block had to be carved in reverse for each page.
Therefore, few works were chosen to be printed.
--the most common items produced by wood-cut printing were religious pictures and playing cards.

*Movable-type printing press:
                     --no longer did every page have to be separately carved
                        --letters in the frame only needed to be reorganized
                        --very expensive

During this time printing was considered vulgar and only for the poor; manuscript text was preferred.

HOW THE PRINTING PRESS WORKS

The Franklin press, an early flatbed press for hand printing

            This machine stands about 6 feet high. The top part of the
            uprights are known as the head (b). To determine the strength of pull, this leads to the
            spindle, which is a covered bar that is fastened with an iron key. The spindle entered the
            hose and passed thorugh another cross-piece called the till. The platen hung from the hose
            by metal rods. This is the horizontally moving part of the press known as the carriage. The
           tympan is where paper was placed and was used to control impression. The frisket is a frame
           covered with a protection sheet to correspond with the type matter when folded down.

Figure 1: An early printing shop with lightly constructed wooden
press; 17th-century engraving by Abraham van Weerdt.
By courtesy of Archiv fur Buchgewerbe

In the most familiar method, blocks of wood were cut in relief and inked with a water-based ink. Paper was laid on the block and gently rubbed with a bamboo stick, bone or dry brush to produce an impression.
One block per page.

Importance of the Printing Press

This machine made mass production of information possible. It also increased the spread of books quicker and more efficiently. The printing
press is not as time consuming as the manuscript and it also does not require as much labor. There have been many improvements in the printing press over the years to perfect its speed and accuracy.

Terms and Examples:

Typeface - The style or design of a font. Other independent parameters are size, boldness, and obliqueness (a sheer transformation applied to the characters, not to be confused with designed italic font).

                 Pages from the first book to incorporate italic typeface. (first)
                 Dedication and (second) first page from Virgil's Opera, printed by
                 Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1501.

folio - to put a serial number on each leaf or page of; a leaf, especially of a manuscript or book
quarto - the size of a piece of paper cut four from a sheet; also paper or a page of this size
incunabulum - a book printed before 1501; a work of art or of industry of an early period

A Benedictine monk restoring incunabula at the monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Tuscany, Italy.

leaf - a sheet of any written or printed material [syn:folio]

An Example of a Printed Booked by Kelmscott Press

A page from the Chaucer printed by the Kelmscott Press, with illustration by Edward Burne-Jones and type and decorations by William Morris.
This Web site was written and designed by the following students at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke:

Michelle Mckellar - the history and design of the web page
Courtney- The images and examples of early printed books, history, etc.
Brian - terms and examples
Nick - how the printing press works and its importance
Gina - how the printing press works and its importance.