Quality Business Printing & Design - Eltom Print Ltd.

A Brief History of Print

The invention of the printing press relied upon the production of paper, invented centuries earlier in China - their 'rag' paper providing a cheap substitute to cumbersome bark and bamboo strips and expensive silks. The Chinese also pioneered inks and block printing using moveable clay type, paving the way for future development.

From its European debut in the 12th century, rag papers had proven to be a viable alternatives to the animal skin vellum and parchments which had been the standard means of carrying written communications to that point.

In the early 1450's, rapid cultural change in Europe fueled a growing need for rapid and cheap production of written documents. Scribes who had grown rapidly in numbers could no longer meet commercial demand for books and literature. Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith and businessman from Mainz, Germany saw the enormous profit-making potential and borrowed money to develop a printing technology.

Combining existing features of textile, papermaking and wine press technology, and developing production methods for moveable lead type, Gutenberg developed his press. The individual lead letters had variable widths giving an aesthetic elegance to the final printed page previously unseen. Gutenberg designed a latin print bible which became his signature work, launching a run of some 300 two-volume Gutenberg Bibles, each selling for 30 florins - about 3 years wage for a clerk. Despite the huge success of his invention, Gutenberg defaulted on a loan and lost his print establishment and the rights to the proceeds of his bibles, with his techniques being made public in the process.

In 1476, William Caxton set up England's first printing press, his mission to translate and promote popular literature, including the first popular edition of Chaucers' The Canterbury Tales. An enthusiastic editor, Caxton determined the diction, spelling and usage of language for the books he printed gaining much credit for standardising the English language.

Many technological innovations have added a great deal of character and dimension to printing. Linotype - a method of creating the moveable type by machine instead of by hand was introduced in 1884, greatly speeding production. The invention of the typewriter made standardised print more accessible and the continued development of photomechanical composition, cathode ray tubes and laser technologies, plus the invention of the Xerox machine made document printing available to everyone.

Source: Digital Century