Who invented printing?

Answer 1

The most widely acknowledged inventor of printing was Johannes Gutenberg. The issue is more complicated than simply being a single person's invention.

There are four major traditional types of printing, each introduced independently from the rest.

1. Stencil printing, which was a precursor of mimeograph and silk screen, existed in ancient Rome. The Romans used this method to print posters for games, among other things. Until the twentieth century, this method was used for printing simple pictures or texts of only a few words.

2. Letterpress printing was developed from various inventions from different places and times.

Letterpress printing was a development of printing from woodcuts, which seems to have been invented in China of the 3rd century AD. Early printing was done without a press, by putting paper on an inked block and rubbing the back with a spoon, or similar tool, to press the two together.

A Chinese man named Bi Sheng invented printing with movable type in China in the time of 1041 to 1048. The invention was not used widely, however, for one, or possibly more, important reasons that were not under his control. These were the fact that the Chinese character set is huge, and, also possibly important, the fact that his paper had low burst strength, and the fact that printing was still done by hand and very slow. Because the printing press had not yet been invented, his type was also unsuitable for presses, as they require strictly standard dimensional uniformity; I mention this because some people erroneously attribute the invention of a printing press, rather than movable type, to Bi Sheng, possibly because they do not understand the technology.

The precursors of the printing presses were invented in Europe of the 14th century. Some believe primitive printing presses were used for printing the woodcuts produced in Europe at that time, including such things as playing cards and pictures, and these are possibly a development from slightly earlier printing from woodcuts onto cloth was done for decorative purposes. It is believed these presses, which were not necessarily full featured printing presses, were based on presses for other purposes, such as pressing liquids from fruit.

Laurens Janszoon Coster is credited - by some people - as inventing movable type sometime around 1420. There is some physical evidence that movable type was in use in his home area of Holland of that time.

Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany is credited by people of his own time with the invention of printing, but it is not clear what they meant - whether it was the press in its final form, movable type, or something else. Clearly he was the man who made printing practical and produced the first major printed book. Since books were very expensive, this was an economically important undertaking. I think we can feel sure that he was the inventor of whatever was needed to make a system printing that was practicable for such an undertaking.

Gutenberg surely invented the formula for a new and superior ink, but I do not thing this was a sufficiently important invention to make a difference. Many people credit him with the printing press, though how much this is a development of earlier presses is a matter of debate. There are knowledgeable people who credit him with the invention of the type mold, which is a complicated device and an impressive invention. The type mold, in fact, was possibly the one thing needed to produce a practical system of letterpress printing.

Several things should be pointed out here. One is that there is no record of the invention of the printing press. Another is that court records of a lawsuit against Gutenberg dating from 1440 show that he was already manufacturing type at that time. And another is that there are a number of other people who have been claimed to have invented the press in France, Germany, Holland, Italy, and possibly other places. If one or more of these people invented the printing press or made some other important invention, we can still say Gutenberg was the man who finished the job and made it practicable.

3. Gravure printing, to produce engravings, was invented in Europe, apparently during the fifteenth century, at about the same time Gutenberg began his work. The inventor is unknown, and as it seems to have been originally used to record engraved artwork on metal, rather than as a medium for printing, it could have been "invented" as a printing method by many people at that time. It was used for a long time for printing artwork, as it was not particularly practical for text. With 20th century photo resists and imaging, this turned into rotogravure, and became important for publishing runs in excess of 200,000 copies because the plates lasted well.

4. Lithography was invented by Aolis Senefelder, a German actor and playwright, in 1796. For a long time it was used for art work and music. Later it was used with photochemical plates to do offset printing, a system used for many books.

Several new and unrelated technologies for printing were developed in the late 20th Century
John Gutenburg of Germany invented the printing machine.