The History of the Printing Press

Print considered a dying medium in today's tech-dominated world. It's ironically considered how one of the most important inventions in human history is going out of style.

600 years ago in Europe, an emerging literate middle class was calling for more books being produced. However, in 1000 years the process of creating a book hadn't changed. A single book would often take up a year, and most of the books being printed were done by monks by hand. These books were privately commissioned due to being high in price, but often beautifully illustrated text and images.  The middle class could not afford to pay these prices nor did they have the time to wait. Block books were another popular choice, a sheet of wood would have cut out letters which then would be inked and pressed onto a piece of paper. This was less expensive but very time-consuming.  A new way of printing had to be invented, one German man was genius enough to find that new invention.

Johann Gutenberg was a German craftsman and inventor, he worked several jobs as an alchemist and gem cutter. Though his previous jobs Gutenberg was able to apply his knowledge of metal and create a metal mixture that was stable when cooled.  A big problem using metal molds was that the metal would shrink and expand due to heat. Gutenberg's mixture kept the metal to one size even when cooled and only took a few seconds to make. This allowed a fast and cheap way for printers to make molds of moveable letters for print. Gutenberg then proceeded to make the actual press (image above) which was inspired by wine bottle presses in 1440. After lining up the type for one page, it then is inked, a sheet a paper would place, and then the press would add pressure so the ink would transfer neatly on the sheet of paper.

Gutenberg's apprentice Peter Schoeffer created a new font known as Textura with 290 characters to use for the printing press. With all this in play, Gutenberg in 1450 created the 42-bible, it had 42 lines on each page. However, before he could finish his final goal his investor Johann Fust demanded return on payment. He sued the poor Gutenberg, winning the rights to the workshop and printing press. Together with Schoeffer, Fust sold the 42-page bible and established the first and most successful printing shop in all of Europe. The impact of the printing press was incredible, not only did they finally meet the demand, literacy actually increased. With books far more accessible more people learned to read and their education expanded greatly. Knowledge spread further and faster, higher education was more affordable. Not long after the spread of the printing press religion spread with mass publishing of the bible.

Today we wouldn't be as smart or have all the inventions we know and love today.

Edited 3/8/2020