Print and Printing Innoventions

Ever since humanity invented printing, we've been using it to make things easier. Printing was a huge leap for civilisation, and is still being used today to better everyday life. From materials made in bulk with low costs, to different methods of printing documents and even objects such as fabrics and food.

Drucker (2013)

The history of printing is a long one, with many modern technologies heavily relying on the technology that was developed hundreds of years ago. For example, the often used 3D printers that are now being sold in high-street stores and online rely on the standard inkjet printer, which uses some of the same technology as in early printing equipment, however more advanced.

Before we go any further into the history of printing and its interesting story, let us consider printing in this day and age and how it is so interwoven with our everyday lives. We can find print in almost every aspect of our lives. From the books that we read, to the magazines we flick through, and even the pens and rulers we use are a form of printing. Everything that we do comes from a form of printed material, without it, our world would be very different indeed.

Printing is an interesting topic as it is so portable considering what it is. It allows us to share ideas and thoughts with others quick and efficiently. Printing allows us to create new products for our entertainment such as books and comics, or print marketing materials for companies trying to sell their products.

Printing has also allowed us to create new methods of distributing information in a much quicker manner than before. One such example is the mass distribution of newspapers and magazines, which used to take days or weeks to arrive to a particular location. With such long periods and depends on the speed of the delivery, this can cause all sorts of problems. However, with printing techniques, it has been possible for newspapers and magazines to reach their final destination in just a few hours.

Even more interesting than this mass distribution method was for printing stamps and postage-stamps. These were created by David Leach, who was originally a taxidermist in England who had some time free from work due to having sold his business (Caldecott 2000). His time was spent going about looking for possible products for him to sell, and he created his business on the back of a hobby. This hobby was that of collecting different styles and designs of postage-stamps from foreign countries and designing new ones based on them.

This led to Leach creating the first printing machine for stamps that used a quarto printing press, which he then developed into an improved design in 1847 (Caldecott 2000). This is when Leach and sons were formed, which still exists today as one of the leading UK stamp manufacturers.

Printing has taken many shapes and forms since the printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg. The printing press is a mechanical device that uses movable metal type and ink to lay down items such as text or images, which are known as printings. These were widely used in the production of books and religious material (Bornstein 2016).

One of the things that has been a debate amongst historians is whether Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press or not. While it is true that he did invent an improved version of one, there are still some questions about whether it was him solely who invented the original version or if he could have possibly had help from someone else such as Nicolaas Jenson.

The first printing press was designed as a large-scale device by Nicolaas Jenson, and although it may have been given to Gutenberg by his patron, several other people had already made travel versions of printing presses for the creation of books before Gutenberg (Guthridge 2017).

By the time that Gutenberg's Type was developed, it was no longer necessary to have any type for the production of books. It became more important for printers to create bibles and religious material instead, which led to some early printers inventing their own systems of type setting.

Gutenberg remained at the front of the printing revolution by creating a number of innovations to his printing press, which were improved upon over the years. These included the use of movable type and an improved press that could print at twice the speed of previous presses.

The first printed book in history was created by Johannes Gutenberg in 1455 (Bornstein 2016). This is known as The Gutenberg Bible and it was printed using moveable type and an early press he had invented himself called a rotary press. From this point on, printing continued to develop into something much more useful than just news sheets for common people. It became a method of mass producing ideas and books, thus helping to improve the world for everyone.

While the printing press may have started out as a small sized device, it eventually went onto become large machines that enabled mass production and mass distribution of books.

This is where we will be focusing on in this article, as one of the most useful devices to appear in history. The printing press is still used today even though many other methods have been developed to do similar things. It is also still being used due to its ability to deliver everything from newspapers to magazines and even marketing leaflets (Bornstein 2016).

As mentioned earlier, there are many ways that we can use print today. We can find print in everyday objects such as rulers and pens, to printed material such as books, leaflets, and even newspapers.

The printing press is a method of printing used to create large amounts of material in a short amount of time. This is done by using a machine that is capable of having one or more plates made from metal that contains the text or image that is to be used. With these plates attached to the press, ink is then put onto them and the plate starts to move around under the pressure of the press which causes the ink which has been put onto it to spread out onto a sheet of paper (Schaaf 2011).

There are many other types of press that are used, which we will be talking about later on in this article. The introduction of new technologies to the process has created new types of presses used for printing items such as labels and screens.

The modern day printing press, is a machine used to create text or images using movable type and ink in a short amount of time. With the press being a mechanical device that uses pressure from plates moving around under the weight of the book or piece of text being printed, it is no wonder that it was invented many years ago. This machine has changed many aspects of our life today by providing us with printed material such as books, magazines and even polyesters (Bornstein 2016).

Conclusion

The printing press is an invention that has stood the test of time in a very effective way. After being invented, it was quickly improved upon to make it a more efficient tool that could do more than just print books. It has given us the ability to create posters, billboards and even business cards that are printed cheaply and at a high volume.

To sum up, the printing press is one of the most revolutionary tools in history due to its use by people all over the world. This machine has been used to create items such as bibles and religious material, while also being used today to give us nearly everything from newspapers to magazines and even marketing leaflets (Bornstein 2016).