printing

Culture

2022

We explain what the printing press is and what it is for. What was its origin, and why is it so important. Types of printers.

The printing press was invented in the 15th century and perfected over the centuries.

What is Printing?

The printing press refers to a mechanism capable of reproducing texts and images on a paper, cloth or other material support, in order to produce them on a large scale.

Initially it operated on the basis of two plates metallic between which the material to be printed was introduced, and in which the typographic molds (letters) had been distributed and inked in the correct order of the text. The plates were then pressed and the text was marked on the surface.

The printing press was invented in the 15th century and perfected over the centuries, but since then it has allowed the serial reproduction of books, magazines, brochures, clothing and other articles equipped with texts and images, through various methods of Pressure and inked.

Types of printers

The newspaper is printed on a rotary printing press.

Much later, thanks to the Industrial Revolution and to the new ones technologies, more sophisticated forms of printing emerged. Today there are different types of printing, such as:

  • Offset. The "traditional" printing press, although far removed from the one invented in the Middle Ages, is the fruit of centuries of improvement of the process, thanks to technological advances. It operates on the basis of letterpress plates with four different inks (based on their colors, or CMYK).
  • Digital. Taking advantage of the computational revolution, the printing press was revamped to incorporate virtual technology and the rapid transmission of data. The home and portable printers of an ordinary PC are a good example, which operate on the basis of other principles such as laser or inkjet.
  • Rotating. The printers where the Newspaper, equipped with large mobile rollers between which the paper is pressed, to quickly produce hundreds of sheets of newspaper or other formats.

Origin of the printing press

The printing press had numerous antecedents, in the different stamps and inscriptions invented by the cultures old to manage your bureaucracy or reproduce ceremonial illustrations. The Chinese, for example, who had made rice paper, invented in the 11th century a porcelain system that made it possible to reproduce their characters from porcelain molds. But the modern printing press as such arose in about 1450 from the hand of Johannes Gutemberg.

Although the young German was the first to organize a typeface and proceed to serial printing, many others had previously tried it, for which merit in this invention is also given to Mentelin of Strasbourg (1410-1478), to the Italian Castaldi , his compatriot Aldo Manuencio, and the Dutch Lorenzo de Coster (1370-1430).

What is the printing press for?

The press is fast, efficient and inexpensive.

The printing press is used to massively produce books, magazines, pamphlets, brochures, fabrics, clothing and many other objects with text and images: fast, efficient and economical. This thanks to a system of mobile plates that, when pressed, could reproduce the same page multiple times, then the next and then the next, until obtaining several games which, when put together, made up several copies of an entire book. The first book to be made in this way was the Bible.

Today, technology has changed the printing press but the principle remains the same: rotary presses, for example, in which newspapers are printed, have large moving rollers through which hundreds of sheets of paper pass that are inked and then dried, folded and distributed. None of this would have been possible without the invention of the printing press in the 15th century.

Printing features

The printing press initially had the following characteristics:

  • He copied the model of the rubber stamps of antiquity, pressing the paper between metal plates.
  • This pressure came from a screwing system that prevented the paper from moving and generated enough force to print.
  • The letters were movable type, that is, metal molds that had to be arranged in the correct sequence to reproduce the text.
  • Initially it incorporated woodcut and other traditional techniques due to limitations in the typographic mold.
  • The printing press was perfected in the 19th century, thanks to the invention of the linotype by Ottmar Mergenthaler.

Importance of printing

In the days of their invention, books were copied manually as unique copies, which took an enormous amount of time and effort per copy, making them rare and expensive items. The appearance and subsequent improvement and popularization of the printing press meant a true revolution, which made the book more economical, popular and massive.

This, in turn, impacted on access to the letter and the education, laying the groundwork for a society more literate European. It is possibly one of the most revolutionary inventions in history and one that forever changed the order of knowledge in the world.

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