Chinese Woodblock
Printing Modern Day Woodblock
Printing
Perhaps the oldest known form of letterpress
printing was that used by the Chinese. Early findings
show that wood printing likely began in the eighth
century as a way to record history, as well as share
the message of Buddhism. Woodblock printing was commonly used from the
eighth to the fifteenth centuries, until a German man
named Johann Gutenberg invented the printing
press in the early 1440s. Gutenberg wanted to find a
way to supply books to the common person – a huge
step in print press history.
Lithography
Lithography printing was invented by Alois
Senefelder as a way to improve the process. This
type of printing made it so that the entire page,
including the text and the white space, could be on a
single printing plate.
Lithography also turned out to be more affordable
because of cheaper paper. Also, because it was run
The letterpress process of carving entire pages onto by steam, the lithography printing process produced
more pages than letterpress printing. With the
blocks of wood was tedious, and left little room for
error. In his early days of printing, it’s believed that invention of lithography printing, printers started
using color. Within the next century, lithography
Gutenberg started carving individual letters into
would become one of the largest forms of printing
pieces of wood. These letters could be used over
advertisements and magazines.
and over again, formed into a variety of words and
then rearranged for the next page. This version of
The introduction of lithography didn’t stop the
the printing press was the earliest form of moveable letterpress from making a strong move forward
type, and a huge advancement in the history of
in the 1800s. The jumpstart of the Industrial
Wax paper placed on top of the block would be
letterpress.
Revolution helped the letterpress continue to
rubbed with a pad to transfer the inscriptions
onto the page. The letterpress prints found during
But Gutenberg found the wood easily became worn improve. First, the leverage and weight was adjusted
excavating were made in red, blue or black ink, and down, rendering it unable to print clearly. In hopes of to create more even pressure. The invention of a
tabletop press allowed for more clarity in each
an experienced pressman could make up to 1,500 finding a solution, Gutenberg started working with
impression thanks to a longer side arm that gave
copies each day.
metal.
more leverage. Smaller tables also became popular
He started using steel to create capital and lowercase in smaller businesses, where just about everyone
letters, as well as punctuation symbols needed to
could do their own printing.
create a complete text. Keeping up with his inventive
Larger presses that were previously run by someone
spirit, Gutenberg created his own ink out of soot,
pushing a foot pedal while hand-feeding paper
turpentine and walnut oil to transfer the letters onto
into the press were now run by motors. As the
the page.
technology advanced, presses soon became motor-
This early form of the printing press was known as fed, leading production to boom up to 5,000 copies
a “screw press.” By the time Gutenberg’s press was in an hour.
fully operating, he was printing six pages per day.
One of his most impressive accomplishments was
printing the Bible. Two volumes of the Bible had
1,282 pages and required about three years for his
staff of 20 people to complete. Gutenberg made
about 200 copies of the Bible during his lifetime.
About 48 can still be viewed in museums.
During the letterpress printing process,
calligraphers would complete up to four proof
readings for one printed item. Inscriptions carved
into a block could be corrected with cutting small
notches in the lettering and shoving in new pieces
of wood. If larger errors needed correcting, the
calligrapher would create an inlay. When the block
was finally perfected, it was washed and fresh ink
would be applied.
Lucid Motif Graphic Industry
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