Even those who today prefer to deal with modern electronic publications and reading devices, at least once in their lives took a book printed on paper in their hands. The printed book is one of the greatest inventions of mankind, which makes it possible to plunge into the world of knowledge and artistic images. It is generally accepted that book printing was invented in the middle of the 15th century.
From the history of typography
Books have existed long before the invention of printing. But before they were written by hand, and then repeatedly rewritten, making the required number of copies. This technology was extremely imperfect and took a lot of time and effort. In addition, when rewriting books, errors and distortions almost always crept into the text. Handwritten books were very expensive, and therefore could not find wide distribution.
The first books made by printing appear, most likely, in China and Korea as early as the 9th century BC. For these purposes, special printed boards were used. The text that needed to be reproduced on paper was drawn in mirror image and then carved into the surface of a flat piece of wood with a sharp tool. The resulting relief image was smeared with paint and pressed tightly against the sheet. The result was a print that duplicated the original text.
This method, however, did not find widespread use in China, since each time it was necessary to cut out the entire desired text on a printed board for a long time. Some craftsmen tried even then to make a form of movable signs, but the number of hieroglyphs in Chinese writing was so great that this method was very laborious and did not justify itself.
The invention of typography by Johannes Gutenberg
In a more modern form, book printing appeared in Europe in the first half of the 15th century. It was during these times that there was an urgent need for cheap and affordable books. Handwritten editions could no longer meet the needs of a developing society. The method of printing from boards that came from the East was ineffective and rather laborious. An invention was needed that would allow the printing of books in huge quantities.
The German master Johann Gutenberg, who lived in the middle of the 15th century, is rightfully considered the inventor of the original method of printing. Today it is very difficult to determine with high accuracy in what year he first printed the first text using movable typesetting letters invented by him. It is believed that the first printed book came out of Gutenberg's press in 1450.
Gutenberg's method of printing books was very ingenious and practical. At first, he made a matrix from soft metal, in which he squeezed out recesses that looked like letters. Lead was poured into this form, resulting in the required number of letters. These lead signs were sorted and placed in special type-setting cash registers.
A printing press was constructed for the production of books. In essence, it was a manually operated press with two planes. A frame with a font was placed on one, and clean sheets of paper were applied to the other plane. The assembled matrix was covered with a special dye composition based on soot and linseed oil. The productivity of the printing press was very high at that time - up to hundreds of pages per hour.
Gutenberg's method of printing gradually spread throughout Europe. Thanks to the printing press, it became possible to print books in comparatively large quantities. Now the book has ceased to be a luxury item available only to a select few, but has spread widely among the masses.
