In 1436 Johaness Gutenberg, a German goldsmith, began designing a machine capable of producing pages of text at an incredible speed—a product that he hoped would offset losses from a failed attempt to sell metal mirrors. By 1440 Gutenberg had established the basics of his printing press including the use of a mobile, reusable set of type, and within ten years he had constructed a working prototype of the press. In 1454 Gutenberg put his press to commercial use, producing thousands of indulgences for the Church. The following year he printed his famous 42-line Bible, the first book printed on a moveable type press in the West.1
Gutenberg's press was the combined effort of several discoveries and inventions. The printing press was built around the traditional screw press, a precursor to today's drill press, with an added matrix on which individually-cast letters and symbols could be arranged to form the desired text. This moveable type design allowed pages of text to be quickly assembled from a pre-cast selection of letters and symbols rather than laboriously carved from a block of wood as in the block printing method. Gutenberg also created a unique oil-based ink which transferred from his metal type to the printing substrate much more effectively than the water-based inks that other printers of the era used. In order to print a page, Gutenberg would arrange the necessary letters on the matrix and coat them in his ink. The matrix was then mounted on the contact end of the modified screw press and lowered until it struck the paper underneath. The process, while labor intensive, allowed Gutenberg to print pages at a much greater rate than printers using the block printing method or those doing manuscript work.2
Johannes Gutenberg's moveable type press marked the beginning of the Printing Revolution in the western world, a colossal moment in the history of information and learning. With access to printing presses, scientists, philosophers, politicians, and religious officials could replicate their ideas quickly and make them available to large audiences.
The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg is arguably one of the greatest ever made. It’s no exaggeration to say it revolutionised the world we live in. The first press marked a clear shift away from handwritten books to printed ones, but the changes the press initiated are far greater than this.
Over time the moveable printing press developed into faster, higher capacity presses which ultimately changed the world. One of the main benefits of the printing press was that it allowed ideas and news to be shared quickly which helped usher in the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment and the scientific revolution.
Compared to previous methods of distributing information, the printing press allowed these to be delivered accurately and at speed. This helped new ideas in the worlds of science and philosophy in particular to spread, which opened up debate on a global scale. It also allowed news and facts to be shared much more quickly than before, in an accessible form for the masses.
Indeed, another benefit of the printing press is the impact it had upon education. It is thought that as the number of newspapers, journals, magazines and books increased, so did people’s literacy levels. Prior to the invention of the printing press, books were written by scholars one at a time which lead to small pockets of knowledge but no widespread form of idea sharing. After the development of the printing press, literary works were much more readily available and this meant more people took an interest in reading and education. It wasn’t until after the printing press was invented that public libraries were developed.
As printing presses developed and the use of colour was incorporated into the machines, the potential for them to spread news, information and educate grew further with new types of publication emerging all the time.
Today it is hard to imagine a world without printed material – even in the digital age, products produced by presses are still an integral part of daily life.
BBR Graphics have been sourcing and refurbishing printing presses for more than 30 years. We supply a wide range of high quality printing presses including KBA, Komori, Mitsubishi and Ryobi models.