Printing

Printing - printing and printer sales and service companies

Printing
Several processes by which words, pictures, or designs are reproduced on paper, fabrics, metal, or other suitable materials. These processes consist essentially of making numerous identical reproductions of an original by mechanical means. The history of printing is practically identical with that of letterpress printing (printing from a raised surface). Historically, the bulk of all printing has been produced by this entirely mechanical method. Modern printing, however, increasingly relies on photomechanical and chemical processes.

The application of signet stones is possibly the earliest known form of printing. These devices consisted of seals and stamps that were dabbed with pigment and pressed against a smooth, resilient surface in order to make an impression. By the 2nd century AD the Chinese had developed and put into fairly widespread use the art of printing texts. Two important influences that favored the development of printing by the Chinese were their invention of relatively strong and inexpensive paper in AD 105 and the spread of Buddhism, which encouraged the reproduction of copies of prayers and sacred texts. The earliest surviving examples of Chinese printing were cut in relief on wood blocks. The Chinese invented a form of movable type, but because the Chinese language requires between 2000 and 40,000 separate characters, the process seemed impractical and the invention was abandoned.

Movable metal type was first cast in Europe and printed on paper with a printing press by the mid-1400s. The invention appears unrelated to earlier developments in East Asia, although moveable print was spurred by the introduction of papermaking in the 11th century. The development of a method of casting letters to precise dimensions was the essential contribution of the Western invention. German printer Johannes Gutenberg is traditionally considered the inventor of Western printing. The date associated with the invention is 1450. In the period between 1450 and 1500, the number of printers and printed works increased rapidly. The printers of northern Europe produced mostly religious books. Italian printers, on the other hand, printed chiefly secular works. With the advent of printing, artists cut their designs in wood and metal, enabling printers of the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century) to reproduce pictures as well as text on their presses. An important early use of printing was in pamphleteering: In the religious and political controversies of the 1500s and 1600s propaganda pamphlets were widely circulated.

The machine used to transmit the ink from a printing plate to the printed page is called a press. The first printing presses, such as those of the 1500s and earlier, were screw-type presses designed primarily to bring pressure on the printing form, which was placed face up in a flat bed. After the form was inked, the paper was pressed against the type by the movable surface, or platen. The operation was slow and cumbersome. In the 1600s springs were added to the press to aid in lifting the platen rapidly. Presses made of iron were introduced about 1800 and levers were substituted for the screws that brought the platen down onto the bed.

During the 1800s additional improvements included the development of the steam-powered press; the cylinder press; the rotary press; and a press that prints on both sides of a sheet of paper simultaneously. In 1863 American inventor William A. Bullock developed a press which printed from paper in rolls rather than sheets. In 1886 typesetting machines were perfected that considerably cut the time needed to set a text. In the 1950s the first phototypesetting machines appeared. They produced the photographic images of type used in making the plates for lithography. Computers are now routinely used to create artwork, set type, scan and retouch photographs, and merge all of these elements together on a single piece of film or directly on the printing plate.