Printing Press Engraved Flashback

by Maricon Williams

The traces of yesteryears are well preserved even up to this very instance. We have the printing press to thank for that. Through books which were published in those crucial times, we are able to travel back and learn the life of the kings, nobles, warriors, ordinary men, conquerors as well as the conquered.

To give you a closer look of the printing industry, let us trace the remnants of history. Printing is the process of producing multiple copies of a document by the use of letters, characters and images.

The process was developed independently in China and Europe. Prior to the invention of the printing press, ample hand-woven manuscript were already distributed. At that time, making manuscript was a laborious task - actually, far laborious than that of today.

That continued for a number of years until the invention of printing press in 1450 by Johann Gutenberg. After the said invention, mass publication and circulation of literature was made possible. At that point, printing spread rapidly and began to replace the old hand-printed texts.

The very first printing press made use of a huge and heavy screw to force a printing block against the paper thus, there was a need for the farmers to gather olive oil to loosen the screw. In order for the printing press to function, it needs an operator to control a lever to increase and reduce the pressure of the block.

Things started to change in the Mid-15th century. In his workshop, Gutenberg gets together the technologies of paper, oil-based ink and the wine-press to print books.

Another milestone in printing was the adaptation of block-print technology at the end of the 13th century which was known in Europe since the arrival of Marco Polo from Asia.

Paper was brought from China to Italy in the 12th century however it was thought too weak to be used on books. Prior to the advent of the printing press, books were made of vellum or the skin of calf or lamb. Vellum was used because of its extreme durability.

For books that took more than a year to produce, paper was too flimsy. However, for print books, vellum was too costly to produce.

The invention of the printing press has started a continuing revolution that continued up to the present and will extend to the much-awaited future. It is aimed to achieve remarkable innovations at the same time optimum satisfaction of our printing needs.