Did you know that printing technology emerged in China centuries back?  

Can you imagine life without books or newspapers? Well, the answer is of course a big NO. But just a few centuries ago, we had none of these. Fortunately, we have witnessed some ground-breaking innovations through the history of human civilisation which have literally changed the world. One of them is the invention of the printing technology. It revolutionised the way knowledge is preserved and spread all over the world. Let’s take a look at the history of this life-altering innovation.  

Woodblock printing 
The earliest form of printing technology was discovered in China somewhere around 200 AD. This type of printing is known as Chinese woodblock printing. Historians are not sure who invented woodblock printing, but in ancient China, it was mostly Buddhist monks who spread literacy. Thus, many of the earliest woodblock printers were probably monks. The first time when printing was mentioned in history was in an imperial decree dated (593 AD), in which Buddhist pictures and scriptures were printed. From here, evolved the art of screen printing in China somewhere between 960 AD and 1279 AD under the Song Dynasty.  

Cut to 1041, and movable type printing technology was brought in by Chinese alchemist Bi Sheng (990 AD-1051 AD). With this, a message could be spelt out using individual symbols, which could then be printed on silk by dipping them in ink. By 1300 AD-1400 AD the wooden blocks could be dipped in ink and then stamped onto paper. 

Gutenberg’s printing press 
In the middle of the 15th century, a German goldsmith and craftsman named Johannes Gutenberg started experimenting with a more efficient method of printing. Since he had the prior experience of working in a mint, Gutenberg figured out a way of speeding up the printing process and increasing the rate of production that involved the use of metal block letters instead of wood. So, by 1450, we came across the first commercial printing machine which allowed mass production of books. By 1455, this machine gave birth to the first printed book in history, the Gutenberg Bible. Today, the Gutenberg Bible is a treasured asset. According to reports, only 48 copies have survived.  

The evolution of printing after Gutenberg 
While printing has a lengthy history, it evolved further after Gutenburg’s printing press to modern-day printing over many centuries. Here are some milestones. 

• Daniel Hopfer (1470-1536), a German craftsman, is credited with developing the etching printing technique in the early 1500s.  
• Lithography was invented by German author and actor Alois Senefelder (1771-1834) during the 1790s. This technique was based on the natural antagonism of oil and water. 
• In 1843, Richard March Hoe (1812-1886) invented the rotary press technique in which the images that are to be printed are coiled around a cylinder. 
• In 1875, offset printing was created by Robert Barclay and is the most popular way of printing in large runs. 
• Inkjet printing was first conceptualised in the early 1950s, and by the late 1970s, printers could reproduce computer-generated digital images. There was no single developer of inkjet printing. Instead, a number of companies, notably Epson, HP, and Canon, led the way. 
• Gary Starkweather (1938-2019), an American engineer, created the first version of the modern laser printer in 1969. 
• Benny Landa, an Israeli entrepreneur and inventor, founded a digital press in 1977. He is rightly known as the ‘father of commercial digital printing’.