Printing - Digital, Offset, Lithography

printing

Table of Contents

Introduction
History of printing
- Origins in China
  - Invention of movable type (11th century)
  - Transmission of paper to Europe (12th century)
- The invention of printing
  - Xylography
  - Metallographic printing (1430?)
  - The invention of typography—Gutenberg (1450?)
  - The Gutenberg press
- Improvements after Gutenberg
  - The metal press (1795)
  - Stereotypy and stereography (late 18th century)
  - Koenig’s mechanical press (early 19th century)
  - Attempts to mechanize composition (mid-19th century)
  - Typecasting compositors (1880s)
- 19th-century innovations
  - Reproduction of illustrations
  - Lithography: Senefelder (1796)
  - Photosensitivity: Niepce (1820s)
  - Gravure and rotogravure (1890s)
- The 20th century
  - Discovery of offset (early 20th century)
  - Dry offset (1920)
  - Colour printing
  - Automation of composition (after 1929)
  - Programmed composition (1950s)
  - Photocomposition
    - First generation of phototypesetters: mechanical
    - Second generation of phototypesetters: functional
    - Third generation of phototypesetters: electronic
  - Toward direct impression
  - Serigraphy and collotype: a renaissance
  - Three-dimensional printing (1960s)
  - Office printing
Modern printing techniques
- Composition and typesetting
  - Mechanical composition and typesetting
    - Letterpress composition by hand
    - Semimechanized composition
    - Mechanical composition: slugcasting typesetters
    - Typesetter casting aligned characters
    - Automatic composition (perforated tape)
    - Programmed composition (prepared by computer)
    - Cold type
  - Phototypesetting
    - Manual phototypesetters
    - Automatic phototypesetting
    - Functional phototypesetters
    - Electronic phototypesetters
  - Makeup of letterpress copy
    - Mounting composition on film
    - Conversion systems
- Printing (press operation)
  - Colour printing
  - Letterpress printing
    - Platen presses
    - Cylinder presses
    - Rotary presses
    - Preparing stereotypes and plates
    - Scope of letterpress
  - Rotogravure
    - Preparing rotogravure cylinders
    - Scope of rotogravure
  - Offset
    - Offset plate making
    - Scope of offset
  - Other printing processes
    - Letterset
    - Serigraphy (screen printing)
    - Collotype
    - Flexography
    - Electrostatic printing
  - Printing inks

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Discover how Johannes Gutenberg's printing press increased the literacy and education of people in Europe

See a working model of an early hand printing press

Friedrich Koenig's mechanical platen press

For Students

printing summary

Read Next

poem. A poet in a Heian period kimono writes Japanese poetry during the Kamo Kyokusui No En Ancient Festival at Jonan-gu shrine on April 29, 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. Festival of Kyokusui-no Utage orignated in 1,182, party Heian era (794-1192).

World Poetry Day

Discover

Person paying with a credit card using a credit card terminal. Cashless payment, credit card reader

What Is a Cashless Society and How Does It Work?

VAN, TURKEY - OCTOBER 25: A building and car ruined during the earthquake of Van-Ercis on October 25, 2011 in Van, Turkey. It is 604 killed and 4152 injured in Van-Ercis Earthquake.

What Is an Aftershock?

A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

After a perfect launch, spectators try to catch a last glimpse of Space Shuttle Columbia, barely visible at the top end of the twisted column of smoke.

7 Accidents and Disasters in Spaceflight History

African Americans demonstrating for voting rights in front of the White House as police and others watch, March 12, 1965. One sign reads, "We demand the right to vote everywhere." Voting Rights Act, civil rights.

Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement

9 of the World’s Deadliest Spiders

solar eclipse, sun, moon, astronomy, space

How Do You Tell the Difference Between Total, Annular, Solar, and Lunar Eclipses?

In the first decades of the 20th century all type was set and composed into columns and pages by hand or by mechanical means. These methods are still widely used. The font, which constitutes a complete set of characters of a given typeface, with duplicate numbers of each letter in proportion to the frequency with which each is used, is stored in the compartments of a case; capital letters, proportionately less frequently called for, are in the upper compartments, whence their name, uppercase, and the small letters in the lower compartments, which are more easily accessible and whence their name, ...(100 of 26569 words)

Access the full article

Help support true facts by becoming a member.