It is hard to imagine our modern world without them: printers. But where and when did the individual printing processes come from? This and other questions about the history of printers will be explored in this article. Because in order to understand how the various printers work today, it doesn’t hurt to take a look at the past. Today’s technologies are also based on knowledge that has been acquired over thousands of years.
Time travel through the history of the printer
Some time has passed since the first attempts at printing. If cave drawings with coloured handprints are counted as printing, even much more. Since then, of course, a great deal has happened and printing processes have been and continue to be constantly developed. In the following, we would like to show you which developmental steps are particularly noteworthy.
Stamp printing
Every invention has its beginning somewhere. Modern” printing, for example, began in Egypt around 1300 BC with stamp or seal printing, a technique that was further developed in the Roman Empire. In this process, the stamps consisted of stone or clay plates in which characters were engraved that were mainly used for authentication. a4 printing online
Stone printing in China
In China, long before Gutenberg, people began to copy documents by pressing wet paper onto worked stone and then brushing it with ink. This printing technique is known as lithography.
Wood printing
The history of the art of printing shows another innovation in the form of woodblock printing (also called block printing or wood panel printing) from the 7th century. In East Asia, characters were carved mirror-inverted into a wooden block, which was then coated with ink and pressed onto paper. This method became the common technology of the time. In addition, a technique is known from the Orient with which textiles were printed using a similar process. Block printing, on the other hand, was not used in Europe until the 14th century.
This category also includes one of the oldest printing works, which was developed in China in the 9th century. A 5-metre-long parchment roll and woodcut illustrations were found here. It was a Chinese translation of a Buddhist text.
Offset printing
This process used grease to apply ink to a moving cylinder which, when printed on paper, detached from the cylinder and stuck to the paper. Offset printing paved the way for the modern printer.
The single stencil printing
This printing technique also originated in Asia. In the 13th century, single-letter printing was developed in Korea on the basis of the Chinese model, with which individual metal types were inserted into a bordered wooden board. These were fixed with wax so that they could not slip. However, this technology, also known as the casting method, was so costly that it was only used for certain important prints and did not become widespread. As early as the 14th century, however, a decree was issued by the Korean kings for the general education of the people, which ordered the printing of Korean literature with types made of copper. As a result, the first foundries for such types were established.
Woodcut
Woodblock printing is also a relief printing process and has been known in Europe since the 14th century. It is a technology in which text or images can be cut out of a wooden panel and then printed on a medium such as paper.
Single sheet printing in the 15th century
Single sheet printing also includes woodcuts, which mainly show Christian images. In the middle of the 15th century, the first block books were produced using this process, which were replaced by letterpress printing with movable type from the beginning of the 16th century. Single-sheet printed products also include calendars from this period, which contained astrological information as well as feast days and the phases of the moon.
Letterpress printing after Gutenberg (letterpress)
With the invention of the printing press with movable letters by Johannes Gutenberg in the middle of the 15th century, letterpress printing began to establish itself in mass production.
Plate printing
At the end of the 16th century, music engraving was introduced by means of plate printing. Here, for example, bar lines were pressed into a metal plate with the help of a steel stamp, blackened and then pressed onto the paper.
The mezzotint
The mezzotint is mainly used to describe copper and steel engravings. In the middle of the 17th century, the German engraver Ludwig von Siegen developed this process for single sheet prints. This technique also allowed for grey tones in the printed result.
Four-colour printing
Four-colour printing, developed at the beginning of the 18th century, is based on the mezzotint technique, whereby each colour consists of three basic tones. Thus, by using the right mixing ratio, almost any colour could be achieved. The four colours are red, yellow, blue and black. This process is still recognisable in today’s printers, which work with the CMYK colour model, i.e. cyan, magenta, yellow and black. A processed mezzotint plate served as a printing stencil.
Line etching
In the middle of the 19th century, a process was developed in Austria whereby metal plates were etched in stages until a printing forme was produced in which the printed areas remained raised. This technique is known as line etching and was used to reproduce originals, which made uniformly coloured areas, lines as well as dots possible.
The Galvanoplasty
Galvanoplasty is a process in which a metallic surface is electrochemically treated to create artwork that could better withstand the pressure of the steam press.
Modern offset printing
Offset printing has evolved to become one of the main printing processes for books and newspapers. It is a flatbed printing technology where the inks are first transferred onto a blanket and only then from this onto the printing medium.
The dry copying process
The dry copying process was first used in the 1950s in a Xerox machine. Also known as xerography, this printing process is based on electrophotography and is used for dry copying. It is still mainly used in copiers and laser printers.
Other important developments
In addition to the individual stages of development in the history of the printer, there are other significant dates that should be mentioned here.
For example, from around 1470 onwards, we can speak of periodic and progressive printing. The first large-scale entrepreneurs in the field of printing, book trade and publishing began to manifest themselves in Germany. The first printed books also appeared at this time, although they were initially “copies” of older works. Prints by contemporary authors were rather rare.
In the 16th century, schoolbooks were printed with a circulation of around 350 books, which was high by the standards of the time. In the 17th century, postage stamps were printed, which today are considered to be the printed product with the highest circulation. The present-day Austrian State Printing Office was founded in 1804 to print banknotes, official gazettes and stamps. Only two years later, an ink-impregnated paper was developed that served to duplicate documents: copy paper.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the platen printing press was developed, in which rollers were used to apply the ink to the printing forme and then to the paper. However, the paper still had to be inserted by hand and removed after printing. In further stages of development, cylinder presses and later double cylinder presses were developed, which made it possible to move the printing forme forwards and backwards.
In the 1840s, the mechanical typewriter, the so-called chirografer, was developed, which worked with a type wheel and an ink pad. In 1881, the development of a reproduction process was advanced, which served to reproduce half-tone originals, as well as corresponding printing plates for planographic and letterpress printing. Less than ten years later, there were further innovations in mechanical intaglio printing, which worked with the aid of cylinders and could remove excess ink from the printing forme by means of squeegees.
The 20th century also brought enormous developments in the history of the printer. The first photomechanical copier was developed as early as 1907. In the 1930s, experiments were already being carried out with light-sensitive paper and photographic transfer of the printed image. In 1941, IBM introduced a consumer-friendly typewriter with proportional type.
Also developed and marketed by IBM was the first matrix printer from 1957. The characters were now not composed of finished letters but of individual halftone dots. These in turn were created by fine needles (dot matrix printers).
In the mid-1960s, the ballpoint typewriter became very popular because it was considered to be particularly quiet and fast. It used an ink ribbon that was integrated in a cassette. The electronic typewriters developed later, which were equipped with a type head or type wheel, offered the advantage of various automated processes. These innovations included automatic paper feed, margin compensation, justification, bold printing, text erasure and many other useful functions.