It's hard to imagine life without printing equipment. Education would be oral, with students sitting at the feet of teachers. Those out of reach of oral teaching would do without. Clerks would still enter daily accounts into large ledgers with pen and ink. All books, email and snail mail, magazines, movies (images printed on film), patterned cloth, engineering and industrial designs, and more would not exist.
Mankind began to create images while they still lived in caves. Stone Age civilizations used plant and mineral dyes to paint images on birch bark, animal skins, or clay pots. Drawing by hand was slow, and copies made in the same manner were never exact.
Replicating a character or design without undue effort once the original was created was a huge advance. The first tool is believed to have been a Chinese carving, a block of wood that was used to create designs on cloth in one or more colors. A third century print has been found that illustrates this method. By the fourth century, the Romans were using it in the Empire.
The complicated Chinese language made wood block prints slow and often impractical. They did produce books; one has survived that dates to 869 AD. Paper money was also produced in this manner in early Chinese dynasties.
Movable type was also invented in China. The first permanent characters of this type were made of clay, later of wood, and finally of copper and other metals. The ability to rearrange characters in a line made books much easier to produce, although they were still very rare.
Books continued to be rare and extremely costly until the fifteenth century, when a man called Gutenberg invented the first printing press. His design was so advanced and practical that the basics of the system are still used today. The simplified western alphabet was perfect for this modern way of using typeface and ink on paper. The famous Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1455.
People in power often feared the spread of literacy to the common man. Religious leaders felt that only priests should read and interpret the Scriptures. Political leaders feared that the governed would get radical ideas, while men feared that women would become too independent. It was illegal to teach slaves to read and write in many American states.
Today we enjoy even more access to printing equipment with new computer technology. This ability to reproduce images in a cost effective manner is valuable in many fields, including education, industry, engineering, and communication.
Mankind began to create images while they still lived in caves. Stone Age civilizations used plant and mineral dyes to paint images on birch bark, animal skins, or clay pots. Drawing by hand was slow, and copies made in the same manner were never exact.
Replicating a character or design without undue effort once the original was created was a huge advance. The first tool is believed to have been a Chinese carving, a block of wood that was used to create designs on cloth in one or more colors. A third century print has been found that illustrates this method. By the fourth century, the Romans were using it in the Empire.
The complicated Chinese language made wood block prints slow and often impractical. They did produce books; one has survived that dates to 869 AD. Paper money was also produced in this manner in early Chinese dynasties.
Movable type was also invented in China. The first permanent characters of this type were made of clay, later of wood, and finally of copper and other metals. The ability to rearrange characters in a line made books much easier to produce, although they were still very rare.
Books continued to be rare and extremely costly until the fifteenth century, when a man called Gutenberg invented the first printing press. His design was so advanced and practical that the basics of the system are still used today. The simplified western alphabet was perfect for this modern way of using typeface and ink on paper. The famous Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1455.
People in power often feared the spread of literacy to the common man. Religious leaders felt that only priests should read and interpret the Scriptures. Political leaders feared that the governed would get radical ideas, while men feared that women would become too independent. It was illegal to teach slaves to read and write in many American states.
Today we enjoy even more access to printing equipment with new computer technology. This ability to reproduce images in a cost effective manner is valuable in many fields, including education, industry, engineering, and communication.
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