Movable type is the system of printing and typography using movable pieces of metal type, made by casting from matrices struck by letterpunches. The Phaistos Disc (Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc) is a curious archaeological find, likely dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age. ... Yuan Dynasty woodblock edition of a Chinese play For the use of the technique in art, see Woodcut on the technique, and Old master print for the history in Europe and woodblock printing in Japan. ... The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Intaglio printing. ... Lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface. ... Folding Card, The Old Woman Who Lived in A Shoe, 6 April 1883. ... Offset printing is a widely used printing technique where the inked image is transferred (or offset) from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. ... Screen-printing, also known as silkscreening or serigraphy, is a printmaking technique that creates a sharp-edged single-color image using a stencil and a porous fabric. ... A flexographic printing plate. ... A thermal printer (or direct thermal printer) produces a printed image by selectively heating coated thermochromic paper, or thermal paper as it is commonly known, when the paper passes over the thermal print head. ... A small, much-used Xerox copier in a high school library. ... 1993 Apple LaserWriter Pro 630 laser printer A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. ... A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer refers to a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like a typewriter. ... An Epson inkjet printer Inkjet printers are a type of computer printer that operates by propelling tiny droplets of liquid ink onto paper. ... Samsung SPP-2040 working. ... Digital printing is the reproduction of digital images on physical surface, such as common or photographic paper, film, cloth, plastic, etc. ... Three-dimensional printing is a method of converting a virtual 3D model into a physical object. ... For other uses, see Print. ... A specimen of roman typefaces by William Caslon Typography is the art and techniques of type design, modifying type glyphs, and arranging type. ... In the kind of printing which involves setting type, a matrix (often called a mat) is a mold for shaping the letters -- the mats of all the letters to go on one page are assembled, and then hot metal is poured into that matrix to make the plate to go... In traditional typography, punchcutting is the process by which matrices were made in hard metal for type founding in the early days. ...

Around 1040, the first known movable type system was created in China by Bi Sheng out of porcelain. Metal movable type was first invented in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty (around 1230). Neither movable type system was widely used, probably because of the enormous amount of labour involved in manipulating the thousands of porcelain tablets, or in the case of Korea, metal tablets, required by the use of written Chinese characters. Pì Shēng (Wade-Giles selling) (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ; died 1052) was the inventor of the first know movable type printing system. ... “Fine China” redirects here. ... This article is about the Korean civilization. ... The Goryeo kingdom ruled Korea from the fall of Silla in 935 until the founding of Joseon in 1392. ... Events Kingdom of Leon unites with the Kingdom of Castile. ... “Fine China” redirects here. ... For other meanings please see Tablet (disambiguation) Common disk-shaped pills A pharmacological tablet is a medicinal or other active substance mixed with binder powders and pressed into a tablet form. ... This article is about the Korean civilization. ... This article is about metallic materials. ... For other meanings please see Tablet (disambiguation) Common disk-shaped pills A pharmacological tablet is a medicinal or other active substance mixed with binder powders and pressed into a tablet form. ... The Chinese written language consists of a writing system stretching back nearly 4000 years. ...

Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg introduced what is generally regarded as an independent invention of movable type in Europe (see printing press), along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould. Gutenberg was the first to create his type pieces from an alloy of lead, tin and antimony—the same components still used today.^[1] // March - French troops under Guy de Richemont besiege the English commander in France, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, in Caen. ... This article is about the inventor of printing in Europe; for other uses, see Guttenberg (disambiguation) and Gutenberg. ... The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ... A Hand mould is a two-part mould used for casting small metal objects that could be operated by hand. ... This article is about the metal. ... This article is about the metallic chemical element. ... This article is about the element. ...

Compared to woodblock printing, movable type pagesetting was quicker and more durable. The metal type pieces were more durable and the lettering was more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type, and printing presses rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. Today, practically all movable type printing ultimately derives from Gutenberg's movable type printing, which is often regarded as the most important invention of the second millennium.^[2] Yuan Dynasty woodblock edition of a Chinese play For the use of the technique in art, see Woodcut on the technique, and Old master print for the history in Europe and woodblock printing in Japan. ... A font can mean: A member of a typeface family; or digital font - file format that encapsulates a typeface family in a database. ... A copy of the Gutenberg Bible owned by the U.S. Library of Congress The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible or the Mazarin Bible) is a printed version of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible that was printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany in... The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ... This article is about the European Renaissance of the 14th-17th centuries. ... The global spread of printing with movable type from its origins in Germany began with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, (c. ...

Precursors

Origin of the letterpunch

Movable type traces its origins to the punches used to make coins: the reverse face of a Tetradrachm Greek coin from Athens, 5th century BCE, featuring letters and the owl symbol of Athena.

The technique of imprinting multiple copies of symbols or glyphs with a master type punch made of hard metal first developed in coining around 3000 BC in ancient Sumer. Bars or ingots of precious metal were imprinted with a distinctive stamped design; the act of stamping the ingots certified them as currency by the power of the authority symbolized by the type image. These metal punch types can be seen as precursors of the letter punches adapted in later millennia to printing with movable metal type. Image File history File links Tetradrachm_5th_century_BC_athens_detail. ... Image File history File links Tetradrachm_5th_century_BC_athens_detail. ... This article is about monetary coins. ... ISO 4217 Code GRD User(s) Greece Inflation 3. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the capital of Greece. ... For other uses, see Athena (disambiguation). ... variant glyphs representing the character a (allographs of a) in the Zapfino typeface. ... A mint is a facility which manufactures coins for currency. ... (31st century BC - 30th century BC - 29th century BC - other centuries) (4th millennium BC - 3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC) Events 2925 - 2776 BC - First Dynasty wars in Egypt 2900 BC - Beginning of the Early Dynastic Period I in Mesopotamia. ... Sumer (or Å umer; Sumerian: KI-EN-GIR [1]) was the earliest known civilization of the ancient Near East, located in lower Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), from the time of the earliest records in the mid 4th millennium BC until the rise of Babylonia in the late 3rd millennium BC. The term... Modern gold ingots from the Bank of Sweden An Ingot is a mass of material cast into a shape which is easy to handle. ... For the CSI episode of the same name, see Precious Metal (CSI episode). ...

By 650 BC the ancient Greeks were using larger diameter punches to imprint small page images onto coins and tokens. Cylinder seals were a related form of early typography capable of printing small page designs in relief (cameo) on wax or clay—a miniature forerunner of rotogravure printing used by wealthy individuals to seal and certify documents. Centuries: 8th century BC - 7th century BC - 6th century BC Decades: 700s BC 690s BC 680s BC 670s BC 660s BC - 650s BC - 640s BC 630s BC 620s BC 610s BC 600s BC Events and Trends Occupation begins at Maya site of Piedras Negras, Guatemala 657 BC - Cypselus becomes the... This article is about monetary coins. ... A rare and historic Bechuanaland Border Police canteen token. ... Gilgamesh and Enkidu, cylinder seal impression from Ur III, with oldest type of pictographic cuneiform The Cylinder seals in ancient times, were used to put an impression in clay. ... 2002 Lincoln cent, obverse, proof with cameo Cameo is a method of carving, or an item of jewelry made in this manner. ... Diagram of rotogravure process Rotogravure (gravure for short) is a type of intaglio printing process, in that it involves engraving the image onto an image carrier. ...

The artists who made the first coin punches were in effect the first typographers and type designers. Their designs, including glyphs and words, were stylized with a degree of skill that could not be mistaken for common handiwork—salient and very specific types designed to be reproduced ad infinitum. Unlike the first typefaces used to print books in the 13th century, coin types were neither combined or printed with ink on paper, but "published" in metal—a more durable medium—and survived in substantial numbers. As the portable face of ruling authority, coins were a compact form of standardized knowledge issued in large editions, an early mass medium that stabilized trade and civilization throughout the Mediterranean world of antiquity. Graphics are often utilitarian and anonymous,[1] as these pictographs from the US National Park Service illustrate. ... Look up Ad infinitum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... For other uses, see Ink (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Paper (disambiguation). ... The Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around and surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. ... Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD...

The Phaistos Disc

For further information, see Phaistos Disc.

The enigmatic Minoan Phaistos Disc (1800–1600 BC) has been considered by one scholar as an early example of a body of text being reproduced with reusable characters: it may have been produced by pressing pre-formed hieroglyphic "seals" into the soft clay. Some authors even view the disc as technically meeting all definitional criteria to represent an early, if not the earliest incidence of movable type printing,^[3] although this characterization has not been accepted by any other worker. The Phaistos Disc (Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc) is a curious archaeological find, likely dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age. ... The Minoan civilization was a bronze age civilization which arose on Crete, an island in the Aegean Sea. ... The Phaistos Disc (Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc) is a curious archaeological find, likely dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age. ...

Woodblock printing

Main article: Woodblock printing

Yuan dynasty woodblock edition of a Chinese play

Prior to the development of metal movable type, printing was performed with blocks carved from wood. Yuan Dynasty woodblock edition of a Chinese play For the use of the technique in art, see Woodcut on the technique, and Old master print for the history in Europe and woodblock printing in Japan. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (419x644, 71 KB) Summary A Yuan dynasty (1206-1368) woodblock edition of a zaju play entitled Zhuye Zhou. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (419x644, 71 KB) Summary A Yuan dynasty (1206-1368) woodblock edition of a zaju play entitled Zhuye Zhou. ... Capital Dadu Language(s) Mongolian Chinese Government Monarchy Emperor  - 1260-1294 Kublai Khan  - 1333-1370 (Cont. ...

Movable type

Non Printing Movable Type in the Roman Empire

Movable type was used by the Romans but never developed for printing. In the Roman waterworks, messages were raised in relief on the lead pipes that fed fountains, baths, and private homes. As a rule, these short texts recorded the name of the emperor or the municipal official who had paid for the pipes.^{[citation needed]}

Molds for each letter in the Latin alphabet were made and individually placed into a carved slot in a stone slab to make the required sentence. Ensuring that the molds lay flush with the surface of the stone, they locked the type into place and laid the stone slab on a large flat tray. Then they poured molten lead across slab and tray, forming a large metal sheet. Once cooled, the sheet could be rolled into a cylinder and soldered at the seam. On the pipe's contour, the message appeared in raised letters.

Canadian classicist A. Trevor Hodge has noted that this overlooked Roman technology "tempts one into speculating how close the ancient world was to making the full-scale breakthrough into printing." However, since there was no paper in Roman Empire at that time, a key ingredient in invention of movable type printing was missing.

Invention of Ceramic movable type for Printing

The first known movable type system for printing was created in China around 1040 AD by Bi Sheng (990–1051).^[4] Bi Sheng's type was made of baked clay. As described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (1031–1095): Pì ShÄ“ng (Wade-Giles selling) (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ; died 1052) was the inventor of the first know movable type printing system. ... Events Construction of the Al-Hakim Mosque begins in Cairo. ... -1... This is a Chinese name; the family name is Shen Shen Kuo or Shen Kua (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) (1031–1095) was a polymathic Chinese scientist and statesman of the Song Dynasty (960–1279). ...

When he wished to print, he took an iron frame and set it on the iron plate. In this he placed the types, set close together. When the frame was full, the whole made one solid block of type. He then placed it near the fire to warm it. When the paste [at the back] was slightly melted, he took a smooth board and pressed it over the surface, so that the block of type became as even as a whetstone.

For each character there were several types, and for certain common characters there were twenty or more types each, in order to be prepared for the repetition of characters on the same page. When the characters were not in use he had them arranged with paper labels, one label for each rhyme-group, and kept them in wooden cases.^[5]

If one were to print only two or three copies, this method would be neither simple nor easy. But for printing hundreds or thousands of copies, it was marvelously quick. As a rule he kept two forms going. While the impression was being made from the one form, the type was being put in place on the other. When the printing of the one form was finished, the other was then ready. In this way the two forms alternated and the printing was done with great rapidity.^[6]

In 1193, Zhou Bida, an officer of Southen Song Dynasty, made a set of clay moveble type method according to the method described by Shen Kuo in his Dream Pool Essays, and printed his book Notes of The Jade Hall 《玉堂杂记》^[7]. // Saladin dies, and the lands of the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt and Syria are split among his descendants. ... Shen Kuo (沈括) (1031-1095 AD) The Dream Pool Essays (Pinyin: Meng Xi Bi Tan; Wade-Giles: Meng Chi Pi Tan Chinese: 梦溪笔谈) was an extensive book written by the polymath Chinese scientist and statesman Shen Kuo (1031-1095) by 1088 AD, during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) of China. ...

As late as 1844 there were still books printed in China with clay moveable types^[8]. Jan. ...

However, Bi Sheng's fragile clay types were not practical for large-scale printing.^[9]

Wooden movable type in China

A revolving table typecase with individual movable type characters arranged primarily by rhyming scheme, from Wang Zhen's book of agriculture, published 1313 CE.

Wooden movable type was first developed around 1040 AD by Bi Sheng (990–1051), as described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (1031–1095), but was abandoned in favour of clay moveable types due to uneveness of the removeable wooden type after soaked in ink, also due to the presense of wood grains.^[10] In 1298, Wang Zhen, a governmental official of Jingde, Anhui province, China, re-invented a method of making moveable wooden types. He made more than 30,000 wooden removable types and printed 100 copies of Records of Jingde County (旌德县志), a book of more than 60,000 Chinese characters. Soon afterwards, he summarized his invention in his book A method of making moveable wooden types for printing books. Although the wooden type was more durable under the mechanical rigors of handling, repeated printing wore the character faces down, and the types could only be replaced by carving new pieces. This system was later enhanced by pressing wooden blocks into sand and casting metal types from the depression in copper, bronze, iron or tin.^[4] The set of wafer-like metal stamp types could be assembled to form pages, inked, and page impressions taken from rubbings on cloth or paper.^[4] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 599 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1247 × 1248 pixel, file size: 192 KB, MIME type: image/png) Faithful reproductions of two-dimensional original works cannot attract copyright in the U.S. according to the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 599 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1247 × 1248 pixel, file size: 192 KB, MIME type: image/png) Faithful reproductions of two-dimensional original works cannot attract copyright in the U.S. according to the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. ... Wáng ZhÄ“n (王禎) (fl. ... Pì ShÄ“ng (Wade-Giles selling) (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ; died 1052) was the inventor of the first know movable type printing system. ... Events July 2 - The Battle of Göllheim is fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg. ... Wáng ZhÄ“n (王禎) (fl. ... Anhui (Chinese: 安徽; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: An-hui; Postal System Pinyin: Ngan-hui, Anhwei or An-hwei) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...

A particular difficulty posed the logistical problems of handling the several thousand characters whose command is required for full literacy in Chinese language. Middle Chinese (Traditional Chinese: 中古漢語; Pinyin: zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ), or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties (6th century - 10th century). ...

In spite of these shortcomings, wooden movable types were used continually in China, a case in point was the 2300 volume 《武英殿聚珍版丛书》 movable wooden type print ordered by the Yongzheng Emperor in 1733. The Yongzheng Emperor (born Yinzhen 胤禛 December 13, 1678 - October 8, 1735) was the fourth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the third Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1722 to 1735. ... Events February 12 - British colonist James Oglethorpe founds Savannah, Georgia. ...

Metal movable type in Korea

Main article: History of typography in East Asia

"Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son Masters", the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, 1377. Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.

Transition from wood type to metal type occurred ca. 1230 AD during the Goryeo Dynasty of Korea and is credited to Choe Yun-ui. A set of ritual books, Sangjong Gogeum Yemun were printed with the movable metal type in 1234.^[11][12] Examples of this metal type are on display in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.^[13] The oldest extant movable metal print book is the Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377.^[14] For the article on the development of printing in Europe, see History of western typography. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Events Kingdom of Leon unites with the Kingdom of Castile. ... The Goryeo kingdom ruled Korea from the fall of Silla in 935 until the founding of Joseon in 1392. ... This article is about the Korean civilization. ... Choe Yun-ui (Hangul: 최윤의) was a Korean scientist during the Goryeo dynasty; he is credited with introducing metal movable type made from bronze and cast in moulds, sometime in the early decades of the 13th century[1]. This followed on experiments in China on movable type using clay (Bi Sheng... This article is about the year 1234. ... Construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building, from July 8, 1888 to May 15, 1894. ... Jikji is the abbreviated title of a Buddhist document, whose full title can be translated Baegun Hwasangs Anthology of the Great Priests Teachings on Identification of the Buddha’s Spirit by the Practice of Seon. ...

The techniques for bronze casting, used at the time for making coins (as well as bells and statues) were adapted to making metal type. The following description of the Korean font casting process was recorded by the Joseon dynasty scholar Song Hyon (15th c.): Joseon redirects here. ...

At first, one cuts letters in beech wood. One fills a trough level with fine sandy [clay] of the reed-growing seashore. Wood-cut letters are pressed into the sand, then the impressions become negative and form letters [molds]. At this step, placing one trough together with another, one pours the molten bronze down into an opening. The fluid flows in, filling these negative molds, one by one becoming type. Lastly, one scrapes and files off the irregularities, and piles them up to be arranged.^[11]

A potential solution to the linguistic and cultural bottleneck that held back movable type in Korea for two hundred years appeared in the early 15th century—a generation before Gutenberg would begin working on his own movable type invention in Europe—when King Sejong devised a simplified alphabet of 24 characters (Hangul) for use by the common people, which could have made the typecasting and compositing process more feasible. But Sejong's brilliant creation did not receive the attention it deserved. Adoption of the new alphabet was stifled by the inertia of Korea's cultural elite, who were "…appalled at the idea of losing Chinese, the badge of their elitism."^[4] Birth name Sejong the Great (May 6, 1397 – May 18, 1450, r. ... ABCs redirects here, for the Alien Big Cats, see British big cats. ... Jamo redirects here. ...

(Add) Early in January 2007 recently discovered oldest movable types in Korea were on display. They have been dated to the mid-15th century. Hangul, the script of Korea, was invented by King Sejong of the Joson Dynasty who reigned between 1418 and 1450. Jamo redirects here. ...

Proliferation of movable type was also obstructed by a "Confucian prohibition on the commercialization of printing" restricted the distribution of books produced using the new method to the government.^[15] The technique was restricted to use by the royal foundry for official state publications only, where the focus was on reprinting Chinese classics lost in 1126 when Korea's libraries and palaces had perished in a conflict between dynasties.^[15] A Confucian temple in Wuwei, Peoples Republic of China. ...

A page from bronze moveable type book by Hua Sui, printed in 1490

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 400 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1374 × 2060 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 400 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1374 × 2060 pixel, file size: 1. ...

Metal Movable type elsewhere in Asia

During the Mongol Empire (1206–1405), printing using movable type spread from China to Central Asia. The Uyghurs of Central Asia used movable type, their script type adopted from the Mongol language, some with Chinese words printed between the pages, a strong evidence that the books were printed in China^[16]. Expansion of the Mongol Empire Historical map of the Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire, also known as the Mongolian Empire (Mongolian: , Mongolyn Ezent Güren; 1206–1405) was the largest contiguous empire in history and for sometime was the most feared in Eurasia. ... Temüjin is proclaimed Genghis Khan of the Mongol people, founding the Mongol Empire Qutb ud-Din proclaims the Mameluk dynasty in India, the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. ... Events May 29 - Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, meets Archbishop Richard Scrope of York and Earl of Norfolk Thomas Mowbray in Shipton Moor, tricks them to send their rebellious army home and then imprisons them June 8 - Archbishop Richard Scrope of York and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk, executed in... For the language spoken by this ethnic group, see Uyghur language. ...

In the 1298 book Zao Huozi Yinshufa (造活字印书法/造活字印書法) of the Chinese official Wang Zhen, there is mention of tin movable type, but this was largely experimental.^[17] It was not until the In Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD) that metal movable type was successfully employed, and invented separately from Korea. Successful use of metal movable type in China was first employed by Hua Sui in 1490 AD with his bronze type.^[18] Wáng ZhÄ“n (王禎) (fl. ... This article is about the metallic chemical element. ... For other uses, see Ming. ... Hua Sui (1439-1513 AD) was a Chinese scholar and printer of Wuxi, Jiangsu province during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). ...

In 1574 the massive 1000 volume encyclopedia Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era 《太平御览》/《太平御覧》 were printed with bronze moveable type. Year 1574 was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. ... The Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era (Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ) is a massive encyclopedia compiled by a number of officers commissioned by the imperial court of the Song Dynasty with the lead editor being Li Fang from 977 to 983 during the era of Taiping Xingguo. ...

In1725，the Qing Dynasty government made 250,000 bronze movable type characters and printed 64 sets of the encyclopedic Gujin Tushu Jicheng Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times 《古今图书集成》/《古今圖書集成》. Each set consisted of 5040 volumes, making a total of 322,560 volumes printed using movable type. Events February 8 - Catherine I became empress of Russia February 20 - The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony. ... Flag (1890-1912) Anthem Gong Jinou (1911) Qing China at its greatest extent. ... The Gujin tushu jicheng (古今圖書集成, Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times) is a vast encyclopaedic work written in China during the reigns of Qing emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng, completed in 1725. ...

Metal movable type in Europe

Main article: History of western typography

Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz is acknowledged as the first to invent a metal movable type printing system in Europe. Gutenberg was a goldsmith familiar with techniques of cutting punches for making coins from moulds. Between 1436 and 1450 he developed hardware and techniques for casting letters from matrices using a device called the hand mould.^[19] Gutenberg's key invention and contribution to movable type printing in Europe, the hand mould was the first practical means of making cheap copies of letterpunches in the vast quantities needed to print complete books, making the movable type printing process a viable enterprise. A piece of cast metal type, Garamond style long s / i ligature. ... This article is about the inventor of printing in Europe; for other uses, see Guttenberg (disambiguation) and Gutenberg. ... Mainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. ... The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... A goldsmith creating a new ring A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with precious metals, usually to make jewelry. ... In traditional typography, punchcutting is the process by which matrices were made in hard metal for type founding in the early days. ... Events April - Paris is recaptured by the French End of the Hussite Wars in Bohemia. ... // March - French troops under Guy de Richemont besiege the English commander in France, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, in Caen. ... A Hand mould is a two-part mould used for casting small metal objects that could be operated by hand. ...

Gutenberg and his associates developed oil-based inks ideally suited to printing with a press on paper, and the first Latin typefaces. His method of casting type may have been different from the hand mould used in subsequent decades. Detailed analysis of the type used in his 42-line Bible has revealed irregularities in some of the characters that cannot be attributed to ink spread or type wear under the pressure of the press. Scholars conjecture that the type pieces may have been cast from a series of matrices made with a series of individual stroke punches, producing many different versions of the same glyph.^[20] It has also been suggested that the method used by Gutenberg involved using a single punch to make a mould, but the mould was such that the process of taking the type out disturbed the casting, creating variants and anomalies, and that the punch-matrix system came into use possibly around the 1470s.^[21] This raises the possibility that the development of movable type in the West may have been progressive rather than a single innovation.^[22] The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ... “Font” redirects here. ... The Gutenberg bible owned by the US Library of Congress The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, and as the Mazarin Bible) is a print of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible that was printed by its namesake, Johann Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany. ...

Gutenberg's movable type printing system spread rapidly across Europe, from the single Mainz press in 1457 to 110 presses by 1480, of which 50 were in Italy. Venice quickly became the center of typographic and printing activity. Significant were the contributions of Nicolas Jenson, Francesco Griffo, Aldus Manutius, and other printers of late 15th-century Europe. Events University of Freiburg founded. ... Events March 6 - Treaty of Toledo - Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain recognize African conquests of Afonso of Portugal and he cedes the Canary Islands to Spain Great standing on the Ugra river - Muscovy becomes independent from the Golden Horde. ... For other uses, see Venice (disambiguation). ... Nicolaus Jenson (1420 - 1480) was a French engraver, typographer and printer who did most of his work in Venice. ... Francesco Griffo (? - 1518), also called Francesco da Bologna, was a fifteenth-century Venetian punchcutter. ... Aldus Manutius (1449/50 - February 6, 1515), the Latin form of Aldo Manuzio (born Teobaldo Mannucci) was the founder of the Aldine Press. ...

Despite some conjectures (see^[11]) there is no evidence that movable type from the East ever reached Europe There have been suggested routes: the Mongolian invasion of Europe, particularly the occupation of Hungary in 1241, reached the border of Germany, where the Mongols could have brought a movable printing technique to Europe. In 1294 John of Monte Corvino was sent by the Pope to China, where he stayed until 1328. Since there were abundant contacts between China and the West the appearance of movable type in Germany over a century afterwards afterwards might conceivably not be an independent event. For the article on the development of printing in Europe, see History of western typography. ... Events April 5 - Mongols of Golden Horde under the command of Subotai defeat feudal Polish nobility, including Knights Templar, in the battle of Liegnitz April 27 - Mongols defeat Bela IV of Hungary in the battle of Sajo. ... For broader historical context, see 1290s and 13th century. ... Events Augustiner brew Munich May 1 - Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton - England recognises Scotland as an independent nation after the Wars of Scottish Independence May 12 - Nicholas V is consecrated at St Peters Basilica in Rome by the bishop of Venice. ...

Type-founding

A piece of cast metal type, Garamond style long s / i ligature. See also: Sort (typesetting).

Type-founding as practiced in Europe and the west consists of three stages. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (504x720, 132 KB)Cropped version of Source image: This is actually a long-s - i ligature piece. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (504x720, 132 KB)Cropped version of Source image: This is actually a long-s - i ligature piece. ... Various examples of Garamond There are several typefaces called Garamond. ... An italicized long s used in the word Congress in the United States Bill of Rights. ... Look up I, i in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more letterforms are written or printed as a unit. ... Diagram of a cast metal sort. ...

Punchcutting: If the glyph design includes enclosed spaces (counters), a counterpunch is made. The counter shapes are transferred in relief (cameo) onto the end of a rectangular bar of mild steel using a specialized engraving tool called a graver. The finished counterpunch is hardened by heating and quenching (tempering), or exposure to a cyanide solution (case hardening). In traditional typography, punchcutting is the process by which matrices were made in hard metal for type founding in the early days. ... 2002 Lincoln cent, obverse, proof with cameo Cameo is a method of carving, or an item of jewelry made in this manner. ... Mild steel is the most common form of steel as its price is relatively low while it provides material properties that are acceptable for many applications. ...

The counterpunch is then struck against the end of a similar rectangular steel bar—the letterpunch—to impress the counter shapes as recessed spaces (intaglio). The outer profile of the glyph is completed by scraping away with a graver the material outside the counter spaces, leaving only the stroke or lines of the glyph. Progress toward the finished design is checked by successive smoke proofs; temporal prints made from a thin coating of carbon deposited on the punch surface by a candle flame. The finished letterpunch is finally hardened to withstand the rigors of reproduction by striking. Intaglio printing. ...

One counterpunch and one letterpunch are produced for every letter or glyph making up a complete font.

Matrix: The letterpunch is used to strike a blank die of soft metal to make a negative letter mould, called a matrix. In the kind of printing which involves setting type, a matrix (often called a mat) is a mold for shaping the letters -- the mats of all the letters to go on one page are assembled, and then hot metal is poured into that matrix to make the plate to go...

Casting: The matrix is inserted into the bottom of a device called a hand mould. The mould is clamped shut and molten type metal alloy consisting mostly of lead and tin, with a small amount of antimony for hardening, is poured into a cavity from the top. When the type metal has sufficiently cooled the mould is unlocked and a rectangular block approximately 4 centimeters long, called a sort, extracted. Excess casting on the end of the sort, called the tang, is later removed to make the sort the precise height required for printing, known as "type height", approximately 0.918 inches. This article is about the metal. ... This article is about the metallic chemical element. ... This article is about the element. ... Diagram of a cast metal sort. ...

Typesetting

A case of cast metal type pieces and typeset matter in a composing stick

Modern, factory-produced moveable type was available in the late 19th century. It was held in the printing shop in a job case, a drawer about 2 inches high, a yard wide, and about two feet deep, with many small compartments for the various letters and ligatures. The most popular and accepted of the job case designs was the California Job Case, which took its name from the Pacific coast location of the foundaries that made the case popular.^[23] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2288x1520, 1820 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2288x1520, 1820 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ...

Regardless of who actually invented the case, in order to make his typesetting more efficient, the inventor arranged the compartments according to the letters' frequency of use. The more frequent letters (t, n, e, i, o, r) are arranged in a rough circle directly in front of the typesetter, while the less-frequently used letters and characters are further away. The arrangement of the letters in the California Job Case became so popular and commonly adopted that a skilled typesetter could "read" the text set by another typesetter, just by watching the positions of the compartments where the typesetter reached for his letters.

The California Job Case has three sections, with the rightmost sections containing capital letters in alphabetic order except for the "J" and "U", moved to the lowest line to help avoid confusing them with "I" and "V" respectively. The lower case letters and punctuation marks are in the left and center sections, with the numbers 1 to 8 at the top of the center section, while the ligatures (combined letters, such as "ff", "fi", "ae" etc.) are in various locations about the exterior. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Ligature (palaeography). ... For Æ, the Irish writer, see George William Russell. ...

In addition to placing the most commonly used letters in setting text in a given language in the easiest positions for the typeseter to get to, the characters' boxes varied in size depending upon the frequency of usage of the character. Thus for English the "e" box is the largest while the "j", "k", "q", "x", and "z" boxes are the smallest.

Prior to the adoption of the California Job Case, the capital letters were stored in a separate drawer or case that was located above the case that held the other letters; this is why capital letters are called "upper case" characters while the non-capitals are "lower case".

Other large compartments in the California Job Case held spacers, which are blocks of blank type used to separate words and fill out a line of type, such as em and en quads (quadrats, or spaces. A quadrat is a block of type whose face is lower than the printing letters so that it does not itself print.). An em space was the width of a capital letter "M" -- as wide as it was high -- while an en space referred to a space half the width of its height (usually the dimensions for a capital "N").

Individual letters are assembled into words and lines of text with the aid of a composing stick, and the whole assembly is tightly bound together to make up a page image called a forme, where all letter faces are exactly the same height to form a flat surface of type. The forme is mounted on a printing press, a thin coating of viscous ink is applied and impressions made on paper under great pressure in the press. "Sorts" is the term given to special characters not freely available in the typical type case, such as the "@" mark, etc. The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ...

See also

• History of western typography
• Spread of printing
• Type foundry
• Typesetting
• Odhecaton — the first sheet music printed with movable type

A piece of cast metal type, Garamond style long s / i ligature. ... The global spread of printing with movable type from its origins in Germany began with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, (c. ... A type foundry is a company that designs and/or distributes typefaces. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Frontispiece to the Odhecaton. ...

References

is the 331st day of the year (332nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Time-Life is a book, music, and video marketer, that since 2003 has been combined with catalog reseller Lillian Vernon as a subsidiary of Direct Holdings Worldwide, and is no longer owned by its former parent Time Warner. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Literature

• Nesbitt, Alexander The History and Technique of Lettering (c) 1957, Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0486402819 , Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 57-13116. The Dover edition is an abridged and corrected republication of the work originally published in 1950 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. under the title Lettering: The History and Technique of Lettering as Design.

• The classic manual of hand-press technology is

Moxon, Joseph (1683–84), Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing (ed. Herbert Davies & Harry Carter. New York: Dover Publications, 1962, reprint ed.)

v • d • e Typography terminology
Page	Pagination · Recto and verso · Margin · Column · Canons of page construction
Paragraph	Widows and orphans · Leading · River · Baseline · Median · Alignment · Justification
Character	Ligature · Letter-spacing · Kerning · Majuscule · Minuscule · Initial · x-height · Ascender · Descender · Diacritics · Counter · Subscript and superscript
Style	Serif · Italic · Slab serif · Sans-serif · Blackletter · Script · Dingbat
Punctuation	Hanging punctuation · Hyphenation · Curly quotes · En dash · Em dash
Typesetting	Type design · Type foundry · Movable type · Calligraphy · Phototypesetting · Letterpress · Typeface · Font · Computer font · Point · Pica · Cicero · Agate · Em · En · Lorem ipsum · Hamburgefonts · Punchcutting · Pangram
Digital typography	Font formats · Typesetting software · Character encoding · Rasterization · Hinting