Printing

Printing is a method for producing many copies of text and images from a single master form. The earliest known printed objects not made from paper include cylinder seals, such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The first form of printing developed from ink rubbings taken from stone tablets onto paper or cloth, a practice used in the sixth century. Later in that same century, printing by pressing an inked image onto paper, using woodblock printing, emerged. This technology was essential to the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, and it provided the foundation for the modern knowledge-based economy and the widespread sharing of learning.

**History**

**Woodblock Printing**

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images, or patterns, widely used across East Asia. It began in ancient China as a way to print on textiles and later on paper.

*In East Asia*

The earliest examples of ink-squeeze rubbings and potential stone printing blocks date from the mid-sixth century in China. Mechanical woodblock printing on paper started in the seventh century during the Tang dynasty and then spread throughout East Asia. In Nara, Japan, around 770, the *Hyakumantō Darani* was printed in large numbers and distributed to temples. In Korea, a woodblock print from the eighth century was discovered in 1966: a copy of the Buddhist *Pure Light Dharani Sutra* found in a Silla dynasty pagoda repaired in 751, though the print itself is estimated to have been made no later than 704. By the ninth century, paper printing was widespread, and the oldest surviving complete printed book is the *Diamond Sutra* from 868, found at Dunhuang. By the tenth century, hundreds of thousands of copies of sutras and images were printed, and the Confucian classics were also in print. A skilled printer could produce up to 2,000 double-page sheets daily. Printing spread early to Korea and Japan, which used Chinese characters, and also to Turpan and Vietnam using other scripts. It later reached Persia and Russia and was transmitted to Europe by around 1400, where it was used for old master prints and playing cards.

*In the Islamic World*

From 900 to 1444, wooden and tin block printing (called *ṭarsh*) was used throughout the Islamic world. Its use in tenth-century Muslim Spain marks the earliest instance of block printing in Europe. It was mostly a minority practice by street performers and tricksters known as the Banū Sāsān or Ghurabā', who mass-produced amulets and talismans with Qur'anic verses and magical symbols, keeping the process secret to make the prints appear handwritten to illiterate buyers. Over seventy of these survive, though no printing blocks. The craft reached a high technical level, with some talismans containing text only 0.1 cm high. Block printing was also used officially, for stamping Fatimid tax receipts, marking goods from the Emirate of Granada, printing Almohad state decrees, Ilkhanid paper money, and elaborate Hajj certificates. After 1436 or 1444, block printing disappears from the Islamic world without explanation. However, Egyptian Romani Ghurabā' migrating to Central Europe in the early fifteenth century may have helped transmit block printing to Europe.

*In Europe*

Block printing first reached Europe as a method for printing on cloth, common by 1300. Religious images printed on cloth could be large and detailed. When paper became widely available around 1400, the technique quickly shifted to small woodcut religious images and playing cards printed on paper. These prints were produced in huge numbers from about 1425 onward. Around the mid-fifteenth century, block-books—woodcut books with both text and images carved into the same block—emerged as a cheaper alternative to manuscripts and movable-type books. These were short, heavily illustrated works, such as the *Ars moriendi* and the *Biblia pauperum*, which were repeated in many versions. Scholars still debate whether block-books appeared before or after movable type, with most estimates placing them between about 1440 and 1460.

**Movable-Type Printing**

Movable type is a system of printing and typography using individual pieces of metal type, cast from matrices struck by letterpunches. It allowed for much more flexible processes than hand copying or block printing. Around 1040, the first known movable type system was created in China by Bi Sheng, using porcelain. His clay type broke easily, but by 1298 Wang Zhen carved a more durable type from wood. He also developed a system of revolving tables and number-association for Chinese characters, making typesetting and printing more efficient. Still, woodblock printing remained the main method in China, as it was cheaper and more efficient for printing the thousands of Chinese characters. Copper movable type printing began in China in the early twelfth century and was used for large-scale printing of paper money issued by the Northern Song dynasty. Movable type then spread further.