PRINTING. The process of taking impres sions, generally on paper in ink, of printing types or of designs, drawings, or photographic prints, which have been previously cut, etched, drawn, or engraved on some solid surface. Printing with ink is done by three methods: (1) from a raised surface in high relief, as in type or woodcuts; (2) from a sunk or incised surface, as in cop per-plate engraving; (3) from a flat surface on stone made repellent to ink in portions by dampening the stone, as in lithography (q.v.). As the raised surface is easiest inked and im pressed, typography is found most generally use ful.
The Chinese methods of printing were prac ticed at a very ancient date. As early as B.C. 50 the Chinese had originated a method of print ing in ink on paper by means of engraved blocks, although it was not until nearly a thousand years later that printing in this manner was exten sively practiced. In A.D. 925 the principal Chi nese classics were printed for the Imperial Col lege of Peking from blocks of wood engraved in relief. The method of producing these printing blocks is described as follows: The work which is intended to be printed is first written on sheets of thin transparent paper. Each of these sheets is then pasted face downward upon a block of wood and an engraver with suitable tools cuts away the portions of the paper and block on which nothing is traced, thus leaving the char acters in relief and producing a printing-bloek. To print from these blocks, they are inked; a. sheet of paper is carefully laid on and a brush is passed over the paper, pressing it upon the inked surface and thus securing a printed im pression. By this process a separate engraved block had to be prepared for each printed sheet or page. The Chinese are also credited with hav ing used movable type as early as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and such types are now used extensively by the European missions in China for printing Chinese books and papers. The chief difficulty in using movable types for printing Chinese is due to the fact that each Chinese word requires a separate character in stead, as in the European languages, of being composed of letters or characters which are re solvable into an alphabet. The native Chinese printer to-day, when uninfluenced by European teaehing, uses the primitive printing-blocks de scribed above.
In Europe in classical and medheval times books were made by transcribing them in manu script (q.v.). About the thirteenth century, in Italy and Spain, these manuscripts began to be produced with the initial letters stamped in ink from engraved blocks of wood. This prac tice was gradually developed until printing blocks were quite commonly employed in printing images and text, generally of a religious charac ter, on paper sheets which were bound together in book form. In short, the gradual development of
printing on relief was as follows: (1) initial letters, autographs, and trade marks; (2) play ing cards: (3) figured o• ornamental textile fab rics; (4) religious pictures with and without lettering: (5) engraved words without pictures: (6) types of single letters founded in a mold.
Whether he was o• was not the first to employ movable printing types, John Gutenberg (q.v.) is usually named as the inventor who first estab lished typography on anything like a scientific basis. The claimant who seems to have the best right to contest with Gutenberg the invention of typography is Laurens Janszoon Coster (q.v.) of Haarlem, Holland, who is said to have invented types of wood about 1428. and at a later date types of metal, with which he printed several small books. Caster's types are stated to have been stolen by one of his workmen and conveyed to Mainz, Germany, where this workman intro duced typography. Among those for whom the honor of the invention is claimed are Albrecht Pfister. of Bamberg, Germany; Pamphilo Cas taldi, of Feltre, Italy; Johannes Mentel, of Strassburg, Germany; and Procopius Waldvogel, of Prague, whose claims are based on unre liable authority. None of the alleged inventors established the art or left worthy successors. It is to Gutenberg that we owe the practical establishment of typography. The facts in Gntenberg's career as a printer are meagre. There is an unsatisfactory record that he experimented with printing at Strassburg in 1439. In 1448 he had a printing office at Mainz; in 1455 he was sued by John Fust (q.v.), who was associated with him in the enterprise, for the recovery of money lent, and judgment being secured against him, Fust seized his printing house equip ment. Another printing establishment was started by Gutenberg, who operated it until his death, about 1468, in partnership with Peter Schiffer. Meanwhile Fust had continued the operation of the printing establishment founded by Gutenberg. Upon the sacking of :Mainz by the Archbishop Adolf in 1462 the pupils and workmen of these printers were scat tered and the art, which had been carefully guarded as a secret, became widely known. Printing was practiced in Rome in 1467; in Paris in 1469; in Spain in 1474; and in England in 1477. the first press in this last country being set up at Westminster Abbey by William Caxton (q.v.). The first press in the New World was established at the City of Mexico in 1540 and this was followed by one in Peru at Lima in 1584. The first press in the British colonies of North Anier iea was set up at Harvard College in 1638, and this press still continues under the name Uni versity Press.