History of typography

Before the printing press, scribes wrote out books. Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type. His first mass-produced book was the Gutenberg Bible of 1454. The process of letterpress printing was that a punch made of steel with a mirror image of the letter was struck into a piece of softer metal. Molten metal was poured into this and became type. The type was put into a matrix to form the page of text, was inked, and then was pressed into paper. This process stayed constant for centuries (Woodward). Within decades of the invention of letterpress printing, this technology spread all across Europe, with over a thousand printers setting up in over two hundred cities. Printing was the first mass medium and allowed for the spread of ideas like never before.

In the late 1800s the Industrial Revolution brought about innovations in printing technology. Rotary steam presses took the place of hand-operated ones and photoengraving took over for handmade printing plates. Line-casting helped speed up typesetting and was a labor-saver. This allowed type to be chosen, used, then recirculated back into the machine. This device made metal type obsolete. In 1892, the majority of type foundries in the US merged into a single company called American Type Founders, making it the dominant American type foundry (Woodward).

In the 1980s, PostScript became the standard for digital typesetting. This was due to its inclusion in the Apple Laserwriter printer and ability to handle graphics. Some present-day printing requires printing to film, and making printing plates from film. However, high-resolution printers are making these printing presses unnecessary.