THE HISTORY OF
PRINTING
Kyle Taveira, Cara Vedral, Angie Wang, Kahleem Wilkins, and Nancy Elharon
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Woodblock Printing
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Earliest known use:
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China before 220 C.E.
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Strongly associated with Buddhism
How it works:
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Method of printing on textiles then
later on paper
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Woodblock is carefully prepared as a
relief pattern
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The block was cut along the grain of
the wood. It is necessary only to ink
the block and bring it into firm and
even contact with the paper or cloth to
achieve an acceptable print.
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Stenciling
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Earliest known use:
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How it works:
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Caveman years in 9000 B.C.E.
Put hand on wall and blew pigments
around it
First colonists brought stenciling to
America
the method of applying a design by
brushing or sponging paint through a
cutout overlay placed on the surface
Facts:
–
Colonists couldn’t afford wallpaper so
used stenciling to decorate
3
Movable Type
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Inventor: Bi Sheng
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Made of ceramic materials in China
around 1040 C.E.
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In the 1450’s Johannes Gutenberg
made a mechanical metal movable
type printing press
Types:
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Metal Movable type
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Wooden Movable type
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Ceramic Movable type
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Rotary Printing Press
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Inventor: Richard March Hoe
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How it works:
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Originated in 1843, perfected in 1846,
patented in 1847
Prints on paper passing between a
supporting cylinder and a cylinder
containing printing plates
Facts:
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–
Paper passes through some presses at
nearly 20 miles (30 km) per hour, the
speed limited partly by the tensile
strength of the paper
Large presses can print up to 60,000
copies of 128 standard-size pages in
an hour.
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Intaglio
 First became popular in Europe
 How it works:
 Image is carved into a surface, and the
carved line or area is filled with ink, then
rolled in a press against a sheet to replicate
the image

Cons Image is reflected, have to draw backwards
 Hard to fix unwanted carvings
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Lithography
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Inventor: Alois Senefelder
–
■
Discovered in 1798 but kept secret until
1818
How it works:
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Uses the immiscibility of grease and
water
■
Ink is applied to a grease-treated image
on
the flat printing surface; nonimage
(blank)
areas, which hold moisture, repel the
lithographic ink. This inked surface is
then printed—either directly on paper, by
means of a special press , or onto a
rubber
cylinder
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Screen Printing
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Earliest known use:
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Song Dynasty in China around 9601279 C.E.
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Early 1910’s saw a change in
technique using photo-reactive
chemicals
How it works:
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mesh is used to transfer ink onto a
substrate
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Also a stencil method in which the
design is imposed on a screen
polyester or other fine mesh, with
blank aareas coated with an
impermeable substance
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Flexography
■ Use:
–
–
For printing on plastic, foil, acetate film,
brown paper, and other packaging materials
A modern version of the letterpress used for
printing on almost any substrate
■ During the 1940’s, the food and drug
administration classified aniline dyes unsafe
for food packaging
–
1951, Franklin Moss, the the president of
Mosstype Corporation, conducted a poll
among the reader’s of his journal, The
Mosstype to submit new names for the
printing process
■ Types:
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Platemaking
Mounting
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Photocopy
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Inventor: Chester Carlson
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Led to partnership of Battelle
Memorial Institute and Haloid
Later became known as Xerox
Xerox officially introduced
Photocopying in 1959
How it works:
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Uses the technology xerography
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A dry process that uses electrostatic
charges on a light sensitive
photoreceptor to first attract then
transfer toner particles onto paper in
the form of an image. Heat, pressure
or a combination of both then are
used to fuse the toner to the paper
10
Thermal Printing
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How it works:
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Uses heat and carefully applied
pressure to mark paper in patterns
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Requires heat reactive paper
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Modern thermal-sensitive paper is
stable enough to last years
Printer does not require ink so is
cheaper to operate
11
Inkjet Printing
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Inventor: Elmqvist of Siemens
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Patented by Elmqvist in 1951
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Later became popular in 1997 with the
PT-80 serial character printer
How it works:
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Uses serial printing process, where the
printer uses print heads with nozzles
arranged in vertical columns, same as
dot matrix process
***Most Commonly used today
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Digital Press
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Earliest known use:
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1993 world’s first digital colour printing
press was launced called Indigo
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Digital printing refers to methods of
printing from a digital-based image
directly to a variety of media
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Major upgrade:
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No need to replace printing plates which
got costly
Most popular methods:
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Inkjets or laser printers
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Future=
3D Printing
 Inventor: Charles W. Hull
 Mid 1980s-first 3D printer

Used stereolithography-UV laser
is shined into a vat of ultravioletsensitive photopolymer, tracing
the object to be created on its
surface
 How it works today:
 3D printed objects are achieved
using additive process where
successive layers of materials are
laid down until the entire object is
made
http://www.cnet.com/videos/how-3d-printing-willliterally-make-the-future/
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Links to Sources
http://www.pitara.com/science-for-kids/5ws-and-h/who-invented-the-photocopyingmachine/
http://inksupplyguy.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-inkjet-printer-history.html
http://www.ehow.com/about_5076389_thermalprinter.html?ref=Track2&utm_source=ask
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/dot_matrix_printer.html
http://www.ooshirts.com/guides/History-of-Screen-Printing.html
http://www.ehow.com/about_5380158_history-stenciling.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing
http://edcmktg.com/history-of-screen-printing/
https://www.printed.com/history-of-digital-print
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