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220
Woodblock printing practiced in China
Woodblock printing is basically creating a stamp for the page that you want and then stamping it on cloth. -
Jan 1, 1040
First known movable type system created by Bi Sheng out of porcelain
However, it is not widely used due to the massive amount of Chinese characters. -
Jan 1, 1230
Metal moveable type invented in Korea
This type system faces the same problems that Bi Sheng's did. -
Jan 1, 1300
Block printing practiced in Europe
It is mainly used for religious purposes. -
Jan 1, 1439
Johannes Gutenberg invents European-style moveable type
The Printing Press spreads quickly across Europe, eventually leading to the Renaissance. Gutenberg also invents a type of oil- based ink that is more durable than previous water-based inks. -
Friedrich Koenig patents the first steam-powered printing press
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First printing press brought to North America
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Lithography invented by Alois Senefelder
Lithography uses water and oil or wax to print an image on a smooth surface. Most mass-produced printed items (newspapers, book, etc.) are now printed using Lithography. -
Alois Senefelder introduces chromolithography
Chromolithography is a technique that utilizes several lithography prints of different colors to create a colored image. -
First commercially sold typewriter begins to be produced
The Hansen Writing Ball had its keys mounted on a large hemisphere, making it look like a ball. -
First flexography press built in Liverpool, England
Flexography is a technique now used mainly for printing food labels. -
Patent attorney Chester Carlson invents the photocopier
Carlson was arthritic, and found manually copying documents to be painful, so he invented a machine to copy them for him. -
First laser printer invented at Xerox by Gary Starkweather
It is said to have taken up an entire room. -
Dot matrix printer invented
Dot matrix printers print using a grid of small dots to create images. Due to their combination of versitality and affordability, these were the most common personal printer up to the 1990s. -
First mass-market laser printer released
The HP LaserJet 8ppm used a Canon engine controlled by HP software. -
Oldest known printed book, the Diamond Sutra, is printed
Before this, printing had been done on cloth instead of paper.
