By: L. Jonah Khongsai
Introduction
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing. The history of printing could be traced back to the duplication of images by the use of round "cylinder seals" for rolling an impress onto clay tablets goes back to early Mesopotamian civilization before 3000 B.C., where they are the most common works of art to survive, and feature complex and beautiful images. The earliest form of printing was woodblock printing, with existing examples from China dating to before 220 A.D. and Egypt to the 4th century. Today, tremendous development is visible due to the advance of scientific and technological inventions. In this essay, attempt will be made to bring out the evolution of print technology from the early stages to the present conditions.
(1) Woodblock Printing (200 A.D.)
Block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia both as a method of printing on textiles and later, under the influence of Buddhism, on paper. It originated in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 A.D. and Egypt to the 4th century.[1] Ukiyo-e is the best known type of Japanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block-books produced mainly in the fifteenth century.[2]
(a) In East Asia: The earliest surviving woodblock printed fragments are from China and are of silk printed with flowers in three colours from the Han Dynasty (before 220 AD),and the earliest example of woodblock printing on paper appeared in the mid 7th century in China. The oldest wood-block printed book is the Diamond Sutra, translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva in the fifth century. It carries a date on 'the 13th day of the fourth moon of the ninth year of the Xiantong era (i.e. 11 May 868). A number printed dharaṇi-s, however, predate the Diamond Sutra by about two hundred years.[3] By the 10th century, 400,000 copies of some sutras and pictures were printed and the Confucian classics. A skilled printer could print up to 2,000 double-page sheets per day.[4] Printing spread early to Korea and Japan who also used Chinese logograms but the techniques were also used in Turpan and Vietnam using a number of other scripts.
In Buddhism, great merit is thought to accrue from copying and preserving texts, the fourth-century master, listing the copying of scripture as the first of ten essential religious practices. The importance of perpetuating texts is set out with special force in the larger Sukhavativyuha Sutra which not only urges the devout to hear, learn, remember and study the text but to obtain a good copy and to preserve it. This ‘cult of the book’ led to techniques for reproducing texts in great numbers, especially the short charms known as dharaṇi-s. Stamps were carved for printing these prayers on clay tablets from at least the seventh century, the date of the oldest surviving examples. Especially popular was the Pratityasamutpada Gatha, a short verse text summing up Nagarjuna's philosophy of causal genesis or dependent origination. Nagarjuna lived in the early centuries of the current era and the Buddhist Creed, as the Gatha is frequently called, was printed on clay tablets in huge numbers from the sixth century. This tradition was transmitted to China and Tibet with Buddhism. Established opinion holds that paper - specifically, Kurasani paper - was introduced to India in the eighth century by Arabs who had learnt the art from Chinese prisoners at Samarkand. Another view is of a Nepal-route between the seventh and ninth centuries. The indigenous methods of paper manufacture in the states of Maharashtra and Bihar were noted by many in the centuries that followed.[5]
(b) In the Middle East: The earliest Egyptian printed cloth, in contrast, dates from a slightly later time, about the fourth century. The technology of printing on cloth in China was adapted to paper under the influence of Buddhism which mandated the circulation of standard translations over a wide area, as well as the production of multiple copies of key texts for religious reasons.[6] Woodblock printing on cloth appeared in Roman Egypt by the 4th century. Block printing, called tarsh in Arabic was developed in Arabic Egypt during the 9th-10th centuries, mostly for prayers and amulets. There is some evidence to suggest that the print blocks were made from non-wood materials, possibly tin, lead, or clay. However, the techniques employed are uncertain and they appear to have had very little influence outside of the Muslim world. Though Europe adopted woodblock printing from the Muslim world, initially for fabric, the technique of metal block printing remained unknown in Europe. Block printing later went out of use in Islamic Central Asia after movable type printing was introduced from China.[7]
(c) In Europe: Block printing was long practised in Christian Europe as a method for printing on cloth, where it was common by 1300 A.D. Images printed on cloth for religious purposes could be quite large and elaborate, and when paper became relatively easily available, around 1400, the medium transferred very quickly to small woodcut religious images and playing cards printed on paper. These prints were produced in very large numbers from about 1425 onwards.
Around the mid-century, block-books, woodcut books with both text and images, usually carved in the same block, emerged as a cheaper alternative to manuscripts and books printed with movable type. These were all short heavily illustrated works, the bestsellers of the day, repeated in many different block-book versions: the Ars Moriendi and the Biblia Pauperum were the most common.[8] There is still some controversy among scholars as to whether their introduction preceded or, the majority view, followed the introduction of movable type, with the range of estimated dates being between about 1440–1460.[9] Most block-books before about 1480 were printed on only one side of the paper-if they were printed by rubbing it would be difficult to print on both sides without damaging the first one to be printed.
(2) Movable Type (1040)
Movable type is the system of printing and typography using movable pieces of metal type, made by casting from matrices struck by letterpunches. Movable type allowed for much more flexible processes than hand copying or block printing do. Around 1040 A.D., the first known movable type system was created in China by Bi Sheng out of porcelain. Sheng used clay type, which broke easily. At the beginning of 12th century copper movable type printing originated in China. It was used in large scale printing of paper money issued by the Northern Song dynasty. But around 1230, Koreans invented a metal type movable printing. The Jikji, published in 1377, is the earliest known metal printed book. Type-casting was used, adapted from the method of casting coins. The character was cut in beech wood, which was then pressed into soft clay to form a mould and bronze poured into the mould and the type was finally polished.[10]
Although the Chinese were engaged in printing before, it is traditionally summarized that development of European movable type printing technology around 1439 by Johannes Gutenberg, of the German city of Mainz, and in just over a decade, the European age of printing began, as associated with “invention” of printing because he brought the various printing technologies together in a way that made quality reproduction of books and pamphlets possible with greater speed and lower cost.[11]
Compared to woodblock printing, movable type page-setting was quicker and more durable. The metal type pieces were more durable and the lettering was more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type, and printing presses. Within a year of printing the Gutenberg Bible, Gutenberg also published the first coloured prints. These rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. Today, practically all movable type printing ultimately derives from Gutenberg's movable type printing, which is often regarded as the most important invention of the second millennium.
The invention of the printing press revolutionized communication and book production leading to the spread of knowledge. Rapidly, printing spread from Germany by emigrating German printers, but also by foreign apprentices returning home. A printing press was built in Venice in 1469, and by 1500 the city had 417 printers. In 1470 Johann Heynlin set up a printing press in Paris. In 1473 Kasper Straube published the Almanach cracoviense ad annum 1474 in Kraków. Dirk Martens set up a printing press in Aalst (Flanders) in 1473. He printed a book about the two lovers of Enea Piccolomini who became pope Pius II. In 1476 a printing press was set up in England by William Caxton. Belarusian Francysk Skaryna printed the first book in Slavic language on August 6, 1517. The Italian Juan Pablos set up an imported press in Mexico City in 1539. The first printing press in Southeast Asia was set up in the Philippines by the Spanish in 1593. The Rev. Jose Glover brought the first printing press to England's American colonies in 1638, but died on the voyage, so his widow, Elizabeth Harris Glover, established the printing house, which was run by Stephen Day and became The Cambridge Press.
The Gutenberg press was much more efficient than manual copying and still was largely unchanged in the eras of John Baskerville and Giambattista Bodoni, over 300 years later. By 1800, Lord Stanhope had constructed a press completely from cast iron, reducing the force required by 90% while doubling the size of the printed area. While Stanhope's "mechanical theory" had improved the efficiency of the press, it still was only capable of 250 sheets per hour. German printer Friedrich Koenig would be the first to design a non-manpowered machine-using steam. Having moved to London in 1804, Koenig soon met Thomas Bensley and secured financial support for his project in 1807. Patented in 1810, Koenig had designed a steam press "much like a hand press connected to a steam engine." The first production trial of this model occurred in April 1811.[12]
(3) Stencil (1450)
A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to repeatedly and rapidly produce the same letters or design. The design produced with a stencil is also called a stencil. The context in which stencil is used makes clear which meaning is intended. Although aerosol or painting stencils can be made for one-time use, typically they are made to be reusable. To be reusable, they must remain intact after a design is produced and the stencil is removed from the work surface. With some designs, this is done by connecting stencil islands (sections of material that are inside cut-out "holes" in the stencil) to other parts of the stencil with bridges (narrow sections of material that are not cut out).[13]
In Europe, from about 1450 they were very commonly used to colour old master prints printed in black and white, usually woodcuts. This was especially the case with playing-cards, which continued to be coloured by stencil long after most other subjects for prints were left in black and white. Stencils may have been used to colour cloth for a very long time; the technique probably reached its peak of sophistication in Katazome and other techniques used on silks for clothes during the Edo period in Japan (1603-1868). Stenciling back in the 27th century BC was different. They used colour from plants and flowers such as indigo (which extracts blue). Stencils were used for mass publications, as the type didn't have to be hand-written.[14]
(4) The printing press (1450)
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. Typically used for texts, the invention and spread of the printing press are widely regarded as the most influential events in the second millennium A.D., revolutionizing the way people conceive and describe the world they live in, and ushering in the period of modernity.
Johannes Gutenberg's work on the printing press began in approximately 1436 when he partnered with Andreas Dritzehen, owner of a paper mill – a man he had previously instructed in gem-cutting. It was not until a 1439 lawsuit against Gutenberg that official record exists; witness’s testimony discussed type, an inventory of metals (including lead) and his type mold. Compared to woodblock printing, movable type page setting and printing using a press was faster and more durable. The metal type pieces were sturdier and the lettering more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type, and printing presses rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. Today, practically all movable type printing ultimately derives from Gutenberg's movable type printing, which is often regarded as the most important invention of the second millennium.[15]
(5) Intaglio Printing
Intaglio is a family of print-making techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, known as the matrix or plate. Normally, copper or zinc plates are used as a surface, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or mezzotint. Collographs may also be printed as intaglio plates. To print an intaglio plate the surface is covered in thick ink and then rubbed with tarlatan cloth to remove most of the excess. The final smooth wipe is usually done by hand, sometimes with the aid of newspaper or old public phone book pages, leaving ink only in the incisions. A damp piece of paper is placed on top and the plate and paper are run through a printing press that, through pressure, transfers the ink from the recesses of the plate to the paper. The printing is used for long, high-quality print runs such as magazines, mail-order catalogues, packaging, and printing onto fabric and wallpaper. It is also used for printing postage stamps and decorative plastic laminates, such as kitchen worktops.[16] There are five main Intaglio printing methods such as, Gravure, engraving, Etching (ca. 1500) Mezzotint (1642), Aquatint (1768).[17]
(6) Lithography (1796)
Lithography is a printing process invented by Bavarian author Aloys Senefelder in 1796, for printing on a smooth surface by using chemical processes to create an image. For instance, the positive part of an image would be a hydrophobic chemical, while the negative image would be water. Thus, when the plate is introduced to a compatible ink and water mixture, the ink will adhere to the positive image and the water will clean the negative image. This allows for a relatively flat print plate which allows for much longer runs than the older physical methods of imaging (e.g., embossing or engraving). High-volume lithography is used today to produce posters, maps, books, newspapers, and packaging — just about any smooth, mass-produced item with print and graphics on it. Most books, indeed all types of high-volume text, are now printed using offset lithography.[18]
In offset lithography, which depends on photographic processes, flexible aluminium, polyester, Mylar or paper printing plates are used in place of stone tablets. Modern printing plates have a brushed or roughened texture and are covered with a photosensitive emulsion. A photographic negative of the desired image is placed in contact with the emulsion and the plate is exposed to ultraviolet light. After development, the emulsion shows a reverse of the negative image, which is thus a duplicate of the original (positive) image. The image on the plate emulsion can also be created through direct laser imaging in a CTP (Computer-To-Plate) device called a plate-setter. The positive image is the emulsion that remains after imaging. For many years, chemicals have been used to remove the non-image emulsion, but now plates are available that do not require chemical processing.[19]
(7) Chromolithography (1837)
It is a method for making multi-colour prints. This type of colour printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and it includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to reproduce photographs, the term photochrom is frequently used. Lithographers sought to find a way to print on flat surfaces with the use of chemicals instead of relief or intaglio printing.
Alois Senefelder, the inventor of lithography, introduced the subject of coloured lithography in his 1818 Vollstaendiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerey (A Complete Course of Lithography), where he told of his plans to print using colour and explained the colours he wished to be able to print someday. Although Senefelder recorded plans for chromolithography, printers in other countries, such as France and England, were also trying to find a new way to print in colour. Godefroy Engelmann of Mulhouse in France was awarded a patent on chromolithography in July 1837. Chromolithography became the most successful of several methods of colour printing developed by the 19th century; other methods were developed by printers such as Jacob Christoph Le Blon, George Baxter and Edmund Evans, and mostly relied on using several woodblocks with the colours. Hand-colouring also remained important; elements of the official British Ordnance Survey maps were coloured by hand by boys until 1875.[20] The initial technique involved the use of multiple lithographic stones, one for each colour, and was still extremely expensive when done for the best quality results. Depending on the number of colours present, a chromolithograph could take months to produce, by very skilled workers. However, much cheaper prints could be produced by simplifying both the number of colours used, and the refinement of the detail in the image. Cheaper images, like advertisements, relied heavily on an initial black print (not always a lithograph), on which colours were then overprinted. To make an expensive reproduction print as what was once referred to as a “’chromo’”, a lithographer, with a finished painting in front of him, gradually created and corrected the many stones using proofs to look as much as possible like the painting in front of him, sometimes using dozens of layers.
(8) Rotary press (1843)
A rotary printing press is a printing press in which the impressions are curved around a cylinder so that the printing can be done on long continuous rolls of paper, cardboard, plastic, or a large number of other substrates. Substrates can be sheet feed or unwound on a continuous roll through the press to be printed and further modified if required (e.g. die cut, overprint varnished, embossed). Rotary drum printing was invented by Richard March Hoe in 1843, perfected in 1846, and patented in 1847, and then significantly improved by William Bullock in 1863.[21] Today, there are three main types of rotary presses; offset commonly known as web offset, rotogravure, and flexo (short for flexography). While the three types use cylinders to print, they vary in their method.
Across the world, over 45 trillion pages (2005 figure) are printed annually. In 2006 there were approximately 30,700 printing companies in the United States, accounting for $112 billion, according to the 2006 U.S. Industry & Market Outlook by Barnes Reports. Print jobs that move through the Internet made up 12.5% of the total U.S. printing market last year, according to research firm Info-Trend/CAP Ventures.[22]
(9) Hot Metal Typesetting (1886)
In printing and typography, hot metal typesetting (also called mechanical typesetting, hot lead typesetting, hot metal, and hot type) refers to 19th-century technologies for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mold that has the shape of one or more glyphs. The resulting sorts and slugs are later used to press ink onto paper.
Two different approaches to mechanising typesetting were independently developed in the late 19th century. One, known as the Monotype composition caster system, produced texts with the aid of perforated paper-ribbons, all characters are cast separate. These machines could produce texts also in "large-composition" up to 36 point. The Super-caster was another machine produced by Monotype, designed to produce single type, up to 72 point. Of this system there have been at least 5 different enterprises such as Linotype, Intertype Corporation, Typograph, Monoline and Ludlow Typograph.[23]
(10) Offset Printing Press (1875)
Offset printing is a widely used printing technique where the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, the offset technique employs a flat (planographic) image carrier on which the image to be printed obtains ink from ink rollers, while the non-printing area attracts a film of water (called "fountain solution"), keeping the non-printing areas ink-free. The offset printing technique is famous because of the higher printing quality and large volume printing.[24]
Development of the offset press came in two versions: in 1875 by Robert Barclay of England for printing on tin, and in 1903 by Ira Washington Rubel of the United States for printer on paper.
(11) Mimeograph (1890)
The stencil duplicator or mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to ‘mimeo’) is a low-cost printing press that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. Along with spirit duplicators and hectographs, mimeographs were for many decades used to print short-run office work, classroom materials, and church bulletins. They also were critical to the development of early fanzines because their low cost and availability enabled publication of amateur writings. These technologies began to be supplanted by photocopying and cheap offset printing in the late 1960s.
Thomas Edison received US patent 180,857 for "Autographic Printing" on August 8, 1876. The patent covered the electric pen, used for making the stencil, and the flatbed duplicating press. In 1880 Edison obtained a further patent, US 224,665: "Method of Preparing Autographic Stencils for Printing", which covered the making of stencils using a file plate, a grooved metal plate on which the stencil was placed which perforated the stencil when written on with a blunt metal stylus. The word "mimeograph" was first used by Albert Blake Dick when he licensed Edison's patents in 1887. Over time, the term became generic and is now an example of a genericized trademark. ("Roneograph," also "Roneo machine," was another trademark used for mimeograph machines, the name being a contraction of Rotary Neostyle). [25]
(12) Hectograph (19th Century)
The hectograph or gelatin duplicator or jellygraph is a printing process which involves transfer of an original, prepared with special inks, to a pan of gelatinor a gelatin pad pulled tight on a metal frame.
The special aniline dyes for making the master copy came in the form of ink or in pens, pencils, carbon paper and even typewriter ribbon. Hectograph pencils and pens are sometimes still available. Various other inks have been found usable to varying degrees in the process; master sheets for spirit duplicators have also been pressed into service. Unlike a spirit duplicator master, a hectograph master is not a mirror image. Thus, when using a spirit duplicator master with a hectograph, one writes on the back of the purple sheet, using it like carbon paper to produce an image on the white sheet, rather than writing on the front of the white sheet to produce a mirror image on its back.
Hectography, requiring limited technology and leaving few traces behind, has been deemed useful both in low-technology environments and in clandestine circumstances where discretion was necessary. In the earlier 20th Century, the process lent itself to small runs of school classroom test papers, church newsletters and science fiction fanzines. Prisoners-of-war at Stalag Luft III (the scene of The Great Escape) and at Colditz Castle during World War II used an improvised hectograph to reproduce documents for a planned escape attempt.
(13) Screen Printing (1907)
Screen printing has its origins in simple stencilling, most notably of the Japanese form (Katazome), used who cut banana leaves and inserted ink through the design holes on textiles, mostly for clothing. This was taken up in France. The modern screen printing process originated from patents taken out by Samuel Simon in 1907 in England. This idea was then adopted in San Francisco, California, by John Pilsworth in 1914 who used screen printing to form multi-colour prints in a subtractive mode, differing from screen printing as it is done today.[26]
Screen printing is also a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. It is also known as silkscreen, serigraphy, and serigraph printing.[27] This process is commonly used to print words or designs on such paper items as signs, greeting cards, posters and banners, as well as on metal, glass, plastic or textile.[28]
(14) Spirit Duplicator (1923)
A spirit duplicator (also referred to as a Ditto machine in the United States or Banda machine in the United Kingdom) was a low-volume printing method used mainly by schools and churches. It was also used by members of science fiction fandom and early comic book fandom to produce fanzines. Sheets printed on such a machine were sometimes called ditto sheets, or just dittos in the U. S. (an example of a genericized trademark). The term "spirit duplicator" refers to the alcohols which were a major component of the solvents used as "inks" in these machines. They are sometimes confused with the mimeograph, which is actually a different technology.
The spirit duplicator was invented in 1923 by Wilhelm Ritzerfeld. The best-known manufacturer in the United States and the world was Ditto Corporation of Illinois, while copiers available in the United Kingdom were commonly manufactured by the Block & Anderson Company, under their "Banda" brand. In both cases the trademark became a generic name for both the copiers and the process in their respective markets.[29]
(15) Flexography
Flexography or "surface printing", often abbreviated to "flexo", is a method of printing most commonly used for packaging such as, labels, tape, bags, boxes, banners, and so on. A flexo print is achieved by creating a mirrored master of the required image as a 3D relief in a rubber or polymer material. A measured amount of ink is deposited upon the surface of the printing plate (or printing cylinder) using an anilox roll. The print surface then rotates, contacting the print material which transfers the ink. Originally flexo printing was basic in quality. Labels requiring high quality have generally been printed Offset until recently. In the last few years great advances have been made to the quality of flexo printing presses. The greatest advances though have been in the area of Photopolymer Printing Plates, including improvements to the plate material and the method of plate creation - usually photographic exposures followed by chemical etch, though also by direct laser engraving.
(16) Dye-Sublimation Printer (1957)
A dye-sublimation printer (or dye-sub printer) is a computer printer which employs a printing process that uses heat to transfer dye to a medium such as a plastic card, printer paper or poster paper. The process is usually to lay one colour at a time using a ribbon that has colour panels. Most dye-sublimation printers use CMYO colours which differs from the more recognised CMYK colours in that the black dye is eliminated in favour of a clear over coating. This over coating (which has numerous names depending on the manufacturer) is effectively a thin laminate which protects the print from discoloration from UV light and the air while also rendering the print water-resistant.[30] Many consumer and professional dye-sublimation printers are designed and used for producing photographic prints.
(17) Phototypesetting (1960s)
Phototypesetting was a method of setting type, rendered obsolete with the popularity of the personal computer and desktop publishing software that uses a photographic process to generate columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper. Typesetters used a machine called a phototypesetter, which would quickly project light through a film negative image of an individual character in a font, through a lens that would magnify or reduce the size of the character onto film, which would collect on a spool in a light-tight canister. The film would then be fed into a processor, a machine that would pull the film through two or three baths of chemicals, where it would emerge ready for paste up.[31]
(18) Photocopier (1960s)
Xerographic office photocopying was introduced by Xerox in the 1960s, and over the following 20 years it gradually replaced copies made by Verifax, Photostat, carbon paper, mimeograph machines, and other duplicating machines. The prevalence of its use is one of the factors that prevented the development of the paperless office heralded early in the digital revolution.[32]
(19) Dot Matrix Printer (1964)
A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer refers to a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like a typewriter. Unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are drawn out of a dot matrix, and thus, varied fonts and arbitrary graphics can be produced. Because the printing involves mechanical pressure, these printers can create carbon copies and carbonless copies.
Each dot is produced by a tiny metal rod, also called a "wire" or "pin", which is driven forward by the power of a tiny electromagnet or solenoid either directly or through small levers (pawls). Facing the ribbon and the paper is a small guide plate (often made of an artificial jewel such as sapphire or ruby) pierced with holes to serve as guides for the pins. The moving portion of the printer is called the print head, and when running the printer as a generic text device generally prints one line of text at a time. Most dot matrix printers have a single vertical line of dot-making equipment on their print heads; others have a few interleaved rows in order to improve dot density.[33]
(20) Laser Printer (1969)
A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers (MFPs), laser printers employ a xerographic printing process, but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer's photo-receptor.
The laser printer, based on a modified xerographic copier, was invented at Xerox in 1969 by researcher Gary Starkweather, who had a fully functional networked printer system working by 1971. Laser printing eventually became a multibillion-dollar business for Xerox. The first commercial implementation of a laser printer was the IBM model-3800 in 1976, used for high-volume printing of documents such as invoices and mailing labels. It is often cited as "taking up a whole room," implying that it was a primitive version of the later familiar device used with a personal computer. While large, it was designed for an entirely different purpose. Many 3800s are still in use. The first laser printer designed for use with an individual computer was released with the Xerox Star 8010 in 1981. Although it was innovative, the Star was an expensive ($17,000) system that was only purchased by a small number of laboratories and institutions. After personal computers became more widespread, the first laser printer intended for a mass market was the HP LaserJet 8ppm, released in 1984, using a Canon engine controlled by HP software. The HP LaserJet printer was quickly followed by other laser printers from Brother Industries, IBM, and others.[34]
(21) Thermal Printer (ca. 1972)
A thermal printer (or direct thermal printer) produces a printed image by selectively heating coated thermo-chromic paper, or thermal paper as it is commonly known, when the paper passes over the thermal print head. The coating turns black in the areas where it is heated, producing an image.[35] Two-colour direct thermal printers can print both black and an additional colour (often red) by applying heat at two different temperatures. Thermal transfer printing is a related method that uses a heat-sensitive ribbon instead of heat-sensitive paper.[36]
(22) Inkjet Printer (1976)
An inkjet printer is a type of computer printer that creates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used type of printer and range from small inexpensive consumer models to very large professional machines that can cost up to thousands of dollars.
The concept of inkjet printing originated in the 19th century, and the technology was first extensively developed in the early 1950s. Starting in the late 1970s inkjet printers that could reproduce digital images generated by computers were developed, mainly by Epson, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Canon. In the worldwide consumer market, four manufacturers account for the majority of inkjet printer sales: Canon, HP, Epson, and Lexmark, a 1991 spin-off from IBM.[37].
(23) Stereolithography (1986)
Stereolithography (SL) is an additive manufacturing technology for producing models, prototypes, patterns, and in some cases, production parts. It is also an additive manufacturing process using a vat of liquid UV-curable photopolymer "resin" and a UV laser to build parts a layer at a time. On each layer, the laser beam traces a part cross-section pattern on the surface of the liquid resin. Exposure to the UV laser light cures, solidifies the pattern traced on the resin and adheres it to the layer below.
After a pattern has been traced, the SLA's elevator platform descends by a single layer thickness, typically 0.05 mm to 0.15 mm (0.002" to 0.006"). Then, a resin-filled blade sweeps across the part cross section, re-coating it with fresh material. On this new liquid surface, the subsequent layer pattern is traced, adhering to the previous layer. A complete 3-D part is formed by this process. After building, parts are cleaned of excess resin by immersion in a chemical bath and then cured in a UV oven. This process is a more expensive form of rapid prototyping.[38]
(24) Digital Press (1993)
Digital printing is the reproduction of digital images on a physical surface, such as common or photographic paper or paperboard-coverstock, film, cloth, plastic, vinyl, magnets, labels, etc. Digital printing accounts for approximately 9% of the 45 trillion pages printed annually (2005 figure) around the world. Printing at home or in an office or engineering environment is subdivided into two such as: (a) small format (up to ledger size paper sheets), as used in business offices and libraries; (a) wide format (up to 3' or 914mm wide rolls of paper), as used in drafting and design establishments.[39]
Professional digital printing (using toner) primarily uses an electrical charge to transfer toner or liquid ink to the substrate it is printed on. Digital print quality has steadily improved from early colour and black & white copiers to sophisticated colour digital presses like the Xerox iGen3, the Kodak Nexpress, the HP Indigo Digital Press series and the InfoPrint 5000. The iGen3 and Nexpress use toner particles and the Indigo uses liquid ink. The InfoPrint 5000 is a full-colour, continuous forms inkjet drop-on-demand printing system. All handle variable data and rival offset in quality. Digital offset presses are also called direct imaging presses, although these presses can receive computer files and automatically turn them into print-ready plates, they cannot insert variable data.[40]
The main difference between digital printing and traditional methods such as lithography, flexography, gravure, or letterpress is that no printing plates are used, resulting in a quicker and less expensive turnaround time. The most popular methods include inkjet or laser printers that deposit pigment or toner onto a wide variety of substrates including paper, photo paper, canvas, glass, metal, marble and other substances.
(25) Frescography (1998)
Frescography is a method for reproduction/creation of murals using digital printing methods. The frescography is based on digitally cut-out motifs which are stored in a database. CAM software programs then allow entering the measurements of a wall or ceiling to create a mural design with low resolution motifs. Since architectural elements such as beams, windows or doors can be integrated, the design will result in an accurately and tailor-fit wall mural. Once a design is finished, the low resolution motifs are converted into the original high resolution images and are printed on canvas by Wide-format printers. The canvas then can be applied to the wall in a wall-paperhanging like procedure and will then look like on-site created mural.[41]
(26) 3D Printing (ca. 2003)
3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material. 3D printers are generally faster, more affordable, and easier to use than other additive manufacturing technologies. However, the term 3D printing is increasingly being used to describe all additive manufacturing processes. 3D printers offer product developers the ability to print parts and assemblies made of several materials with different mechanical and physical properties, often in a single build process. Advanced 3D printing technologies yield models that can serve as product prototypes.
Since 2003 there has been large growth in the sale of 3D printers. Additionally, the cost of 3D printers has gone down. The technology also finds use in the fields of jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, and many others.[42]
Conclusion
A number of dramatic technological innovations have since added a great deal of character and dimension to the place of print in culture. These innovations prove to signal another major transformation in the use, influence and character of human communication. Printing streamlined the process of communication, and contributed to the development of commerce, law, religion and culture. Moreover, the evolution of print technologies make easier and reduce the cost of reproducing multiple copies of documents, fabrics, wall papers and so on. Therefore, for every achievement and for every good sophisticated printing asset available in the present world, to acknowledge the people who had earnestly laid down the foundation is the best to offer by the people who now live abundantly under the traces of those achievement in this internet era.
[1] “Printing”. Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011).
[2] Tejas Patni, ed., Encyclopaedia of Informatics and Developmental Communication (New Delhi: Dominant Publishers and Distributors, 2011), 7.
[3] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[4] “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011).
[5] In the former state, a wooden block was fixed at the centre of an 8-foot diameter shallow well. Over several days, bark, hay, rags, tents and gunny bags were moistened or soaked as per requirement. These were then placed on the central wood and beaten to a pulp with a beater. This pulp was subsequently placed in limewater (chunamed) reservoirs with a little water, and gum of the babul tree was dissolved into the mixture. Bamboo moulds were inserted and the material that adhered was lifted out and dried to form paper. In Bihar, the materials were beaten with a wooden instrument called a dhenki, and then bleached, using soda water. The total was washed, next, and the procedure repeated six times. After this, the pulp was placed in a water-containing cistern and well-stirred. An hour later, the material was cut up into sheets of paper. See “Print Technology,” India’s Heritage - Science, http://www.indiaheritage.org/science/paper.htm (11 December 2011).
[6] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[7] “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011).
[8] Three episodes from the best-known block-book is the Biblia Pauperum (Poor Man’s Bible), illustrating typological correspondences between the Old and New Testaments: Eve and the Serpent, the Annunciation, Gideon’s miracle block-books, where both text and images are cut on blocks, appeared in Europe in the 1460s as a cheaper alternative to books printed by movable type. See Tejas Patni, ed., Encyclopaedia of Informatics and Developmental Communication (New Delhi: Dominant Publishers and Distributors, 2011), 8.
[9] “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011).
[10] B.K. Chaturvedi and S.K. Mittal, Mass Communication: Principles and Practices, vol. I (New Delhi: Global Vision Publishing House, 2004), 378; “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011).
[11] Around 1439-1450, Johannes Gutenberg introduced what is regarded as an invention of movable type in Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould (also known as Flat-bed Printing Press). Gutenberg was the first to create his type pieces from an alloy of lead, tin and antimony. Even after the evolution of high-speed rotary presses and, still later, electronic photo-offset techniques that rendered raised metal printing obsolete, Gutenberg’s basic concepts survived and the same components still used today. Today some specialized printing is still performed on flatbed presses modelled after Gutenberg’s. See Rajeev Bhatnagar, Print Media and Broadcast Journalism (Delhi: Indian Publishers Distributors, 2001), 35-36.
[12] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[13] Stencil technique in visual art is also referred to as pochoir. A related technique (which has found applicability in some surrealist compositions) is aerography, in which spray-painting is done around a three-dimensional object to create a negative of the object instead of a positive of a stencil design. This technique was used in cave paintings dating to 10,000 BC, where human hands were used in painting hand print outlines among paintings of animals and other objects. The artist sprayed pigment around his hand by using a hollow bone, blown by mouth to direct a stream of pigment.
[14] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[15] The invention of printing press has tremendously effected the world in the field of literature that printed book quickly becomes a regular object in the world. By 1501 there were 1000 printing shops in Europe, which had produced 35,000 titles and 20 million copies. See “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011).
[16] “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011).
[17] B.N. Ahuja, S.S. Chhabra, Communications (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) (New Delhi: Surjeet Publications,1989), 148.
[18] B.K. Chaturvedi and S.K. Mittal, Mass Communication: Principles and Practices, vol. I (New Delhi: Global Vision Publishing House, 2004), 383.
[19] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[20] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[21] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[22] B.K. Chaturvedi and S.K. Mittal, Mass Communication: Principles and Practices, vol. I (New Delhi: Global Vision Publishing House, 2004), 382; “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011).
[23] “Typesetting,” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_metal_typesetting (13 December 2011).
[24] B.K. Chaturvedi and S.K. Mittal, Mass Communication: Principles and Practices, vol. I (New Delhi: Global Vision Publishing House, 2004), 380; “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011).
[25] “Mimeograph,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph (12 December 2011).
[26] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[27] B.K. Chaturvedi and S.K. Mittal, Mass Communication: Principles and Practices, vol. I (New Delhi: Global Vision Publishing House, 2004), 379; “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_printing (11December 2011).
[28] B.N. Ahuja, S.S. Chhabra, Communications (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) (New Delhi: Surjeet Publications,1989), 150.
[29] “Spirit Duplicator,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator (10 December 2011).
[30] Dye Sublimation Printer,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dye-sublimation_printer (10 December 2011).
[31] “Phototypesetting,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phototypesetting (11 December 2011).
[32] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[33] “Dot Matrix Printer,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_matrix_printer (12 December 2011).
[34] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[35] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[36] “Thermal Printer,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_printer (13 December).
[37] “Inkjet Printer,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkjet_printer (12 December 2011).
[38] “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011).
[39] Some of the more common printing technologies are: blueprint (and related chemical technologies); daisy wheel (where pre-formed characters are applied individually); dot-matrix (which produces arbitrary patterns of dots with an array of printing studs); line printing (where pre-formed characters are applied to the paper by lines); heat transfer (like early fax machines or modern receipt printers that apply heat to special paper, which turns black to form the printed image); inkjet (including bubble-jet – where ink is sprayed onto the paper to create the desired image); electro-photography (where toner is attracted to a charged image and then developed); laser (a type of xerography where the charged image is written pixel by pixel by a laser); solid ink printer (where cubes of ink are melted to make ink or liquid toner).
[40] Digital printing can be differentiated from litho, flexography, gravure or letterpress printing in many ways, some of which are: (a) Every impression made onto the paper can be different, as opposed to making several hundred or thousand impressions of the same image from one set of printing plates, as in traditional methods; (b) The Ink or Toner does not absorb into the substrate, as does conventional ink, but forms a layer on the surface and may be fused to the substrate by using an inline fuser fluid with heat process (toner) or UV curing process (ink); (c) It generally requires less waste in terms of chemicals used and paper wasted in set up or make-ready (bringing the image "up to colour" and checking position); (d) It is excellent for rapid prototyping, or small print runs which means that it is more accessible to a wider range of designers and more cost effective in short runs. See “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing (12 December 2011); “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[41] “History of Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing (12 December 2011).
[42] “Printing,” Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing (14 December 2011).
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