Modern Printing Press

The printing press, today, is a device for printing multiple copies of text onto paper, cloth, or other substances (the print medium). Pressure is applied to an inked surface which rests on the print medium, transferring the image to the medium. The most typical use of the printing press is for text, but visual images are also transferred with a printing press.
With the advent of the printing press, bookmaking became a mechanical process, leading to the mass production of printed material in an assembly line manner.
Modern printing presses are ‘typeset’ by use of a computer, with the characters to be transferred onto the medium. There are many fonts and typeset forms used; this in itself has become an art form in the printing world. Printing occurs in black and white, and also in color. Newspapers, brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, flyers and other items are produced on printing presses.
The press machines themselves come in many different models and sizes. A small business will use a press which is very different in configuration from that used by a newspaper or book publisher. Trained and skilled operators are needed to run the machinery.

The first printing press was invented in China in 1041. The earliest known printed text (868 AD), the Diamond Sutra, was prepared with the block printing method, where individual sheets of paper were manually rubbed and pressed into individually carved wooden blocks, one at a time. A new block was hand carved for each page. Early European Bibles were also printed in this manner. It was time consuming work. Books were also laboriously hand copied in European monasteries; because of the intensely time consuming labor of the task, few copies were made and they were not disseminated widely,
The printing press that we are more familiar with was invented by Johann Gutenberg in approximately 1440 to 1450. A Dutchman, Laurens Janszoon Coster, has also been credited with this invention. This press improved on the block method by using screw presses, such as is found in wine presses or olive oil presses. This method applied direct pressure onto a flat plane (platen). The Gutenberg system also encompassed a complete system through all phases, from reusable metal (durable lead, tin and antimony) characters (type) to a way of changing and inserting fresh paper rapidly. The moveable type was used in molds. Mass production of books became reality, which had previously been impossible with the block method (or hand copying before that).
Within a few short decades printing presses spread from Gutenberg’s hometown of Mainz, Germany to hundreds of cities in many European countries. The invention of the printing press and its subsequent spread throughout Europe and then the world have been called the most influential events of the second millennium, radically changing the way people thought. Information was then readily available to almost everyone. Knowledge spread rapidly. Mass communication by printed word altered society forever. Political power was challenged; religious authorities were questioned. The literacy rate rose, abolishing elite class differentiations. Education and learning were available to the middle classes. This led to an even higher demand for books. Luther’s tracts became ‘best sellers’. The literacy rate rose with the availability of material.
By the nineteenth century the hand-operated Gutenberg screw press was replaced with steam powered rotary presses. Printing grew from mass production numbers to an industrial bulk scale.
The success of early paper manufacturers was furthered by water-powered paper mills. No longer was papermaking a laborious manual task. Formulation of inks was successful, and high quality printing was the result.
Because books were now mass produced the costs dropped, making them more easily affordable and accessible to more people. Scientists spread discoveries more readily and easily, resulting in a scientific revolution. Information and ideas circulated quickly. Copyright laws and intellectual property rights came into being. Spelling and syntax became more uniform.
Typesetting, the placement of characters, became an art form.
While the mechanics of the printing press did not change much from the time of inception until the early 1800s, new materials did improve the process. Iron came to be used in the machinery, allowing for a larger machine; this resulted in the ability to double the output capacity of the presses. Other limitations were abolished with the use of steam power to run the machines (as opposed to water mill power), and the replacement of the printing flatbed with cylinders which moved in a rotary fashion.  The early model of this improved version allowed for two-sided printing, and newspapers became available to the masses, further spreading information and allowing for more literacy.
A steam powered rotary printing press was invented in the United States in 1843. It was now possible to print millions of copies of a page daily. Paper was also manufactured into rolls, which allowed for a continuous feed through the printing press, for a faster printing run.
The mid-1800s saw the development of ‘jobbing presses’, which were small presses for letterheads, business cards, envelopes, and smaller items. These were easily and quickly set up, and led to quick production, although some of them were still treadle powered.