How Did Printing Begin?

LucyB    Copy Machines     Johannes Gutenberg, printing press

As we pace between our desks and the printer each day at work, we rarely stop to think about how commercial printing all began. The printing press started its life way back in the second millennium AD; the first systems were assembled by a German goldsmith by the name of Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, around 1440.

The first books were produced in an assembly-line style; during the Renaissance, a printing press could print about 3,600 each workday. Printing spread rapidly, and by 1500, printing was in full swing throughout Western Europe. In 1620, English philosopher Francis Bacon felt confident in declaring that printing had changed the face of the world.

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