Six Centuries of Type and Printing

If you ever wondered how the craft of printing was invented and how it evolved, this book answers that question and many others. Starting with Gutenberg, Six Centuries of Type and Printing traces the development of type design, type manufacture, presses, and printing through the present digital era with many stops along the way. The book explains how many aspects of printing and type remain the same, despite a shift from metal to photography to bits, across almost six centuries of constant improvement. Youll learn about Gutenbergs unique invention, the type hand mold, and how it pulled all the pieces of contemporary technology together to print one of the still most beautiful books ever published. Six Centuries details how the standard press worked, a fixture from the 1450s to the 1800s, and why development stagnated in many areas. It explains how, in the late 1700s, innovation picked up and never stopped, with new techniques to produce type in massive quantities and print at ever-faster speeds. The book also covers the modern era, detailing the transition from metal to photographic to digital technologies, which disrupted the lives of printers and the industry again and again. It ends on a cheery note with the reinvigoration of letterpress printing, a craft that nearly died in the digital era, but now is in the midst of a craft renaissance. Introduction The Master Printer The Mold That Shapes the World Each Letter, a Work of Art Mind Your p’s and q’s Printing Stands Still; Type Diversifies A Bicycle for the Hand A 19th Century 3D Printer A Motor for the Mind Type Heats Up Information’s Speed Enter the Matrix The Coming of the Light PostScript, Ergo Propter Script A Press That Lasts Centuries Reduce the Pressure The Need for Speed Copy and Paste in Metal Painting Images with Ink Printing with Light Paste-Up Is Pasting Down Coda: Letterpress Abides Sources A custom handmade wooden case holding several dozen genuine type and printing artifacts from the past and present, including a paper mold, individual pieces of wood and metal type, a phototype "font", a Linotype "slug", replicas and samples of items found in printing shops and a letterpress-printed book: Six centuries of type & printing. Also includes a CD-rom and 16 GB USB drive with digital assets