Development of Printing

Typography is the term for printing with independent, movable, and reusable bits of metal or wood, each of which has a raised letterform on once face. Without paper, the speed ans efficiency of printing would has been useless. Paper making has completed its long, slow journey from China to Europe. The watermark is a translucent emblem produced by pressure from a raised design on the mold and visible when the sheet of paper is held to the light.

Early European block printing

The first known European block printings with a communications function were devotional prints of saints, ranging from small images fitting in a person's hand to larger images of 25 by 35 centimetres. Many were hand-colored and because of their basic linear style, they were probably intended to serve as less expensive alternatives for paintings. Each page was cut from a block of wood and printed as a complete word ans picture unit. Most block books contained from thirty to fifty leaves. Some prints were hand-colored. Stencils were sometimes used to apply flat areas of color to textile, playing card and later block-book woodcuts. The earliest block books were printed with a hand rubber in brown or gray ink. Later versions were printed in black ink on a printing press.

Early European block printing

Movable typography in Europe

Typographic printing did not grow directly out of block printing because wood was too fragile. Block printing remained popular among the Chinese because alignment between characters was not critical and sorting over five thousand basic characters was untenable. The need for exact alignment and the modest alphabet system of about two dozen letters made the printing of text material from independent. movable and reusable type highly desirable in the West. Each character in the font, small and capital letters, numbers, punctuation, ligatures, had to be engraved into the top of a steel bar to make a punch. This punch was then driven into a matrix of softer copper or brass to make a negative impression of the letterform. The medieval block printer used a thin, watery ink made from oak gall. This ink worked fine on a woodblock, because the wood could absorb excess moisture but it would run off or puddle on metal type. To ink type, a dollop of ink was placed on a flat surface and smeared with a soft leather ball, coating the ball's bottom. The ball was then daubed onto the type for an even coating of ink. The large red and blue initials were printed from two-part metal blocks that were either inked separately, reassembled, and printed with the text in one press impression, or stamped after the text was printed.These decorated two-color initials were a major innovation, their typographic vitality and elegance rival the most beautiful manuscript pages.

movable typography in Europe

Copperplate engraving

To produce a copperplate engraving, a drawing is scratched into a smooth metal plate. Ink is applied into the depressions, the flat surface is wiped clean, and paper is pressed against the plate to receive the ink image. The skilled execution implies that these playing cards were designed and engraved by someone who had already mastered engraving, not someone struggling to perfect a new graphic technique.

Copperplate engraving

Bibliography

Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: http://file:///C:/Users/user/Desktop/Interactive%20Media/Contextual%20Studies/Meggs-History-of-Graphic-Design.pdf [Accessed 24 Jan. 2017].