The invention of this technology can be traced back to the Song Dynasty in China, but the history of large-scale use of movable type printing began in the European Renaissance in the15th century. The use of movable type printing can produce a large number of printed materials, accelerate the process of information dissemination and knowledge popularization, and have a far-reaching impact on the development of human civilization.
In the history of printing technology development, movable type printing is an important milestone and a key step for printing from manual production to mechanization and automation. Engraving printing was invented in the Tang Dynasty and was widely used in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. Although movable type printing was invented in Song Dynasty, it was not widely used in Song Dynasty. Block printing was still widely used in Song Dynasty.
The history of movable type printing
Movable type printing is to make a positive text and an anti-text model of a single word first, then select the single word according to the original manuscript, arrange it in the font, print it with ink, and then remove the word model after printing, so that it can be used again in the next typesetting.
The invention of movable type printing is a great technological revolution in the history of printing. Clay movable type invented by China in the Northern Song Dynasty (1048) and Bi Sheng (970- 105 1) marked the birth of movable type printing. He was the first inventor in the world, about 400 years before Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type printing. In Yuan Dynasty, Wang Zhen successfully created wooden movable type and invented wheel typesetting. In the middle of Ming Dynasty, copper movable type was widely used in Nanjing, Wuxi, Suzhou and other places in Jiangsu.