The history of printing technology from ancient times to the present:
The development process and history of printing. The industry formed by using printing originated in China and is one of the four great inventions of ancient China. . In China, around the Jin Dynasty in the 3rd century AD, with the emergence of paper and ink, seals became popular. In the 4th century, Taoists enlarged the seal to print spells with slightly more text. This is actually a method of printing text in the form of a stamp.
At the same time, rubbings on stone tablets are also developing. They combine seals and rubbings, then expand the seal into a layout, dip it in ink, imitate the rubbing, and spread the paper to the block for printing. That is woodblock printing. Experts believe that the birth of woodblock printing was around the early 7th century AD in the early Tang Dynasty. This is the earliest printing technology in the world.
Setting color printing is the earliest color printing in the world. It is a complex, high-precision printing technology developed on the basis of woodblock printing. In the early days of the invention of overprinting, it was generally only possible to print overprints in two colors: red and ink, which were called red and ink copies, or double printing. Later, as the technology became more and more perfect, it developed into using four or five colors for overprinting, which were called four-color books, five-color books, etc.
Setting color printing was born in my country, but there is still no clear conclusion as to when it was invented. According to historical records, during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), copperplate printing of "Jiaozi" in three colors of green, blue and red appeared, but no actual object has been found. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty (mid-to-late 14th century), there was a copy of "The Golden Steel Sutra Annotated by Monk Wuwen" printed in red and ink.
In 1974, three painted paintings of "Namo Sakyani Buddha" were discovered in the Fogong Temple in Yingxian County, Shanxi Province. According to corroboration with other cultural relics discovered at the same time, their printing date should be in the Liao Dynasty. and (983-1012) years. It seems that the invention of registration color printing technology was no later than this, and the exact age has yet to be discovered and studied by archaeologists.
Most of the process color prints we can see today date from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. This period was the development period of process color printing in our country, and many of the printed materials are extremely exquisite. By the Qing Dynasty, the technology of four-color overprinting, five-color overprinting and even more multi-color overprinting had matured and reached a new level.
Movable type printing technology - according to the records in "Volume 18" of Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan". The first person to invent movable type printing was Bi Sheng from the Song Dynasty in my country, from 1041 to 143 AD. After Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, many movable types made of other materials appeared in China, including wood movable type, tin movable type, copper movable type, lead movable type, etc. But only wooden movable type has been handed down.
As for the introduction of modern Western lead movable type printing. It was only seen in 1590 when the book "The Envoy from Japan to Rome" in Latin was printed in Macau, China. It is worth mentioning the use of wooden movable type. Wang Zhen in the Yuan Dynasty wrote an academic masterpiece "Nongshu" when he was the county magistrate of Jingde County, Anhui Province. Because of the large number of words, using woodblock printing was not only expensive, but also time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Later, carpenters were asked to engrave 30,000 movable wood types, and the trial printing of "Dade Jingde County Chronicle" with more than 60,000 words was successful. In order to facilitate typesetting, Wang Zhen invented the wheel typesetting frame, which changed the typesetting from completely manual to the use of simple machinery, improving efficiency. He also carefully recorded and organized the methods and operating procedures for making wooden movable type, and wrote the book "Methods for Making Movable Type".
The engraved book is another major historical document recording the invention of movable type printing in my country after Shen Kuo's record of Bi Sheng's movable type printing. The invention of movable type printing in China preceded the West by nearly 400 years. Moreover, compared with woodblock printing, movable type printing has the advantages of saving time and materials, and has made an indelible contribution to the development of printing and cultural undertakings in China and the world.
Modern type printing is also a type of movable type printing. Automatic typesetting machine. The words that need to be cast are input on a keyboard like a typewriter. After typing a line of words, the machine will automatically put down the font of those words, and then inject the alloy lead to automatically cast the entered words. Its operation also relies on keyboard input like automatic typesetting, but what is obtained is a single word, which is a step further than manual typesetting.
Mimeograph technology——Mimeograph is also called hole printing.
This printing method is to use a stylus to carve micropores on paper, cloth or thin metal iron. This is used to make a plate and placed on paper or other substrates. After adding ink, rollers and scrapers are used to remove the ink from the plate. The micro-holes on it leak onto the paper. As early as 1,200 years ago in the Tang Dynasty, hollow paper printing and silk screen printing methods similar to today's mimeograph technology appeared in China.
It is used to print flowers and patterns on silk fabrics, which is called "clipping". However, the person who actually used mimeograph technology to print documents was the Hungarian living in England, Geist Tyner. Around 1881, he used waxed fiber paper as a template, and used a stylus to engrave the information to be printed on it. Where the stylus was written, micropores appeared in the fiber, and then he brushed ink on the plate.
Press and push with a roller to make the ink penetrate the wax plate and adhere to the paper below. Inventor Edison also conducted research on stencil printing in the early 20th century. He matched a stylus with a motor and controlled the motor to make the stylus mark on the paper to make a mimeograph plate. Although this method was not widely valued at the time and could not be put into practical use, its principles inspired future generations.
In 1888, Gasttainer used a typewriter instead of a stylus. He removed the ribbon from the typewriter so that the words could be typed directly on the wax paper, leaving traces of the writing on the wax paper. I removed the wax paper, spread it on paper, applied ink and stamped it, and it was a success. More than 10 years later, the Austrian Crabb invented the rotary mimeograph machine, which greatly increased the speed of mimeographing.
Gravure printing - Gravure printing was produced around the middle of the 15th century. Its principle is to make the pictures and texts on the printing plate lower than the blank part. The layout structure is similar to the rubbing stones in ancient my country, except that the inked parts are just right. The opposite of Tuoshi. Because the ink on the surface of the finished product printed by this printing method is slightly raised, it is easy to identify and difficult to imitate, so it is mostly used to print banknotes, stamps and other securities.
The printing plates for gravure printing can be divided into engraving gravure plates, etching gravure plates and photogravure plates. Engraved copper gravure printing was invented by the Italian Finacuri. In 1477, someone used this method to print a map. By the beginning of the 19th century, Europe began to use this method to copy famous paintings and print securities, making gravure printing gradually develop into a unique printing method.
Modern offset printing and gravure printing: The line drawing of the offset plate is lipophilic and can absorb ink; the non-drawing line portion of the wet roller that supplies moisture does not adhere to the ink. The ink attached to the plate is used to print on the rubber cloth roll and then transfer it to the paper. This is offset printing. On the copper printed in gravure, there are pits produced by corrosion that can be used to create lines. The volume of the pits determines the shade of the lines.
First coat the roller with ink, and then scrape it with a scraper, leaving only the ink in the depressions. When pressed, the ink in the depressions is printed on the paper. Letterpress printing - Letterpress printing means that the printed picture and text part is higher than the blank part. During printing, the picture and text part is coated with ink, then covered with paper and pressurized, and the ink is transferred from the printing plate to the paper.
Under the influence of the engraving printing and movable type printing invented in China, in 1445 AD, the German Johann Gutenberg made movable lead type and wooden printing machinery. At that time, lead movable type had already appeared in China and Korea, but Xia Tengbao not only used lead, tin, and antimony to make movable type, but also made molds for casting type. Therefore, the movable type made was relatively fine, and the tools and operating methods used Very advanced too.
He also created the pressure printing press and developed fatty inks specifically for printing. Due to his series of inventions, Gutenberg became universally recognized as the founder of modern printing. The set of printing methods he created continued to be used until the 19th century. After Gutenberg created letterpress printing, people in Western Europe were still working hard to improve printing technology.
We have successively created and perfected the production technology of paper type, rubber letterpress and other copy plates, and improved the quality, printing volume and printing speed of letterpress printing. Lithography - Lithography can be divided into lithographs, offset plates and collotypes according to different plate materials. Lithography was invented by Czechoslovakian Szuna Field around 1778.
When he was printing music scores, he found that the slate with micropores on the surface could absorb ink when coated with grease, while the ungreased part could not absorb ink because of its water storage capacity.
Based on this phenomenon, he discovered the principle of oil-water mutual repulsion, thus invented lithography, and once wrote a book "Lithography" which has been passed down to the world.
Offset printing is another lithographic printing technology developed on the basis of lithography. In 1817, Schonnafeld replaced the bulky slate with a thin zinc plate, and adopted a cylinder printing method, which solved the shortcomings of lithographic technology that were difficult to register. In 1905, the American Rupel installed a rubber cylinder on the lithographic printing press in Sonnafeld.
The images and text on the printing plate are transferred to the paper through the rubber roller, and there is no direct contact between the printing plate and the paper, creating an indirect lithographic printing method. Colotype is also a lithographic printing method, invented by Frenchman Herbato in 1869. Because frosted glass is used as the plate material, it is also called the glass plate printing method.
This printing method can use photography to make plates, and can most accurately print celebrity calligraphy and paintings, inscriptions, art works and ancient books. Compared with other types of printing methods, lithography, especially offset printing, has the characteristics of low production cost, simple process, low wear, fast speed, and wide application range.
Coupled with new light sources, new photosensitive materials, precision photographic equipment, the gradual scientificization of plate making and the continuous improvement of printing quality, this printing method has continued to develop and has become the mainstream of today's printing industry.
Extended information:
Profound significance:
The invention of printing is a glorious chapter in the history of human civilization, and it is a great honor to establish this great achievement. Belongs to the Chinese nation. Printing promotes the popularization of education and the promotion of knowledge. The cheap price of books allows more people to obtain knowledge, thus affecting their outlook on life and world view. The popularization of books will increase people's literacy rate, which in turn will expand the demand for books.
In addition, craftsmen discovered from the early printed manuals and advertisements that printing such printed matter could gain both fame and fortune. This in turn improves their reading and writing abilities. It has promoted the widespread dissemination and exchange of human cultural knowledge and greatly promoted the development of world civilization.
Stories about printing:
Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, Bi Sheng, a commoner in the Northern Song Dynasty. A native of Yingshan County, Hubei Province, he died in February of the fourth year of Huangyou in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the early Song Dynasty, he worked as an engraver for a bookstore. During the Qingli period of the Song Dynasty, he invented the clay movable type printing technology based on practical experience, that is, inscribing words on clay sheets, printing one word at a time, and then hardening them with fire to become movable type.
During the Song Dynasty, woodblock printing became very popular. The process of engraving printing is as follows. First, saw the wood into boards of the same size and make them smooth, then write on a piece of thin paper, stick it on the board, use a knife to carve the words into raised characters, and then brush them. Apply ink, lay down paper, brush lightly on the paper with a soft brush, peel it off, and there will be black characters on a white background.
The number of words in a book is naturally quite large, and there are more than one carved boards, and each board is printed in this way. After all the printing work is completed and the pages are bound one by one, it becomes a book. At that time, there was a carving master in Xishan, Hangzhou, who was known as the "King of Divine Swordsmen". His skill with the sword was well-known far and near and was well-known. Many people come here to become their disciples, but the "King of Divine Swords" refuses to accept them.
But in his later years, he made an exception and accepted a young apprentice from a commoner - Bi Sheng. What is the reason for this? It turns out that the "King of Divine Swords" not only liked Bi Sheng's dexterity, but also his loyalty and honest character. He felt that by passing on his skills to such people, he would be able to rest in peace when he died.
Bi Sheng has been studying with the "King of Divine Swords" for several years, and his skills have improved greatly. Once, the master was engraving the "Lanting Preface" by Wang Xizhi, a great calligrapher of the Jin Dynasty, and asked Bi Sheng to observe and figure it out. Unexpectedly, when there was only one line left, Bi Sheng accidentally touched the master's arm and broke the "Z" character under the knife. Bi Sheng was extremely sad. At night, he lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
He complained secretly to himself at first, and then suddenly came up with an idea: Engraving printing is too troublesome, can it be changed? From that day on, he pondered this matter whenever he had free time.
One day, he was walking by the West Lake and found a painter stamping a landscape painting. He took a closer look and saw that the painter had strung three stamps together.
Bi Sheng watched with interest for a while. Suddenly, he gave a high-five and shouted happily: "There is a way! There is a way!" He ran back to his residence and made each of them with clay. After the squares are dry, they are engraved with reverse characters, one character at a time; then the movable characters are hardened with fire and arranged in a special wooden grid according to rhyme; then the movable characters are arranged in an iron frame and fixed as needed. In this way, the book can be printed with ink.
Using movable type printing is both convenient and economical. This new technology was quickly spread all over the world.
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