Early Printing

• The first historical instances of printing are found in China. The oldest book, the Diamond Sutra, was printed in China in 868 C.E. (A.D.) The original process of printing was done with individual plates of wood, stone, or metal. These would be prepared with designs and then rolled with ink. These designs would then be transferred to paper or vellum sheets by pressing together the sheet and the plate. This method of printing was most often used to create pictures or designs, while books continued to be mainly copied by hand until the invention of movable type.
  
  

Plate Preparation

• An Ancient Printing Press
  
  Several methods existed for preparing plates to be used in printing. These could be categorized as either relief, planographic, or intaglio. Relief prints were created, as the name implies, by carving a raised design onto the plate. The ink would be applied to the raised design, which would then be applied to the paper, much like modern-day rubber stamps. Planographic prints were created on a flat surface, using a grease-based crayon or paint to design an image. Water poured onto the design would be repelled by the grease. Ink then washed onto the plate would repelled by the water and attracted to the grease, layering the ink over the original drawn design. The plate would then be pressed onto paper.
  
  

Intaglio Prints

• To make intaglio prints, the design was cut into the plate, the opposite of relief printing. The plate was inked, and then the surface wiped clean, leaving ink only in the recessed design. The plate was then applied to the paper, using considerable pressure, which lead to a rectangular imprint around the edge, making intaglio prints easy to distinguish. Intaglio printing used mostly metal plates, and had by far the most methods for creating designs. Some designs were simply engraved directly onto the plates. Others were created using acid and a protective substance, with the acid biting into the unprotected areas to create the design. There were several variations on this method, including etching, stippling, aquatint and mezzotint.
  
  

Movable Type

• Printing Press with Movable Type
  
  Movable clay type was invented in China in 1041, but Johannes Gutenberg is credited with the first use of movable type in a printing press in 1440. Inspired by wine presses of the time, Gutenberg designed a hand press in which block lettering was placed in formation and held together by a wooden frame. This created a type of variable plate, which could be used to print one page of text, loosened, rearranged, and used to create a different page without additional carving. Reproducing books by press thereby became a lot more efficient, as well as substantially cheaper.
  
  

Modern Interest

• Both plates and movable type are methods of printing that produce "original" prints - prints that were in some way produced by hand, be it through setting type or creating designs. This is in contrast to "reproductions," which are created by photographically transferring image or type. These prints, called photomechanical, are still considered antique if developed before 1900, but they are generally thought to belong to a more modern age of production. Even today, however, the art of hand printing is not completely lost. Many amateur printers and collectors, as well as some associations and museums, keep the spirit of this art alive through informational websites, publications, and exhibits - and occasionally, through refurbishing these tools and using them once again.