PRINTING COMES TO EUROPE Early European Block Printing

Xylography is the technical term for the relief printing from The origins of woodblock printing in Europe are shrouded
a raised surface that originated in Asia. in mystery. After the Crusades opened Europe to Eastern
influence, relief printing arrived on the heels of paper.
Playing cards and religious image prints were early
manifestations.
Jack of Diamonds, woodblock playing card, c. 1400.
The flat, stylized design conventions of playing
cards have changed little in over five hundred years.
Visual signs to designate the suits began as the four
classes of medieval society. Hearts signified the
clergy; spades (derived from the Italian spada
[sword]) stood for the nobility; the leaflike club
represented the peasantry; and diamonds denoted
the burghers.

Playing cards were the first printed pieces to move into an

Katsushika Hokusai, Farmers Crossing a Suspension Bridge on the Border of Hida illiterate culture, making them the earliest European
and Etchu Provinces, from the series Famous Bridges of Various Provinces, 1834. manifestation of printing's democratizing ability:
Typography is the term for printing with independent, • The games of kings could now become the games of
movable, and reusable bits of metal or wood, each of which peasants and craftsmen.
has a raised letterform on one face. • Because these cards introduced the masses to symbol
recognition, sequencing, and logical deduction, their
This dry definition belies the immense potential for human intrinsic value transcended idle entertainment.
dialogue and the new horizons for graphic design that were
unleashed by this extraordinary invention in the mid-1400s The first known European block printings with a
by a restless German inventor whose portrait and signature communications function were devotional prints of saints
are lost to the relentless passage of time.
The invention of typography ranks near the creation of
writing as one of the most important advances in
civilization.
Writing gave humanity a means of storing, retrieving, and
documenting knowledge and information that transcended
time and place; typographic printing allowed the
economical and multiple production of alphabet
communication.
Several factors created a climate in Europe that made Block print of the Annunciation, Woodblock print of Saint
undated. The black area is an Christopher, 1423. The unknown
typography feasible. effective focal point unifying the two illustrator depicted the legendary
• The demand for books had become insatiable. figures. The scroll, with a Latin saint, a giant who carried travelers
inscription, serves the same safely across a river, bearing the
• The emerging literate middle class and students in the communicative function as a "talk infant Christ.
rapidly expanding universities had ended the clergy's balloon." (The upper left corner of
monopoly on literacy, creating a vast new market for this print is missing.)

reading material.
These early prints evolved into block books, which were
However, the slow and expensive process of bookmaking woodcut picture books with religious subject matter and
had changed little in one thousand years. A simple two- brief text.
hundred-page book required four- or five-months’ labor by
a scribe, and the twenty-five sheepskins needed for the
parchment were even more expensive than his labor.
In 1424, only 122 manuscript books resided in the university
library at Cambridge, England, and the library of a wealthy
nobleman whose books were his most prized and sought-
after possessions probably numbered fewer than two
dozen volumes.
The value of a book was equal to the value of a farm or a
vineyard.
Each page was cut from a block of wood and printed as a
The steady growth of demand had led independent complete word and picture unit. Because most of the few
merchants to develop an assembly-line division of labor, surviving copies were printed in the Netherlands after
with specialists trained in lettering, decorative initialing, 1460, it is not known whether the block book preceded the
gold ornamentation, proofreading, and binding. Even this typographic book.
exploding production of manuscript books was unable to
Drawn in a simplified illustration style, with the visual
meet the demand.
elements dominant as in contemporary comic books, the
block book was used for religious instruction of illiterates.
 The Industrial Revolution, which took place from the 18th to
19th centuries, was a period during which predominantly
agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became
industrial and urban.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in
the late 1700s, manufacturing was often done in people's
Ars moriendi (manuals on the “art of dying") advised one on the preparation and homes, using hand tools or basic machines.
meeting of the final hour.
Industrialization marked a shift to powered, special purpose
machinery, factories and mass production. The iron and
textile industries, along with the development of the steam
engine, played central roles in the Industrial Revolution,
which also saw improved systems of transportation,
communication and banking.

Pages from an Ars moriendi, 1466. A montage juxtaposes the deathbed scene with
the subject's estate. One demon urges, “Provide for your friends," while the other
advises, “Attend to your treasures." The densely textured text page recommends
donating one's earthly goods to the Church.

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 Importance of Print
This mass production created competition. This is the
genesis of modern advertising and design. In order to
compete, manufacturers turned to posters, placards and
ads to convince consumers to use their products.
1830-1901 — Advertising
• Victorian Advertising
- Reflects values of that period: clear class structure,
sexual restraint, and a strict code of conduct.
- Britain was at the height of its empire, with colonies
around the globe.
- Elaborate ornamentation and mixing of styles from
other cultures reinforced the British empire's colonial
strength.
- Paired with images that reflected idealized nostalgia
and moral goodness. Mass production created competition

The Victorian era began in the year 1837 when Queen

• American Wood-type Posters Victoria came to the throne and the period ended in the
- Individual letterforms made of metal had a size year 1901. This was the period when people learnt how to
limitation - larger headline metal plates would break think intelligently and the result of which were the
apart. advertisement cards.
- American printer, Darius Wells, began making
letterforms out of wood.
- This was the birth of the American wood type poster.
- The handmade quality gave a sense of the human
touch, which feels warmer and less clinical.

The rise of society brought the rise of industrialization

from agriculture.
The Wood-type Poster How the Printing Press Works
Wood has been used for letterforms and illustrations dating With the original printing press, a frame is used to set
back to the first known Chinese wood block print from 868 groups of type blocks. Together, these blocks make words
CE. The forerunner of the block print in China was the and sentences; however, they are all in reverse. The blocks
wooden stamp. The image on these stamps was most often are all inked and then a sheet of paper is laid on the blocks.
that of the Buddha and was quite small. Provided with All of this passes through a roller to ensure that the ink is
handles to facilitate their use, they were not unlike the transferred to the paper.
modern rubber-stamps of today.
Letterpress
In Europe, large letters used in printing were carved out of Similar in concept to Gutenberg's press, letterpresses
wood because large metal type had a tendency to develop require an operator to set movable type, ink it, and press
uneven surfaces, or crack, as it cooled. paper against it. The entire process is done by hand. The
letterpress is often used by small, boutique printers, and
offers a beautiful handmade look. However, it's also
inefficient and expensive compared to other printing
presses.

Mass Production
Offset press
Darius Wells invented the means for The offset press revolutionized the printing industry,
mass producing letters in 1827 and making it possible to print enormous quantities efficiently
published the first known wood and cost-effectively. In a nutshell, modern offset printing
type catalog in 1828. involves using a computer to create a plate, which is then
In the preface to his first wood type placed on a cylinder.
catalog, Wells outlined the Ink is applied to the plate cylinder, which rolls against a
advantages of wood type. Wood rubber cylinder, which in turn rolls the ink onto sheets of
type was half the cost of metal type, paper fed through the press. Offset presses are used to
and when prepared by machine it had mass produce newspapers, magazines, books, and other
smooth, even surfaces, where the possibility of unequal printed materials.
cooling caused large lead type to distort.
Up until that time, the usual procedure was
to draw the letter on wood, or paper which
was pasted to the wood, and then cut
around the letter with a knife or graver,
gouging out the parts to be left blank.
In 1834, William Leavenworth made his
contribution to the wood type industry
with the introduction of the
pantograph to the manufacturing
process. He adapted the pantograph to
the Wells router, and the combination
formed the basic machinery required
for making wood type on a production
basis.