Invention of printing press - Essay Example

? CHANGING OF COMMUNICATION SINCE THE INVENTION OF PRINTING PRESS by of the of the of the School State 17 January, 2013 Introduction Communication has been a vital aspect of life since the origin of man. Over, the years, communication has evolved from the use of sign languages, to scribes, to writing scripts, to printing, and finally, the use modern communication technologies. All these have effectively contributed to shaping societies and different cultures across the globe. However, in some parts of the world, the communication medium or technologies either delay, or come earlier than others, which in turn affects development balance, and effective communication across regions. Before the invention of the printing press, the communication structure was seen to preserve a lot of knowledge and information, which only few could access freely. Printing press changed the way information and ideas were conveyed let alone preserved. Compared with former modes of knowledge and information storage and transmission, printing press assisted in solving previous challenges of fragmentation and corruption (facilitating dissemination of information and ideas to reach out to large population in general from a single source). With the printing press, mass broadcasting was no longer a problem, and most of the technologies have been building and associating with it, shaping mass communication and its affiliate professions to influence people’s cultures and thoughts. As the printing press evolved into different models, the number of print output and clarity increased, while the operations required to produce printed work reduced, making production easier, and print materials cheaper and accessible for readers. What is Printing Press? When referring to printing press, some view it as a procedure taken to produce the print, while others hold that it is the gadget for printing. However, the society commonly uses the term to refer to the device used for printing, regardless of whether it is manually or mechanically operated. Printing press is an intricate component of industrial equipment, which integrates high precision in production of printed work (imaging.org, 2009); it uses several distinguished types of available printing technologies, producing the work at a low cost and high speed. The most common form of printing technology is offset lithography that consists of separate towers for every color of ink for printing. Others are gravure printing dependent on the small depressions on the printing plate surface, pad printing, screen printing, and relief printing. The invention of the printing press depended on already available printing technologies that were in use in various regions, such as ink, paper, and block printing invention that was quite common in China, before moving out to revolutionize Europe through Gutenberg works. Industrial Printing Presses Printing presses have evolved enormously over time, shifting from manual to mechanical structures which are less tedious, easier to produce, and with much reduced chances of injuries. Since ancient times, the transformations from wooden to metal built devices are evident, changing the face of printing from Egyptian wooden block printing, all the way to lithography, offset printing, 19th century hot stamping typesetting, phototypesetting, to modern 3D printing and digital press. Stanhope printing press invented the first book press using cast iron, followed by Columbian press, which was a drift from Gutenberg print press, even if they employed most of the features and operation procedures from previous Gutenberg’s work (utexas.edu, n.d). All these former industrial press have been serving as the foundations of the succeeding printing presses in the modern society. Mechanized printing press. The difference that arises between the press and Gutenberg’s are the speed of press to make an impression on the paper. While Gutenberg print press compositors put type together by hand to assemble about 2000 characters per hour, mechanized presses transformed to add gear and power over the wooden framed platen press, increasing the speed four times more than hand press; this later changed to use of steam engines, single cylinder press, and finally a venture into rotary press, which run between two cylinders, one supporting the paper, while the other consisting of the print plates (utexas.edu, n.d). The type plates received printing ink through the ink rollers, after which the ink covered type, could roll against the paper on the other cylinder. The role played in these transformations was to increase speed and printing output. Rotary printing press comes in two forms; sheet fed, whose use is diminishing in the market, and web fed rotary letter press printing, more functioning as Hoe’s cylinder press, but with a large roll of paper attached to the reel at the press ending, which limits paper changeover while printing on both sides, as well as ensuring constant supply of the paper (Mullins, 2007, p. 18). The web press was the outcome of Bullocks press, which fed on the continuous paper roll limiting human involvement in supplying papers to the machine. Figure 1: The first continuous roll fed (Bullock) press. (utexas.edu, n.d) Phototypesetting. It emerged later, after the invention of linotype that introduced changes in setting type and monotype, which facilitated use of different characters across a page or line. Instead of using molten metal to set a type, text was typed on high quality paper, then photographed resulting into a sheet of film, which was developed onto a light sensitive aluminum printing surface, to generate direct image of the text (Mullins, 2007, p. 18). The printing press uses different plate making, ranging from metallic such as magnesium to plastic. The metallic ones have proved to be reliable and difficult to wear out in intensive use of print production, compared to plastic photopolymer plates. Screen printing. It is one of the recently used methods of printing that use fine porous screen mounted on a frame, where the screen receives the reproduced design and lettering after the stencil is cut. The screen could be made of different selected materials such as stainless steel, Dacron, nylon or silk. To print, the paper is placed under the screen, then thick ink is applied to the screen, spread and forced in through the porous screen openings using rubber squeegee (Ryan and Conover, 2004, p. 304). This form of printing press has been embraced highly in the clothing and textile industries, where the technology today combines use of film positive images, with light sensitive materials to produce dynamic looks of prints, on a variety of materials. Other print presses that came after and common today are the dot matrix, thermal, laser, and ink jet printing presses, each with an added advantage over other previous models in size, output, simplicity, and color compatibility. 3D printing press. The models of 3D printers tend to use existing printing systems such as inkjet and laser. 3D printing press is a modern printing press technology where the 3D printer receives data from a computer aided design file containing digital information, to develop 3 dimension physical objects. According to Bartolo and Bidanda, “3D printing technology operates by selective deposition of a binder onto a powder bed” (2008, p. 97). First the file images are divided into thin layers, which are printed in order, one after the other. It is one form of printing press used in design in intensive companies such as aerospace, entertainment and auto manufacturers, and lately in hospitals, especially in viewing of bone implant cases. Digital printing press. It is what the current generation understands better and its flexibility complements a lot of societies’ tasks, which involve computing. They are replacing traditional offset printing that uses film or metal plate technologies, with direct printing from computer files, which is dependent on rasterizing of postscript data (Hartman, 2011, p. 303). Generally, it produces best quality and quick turnarounds involving computer and digital printer communications, allowing the user to be author, editor, and composer at the same time. How Printing Press Works Despite different types of printing press, the transfer of ink for printing to a sheet of paper or printing material employ similar concept. What brings the difference among them depends on numbers and types of plates used by the devices, sizes of printing press and operations taken for quality output among others. In printing, several rollers are used each serving a special purpose in the process, such that they take ink in liquid form, and it spreads over the rollers uniformly as it spins, ensuring the entire areas of the rollers are covered with ink. Some printing presses may consist of more than two rollers and printing units, based on the complexity of the tasks they handle. The ink rolls out on the rollers to the constant rotating plate cylinder moving at the same rotating speed, and the image transfers on the blanket cylinder and the printing material passed between impression and blanket cylinder, conveying the image to the printing material or paper, as it comes out of the two pressing rollers. Impact of Printing Press Invention Influence in literature work. History indicates that production and reproduction of literature work was very tedious, slow, and with many errors, before the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg. Most of this work was done manually, meaning that for one to reproduce a book, it would take almost entire year to accomplish that, especially if several copies were needed. According to Wishnia, limited books were published, where they were only available to monks and scholars, or the wealthy elite groups, if not via corrupt means (2009, p. 1). The print technology allowed increase in copies of literature work (books and newspapers) making it easier, cheaper, and quicker than before. The rare commodity (literature) became available to many people, facilitating transfer of knowledge and information to the reading society. It introduced more people to writing, mass communication, and other related professions, allowing them to distribute ideas, reach out to general public, and improve their grammar and writing skills. Effects of Invention of Printing Press Spread of the word. Europe led in revolution in the western world; the printing press steered industrial revolution and the effect was also felt in church operations, since most of the published books were religious literature, among them Bibles, art and skills transmission books, benefiting the people from different professions (Wishnia, 2009, p. 1). The increase in print works allowed the spread of Christianity across the globe, which was one major practice that preceded European settlement in different continents. Bible translation into native languages was possible, enhancing spread of the gospel to different communities in their backyards. According to Eisenstein, “between the invention of the printing press and 1520, one hundred and fifty six Latin edition of the Bible had been published, together with seventeen German translation” (1979, p. 330). People had to learn to read and write, to read the word been spread, and acquire timely information and knowledge for their benefit. The number of people who attended church teachings reduced, since the word was more available to everyone, and as the result many could criticize some religious doctrines, creating conflicts among Christian religious denominations. How Printing Press Changed Communication Communication comes differently to convey a message to the society. Today you find people using signs languages, either in body or pictorial forms to mean something. No longer is the human presence important as the agent of message delivery, but the message could be printed out and authorized to clarify and assure its origin to the sender. The culture of public communication has been influenced by the changing printing press technologies, such that it goes beyond providing learning, reasoning, and meaning of the message, to ensure people easier and reliable access of information, and its control when need be. Initially, written and oral communication was the common human communication culture, but printing press facilitated communication via photographic, electronic, and digital media, severely reducing face to face communication (Fourie, 2001, p. 258). Photographs help in conveying a lot of message; and this is what has been used to develop a series of images in motion (video) in film and video production. Both Radios and TVs have been using analog then digital signals to transfer information to the public. Today, social media is on the rise allowing people to communicate via the internet as they type, edit, and download literature works and messages, for effective communication. The communication culture has been changed to influence people’s thinking, and make it the more natural way of communicating. Languages keep changing, with new words coming up every now and then. Advantages of Printing Press It is no doubt that the printing press has made it possible for production of multiple documents, to serve large numbers of people in the society. Print work has become convenient for many in the society, improving on the convenience and spread of literacy in the societies. The timing period of reproducing printing work intensively reduced, allowing the authorship of the work to develop series and copies of the work rapidly, according to the need of the readers. The print presses have advanced allowing different color prints to produce quality output appealing to the eye, due to the resulting look and feel of the print. It is possible to print clothing such as T- shirts, and develop quality pictures and posters on thick papers. The invention of the printing press attracted more people to education, so as to read literature works and be informed. They also got to be enlightened in spiritual matters after receiving education. Most publications made using the printing press are error free and well consolidated, to solve storage problems and ensure their durability. Conclusion Communication is yet to experience another transformation, which will shape it and influence the future generations. Even if it has taken several centuries for communication to be molded into the current and former cultures, the internet technologies embracing digital press seem to influence the global society, than many would expect. With the print press, language is no longer a barrier to send or receive information, pictures, and videos, which convey more information than writings and oral communication. More printing technologies and presses continue to be developed, with their evolution consistently influencing positively and sometimes negatively on communication, and culture of different people around the globe. Bibliography  Bartolo, P., and Bidanda, B., eds., 2008. Bio-Materials and Prototyping Applications in Medicine. New York: Springer. Eisenstein, E. L., 1979. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Volume 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Fourie, P. J., ed., 2001. Media studies: Institutions Theories and Issues. Lansdowne: Juta and Company Ltd  Hartman, A., 2011. Exploring Adobe Illustrator CS5. New York: Delmar Cengage Learning How a Printing Press Works: Eric Hanson Hewlett Packard Laboratories, 2009. [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 January 2013]. Mullins, L., 2007. Inventing the Printing Press. Ontario: Crabtree publishing company Printing Yesterday and Today, n.d. [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 January 2013].  Ryan, W. E., and Conover, T. E., 2004. Graphic Communications Today. 4th ed. New York: Thompson Delmar Learning| Cengage learning Wishnia, S., 2009. How Did the Printing Press Change History. [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 January 2013]. Read More