The exact date of the first invention of some kind of printing press is debatable. Books--appropriately called "block books"--were printed from wood blocks on which a whole page was carved as early as the 8th or even the 5th century in China, Korea and Japan and by the 14th century in Europe. The process of carving the blocks was laborious and could only be used for the one book.
Movable Type in Asia
Movable type, in which each letter of the alphabet was on a separate piece and could be re-used for composing many different books, was a later development. It is known that 11th century Chinese printers sometimes used a form of moveable type, made of ceramic, with each character in the language on a different, interchangeable piece. In the 13th century more durable wooden type was introduced. In that same century, Korean printers--also working with Chinese characters--began to introduce metal type cast in bronze. Since each Chinese character fits inside the same-sized square, it was quite simple to compose pages, but the enormous number of logographs (word-characters) made the system too awkward for widespread use. European languages posed a different problem because each letter has different widths, while some have ascending stems and others have descending stems. One advantage of an alphabetic system, however, is the considerably smaller number of different characters.
Gutenberg's Movable Type
Johann (or Johannes) Gutenberg, born in the 1390s in Mainz, Germany, is usually credited with the invention of moveable type in the West. The speed with which other printers began using this marvelous invention may indicate that several other printer-inventors were already working along similar lines, or it may simply mean they quickly took advantage of the dearth of patent laws at the time.
The press in use at the time was a hand-press in which the type was laid on the bed of the press and inked, the paper laid on top, and pressure applied. This design was in use for hundreds of years. A later development of the platen press has the paper applied not to the type but to the part of the press that applies pressure. A system of wheels and rollers attached to a foot-pedal allows the operator to continuously ink the type and make prints, and only requires each sheet of paper to be added by hand.
The interest in efficiency and power machinery of the Industrial Revolution led to developments in the printing press that allowed it to be steam-powered. An important development that resulted was the use of a cylinder rather than a platen to apply pressure. This same principle is still used in the Vandercook proofing press so beloved of letterpress printers today.
Learn about how typefaces were created in On the Development of Letterpress Typefaces.
Sources
Chappell, Warren. A Short History of the Printed Word. Boston: Nonpareil Books, 1970.
McMurtrie, Douglas C. The Book: The Story of Printing & Bookmaking. 1943. New York: Dorset, 1989.
Scholderer, Victor. Johann Gutenberg: Inventor of Printing. London: The British Museum, 1963.
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