Editing Printing (section)

{{short description|Process for reproducing text and images}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}}
[[File:Collage of printing.png|upright=1.5|thumb|From top to bottom, left to right: [[cylinder seal]] of a scene, block used for [[woodblock printing]], [[movable type]], [[printing press]], [[Lithography|lithograph]] press, [[Offset printing|offset]] press used for modern lithographic printing, [[linotype machine]] for [[hot metal typesetting]], [[digital printing|digital printer]], [[3D printing|3D printer]] in action.]]
{{History of printing}}
{{Marketing}}
'''Printing''' is a process for mass reproducing text and [[Printmaking|images]] using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include [[cylinder seal]]s and objects such as the [[Cyrus Cylinder]] and the [[Cylinders of Nabonidus]]. The earliest known form of printing evolved from [[ink rubbing]]s made on paper or cloth from texts on stone tablets, used during the sixth century.{{sfn|Tsien|1985|p=8}}{{efn|An early method of reproduction that has been traced to the second century is [[pouncing|the practice]] of using needles pushed through a stencil onto the target paper, fabric or plaster, to provide guidelines for subsequent artwork:{{sfn|Tsien|1985|p=146}} this cannot reasonably be described as printing.}} Printing by pressing an inked image onto paper (using [[woodblock printing]]) appeared later that century.<ref name="Suarez & Woudhuysen">{{cite book |editor-last1=Suarez |editor-first1=Michael F. |editor-last2= Woudhuysen |editor-first2= H. R. |title= The Book: A Global History |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=sbacAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA574 574{{ndash}}576] |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |date=2013 |isbn=9780191668746}}</ref> Later developments in printing technology include the [[movable type]] invented by [[Bi Sheng]] around 1040<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lx-9mS6Aa4wC |title=Science and civilisation in China: Paper and printing |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-08690-5 |editor-last=Needham |editor-first=Joseph |editor-link=Joseph Needham |edition=Reprint |volume=V:1 |location=Cambridge |pages=159,201–205 |orig-date=1985 |editor-last2=Tsien |editor-first2=Tsuen-hsuin |editor-link2=Tsien Tsuen-hsuin|quote=At the present time, the only known authoritative account of the invention of movable type by a commoner named Pi Sheng (c. 990–1051) is the contemporary record of Shen Kua (1031–[1095]) [...] Although the process went into eclipse after its inception, it was a complete invention and fully four hundred years ahead of Gutenberg.}}</ref><ref name="Great Chinese Inventions">{{cite web |url=http://www.minnesota-china.com/Education/emSciTech/inventions.htm |title=Great Chinese Inventions |publisher=Minnesota-china.com |access-date=July 29, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203213025/http://www.minnesota-china.com/education/emSciTech/inventions.htm |archive-date=December 3, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> and the [[printing press]] invented by [[Johannes Gutenberg]] in the 15th century. The technology of printing played a key role in the development of the [[Renaissance]] and the [[Scientific Revolution]] and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.<ref>Rees, Fran. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=RQpDvuRgF9oC&q=gutenberg+printing+press Johannes Gutenberg: Inventor of the Printing Press] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406001322/https://books.google.com/books?id=RQpDvuRgF9oC&q=gutenberg+printing+press |date=April 6, 2023 }}''</ref>