Editing Printing (section)

===Quantitative aspects===
[[File:European Output of Printed Books ca. 1450–1800.png|thumb|European output of books printed by movable type from {{circa|1450}} to 1800<ref name="Buringh & van Zanden 2009"/>]]
{{Main|History of printing}}

It is estimated that following the innovation of Gutenberg's printing press, the European book output rose from a few million to around one billion copies within a span of less than four centuries.<ref name="Buringh & van Zanden 2009">Buringh, Eltjo; van Zanden, Jan Luiten: "Charting the 'Rise of the West': Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries", ''The Journal of Economic History'', Vol. 69, No. 2 (2009), pp.&nbsp;409–45 (417, table 2)</ref>