Editing Graphic design (section)

===Historical background===
{{Main article|History of printing}}
In China, during the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907) wood blocks were cut to print on textiles and later to reproduce Buddhist texts. A Buddhist scripture printed in 868 is the earliest known printed book. Beginning in the 11th century in China, longer scrolls and books were produced using [[movable type]] printing, making books widely available during the [[Song dynasty]] (960–1279).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilkinson |first1=Endymion |title=Chinese History |date=2000 |publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |location=Cambridge |isbn=0674002490 |page=450}}</ref>

In Mesopotamia, writing (as an extension of graphic design) began with commerce. The earliest writing system, cuneiform, started out with basic pictograms, which were representations of houses, lambs, or grain.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bowen |first=Amanda |date=2013 |title=Graphic design: a new history. Stephen F. Eskilson. 2nd edition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; London: Laurence King Publishing, 2012. 464 p. ill. ISBN 9780300172607 £29.99/$65.00 (hardcover). |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/s0307472200018071 |journal=Art Libraries Journal |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=51–52 |doi=10.1017/s0307472200018071 |issn=0307-4722|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In the mid-15th century in Mainz, Germany, [[Johannes Gutenberg]] developed a way to reproduce printed pages at a faster pace using [[movable type]] made with a new metal alloy<ref>{{Cite web |title=Treasures of the McDonald Collection – Special Collections & Archives Research Center |url=https://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/mcdonald/incunabula/gutenberg/ |access-date=2022-07-03 |website=scarc.library.oregonstate.edu |archive-date=30 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630153024/https://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/mcdonald/incunabula/gutenberg |url-status=live}}</ref> that created a revolution in the dissemination of information.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hellinga |first=Lotte |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CFiDCjMcnvcC&pg=PP1 |title=A Companion to the History of the Book |date=24 August 2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-5658-8 |editor-last=Eliot |editor-first=Simon |pages=207–219 |language=en |chapter=The Gutenberg Revolutions |editor-last2=Rose |editor-first2=Johnathan |access-date=16 July 2022 |archive-date=5 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305041252/https://books.google.com/books?id=CFiDCjMcnvcC&pg=PP1 |url-status=live}}</ref>