Printing Press

The Printing Press is a device which allowed people to print ink onto a print medium like paper or cloth. The print press uses pressure to print medium that rests on the inked surface made of movable type which was the first known print press technology which was invented in China around 1040 A.D by Han Bi Sheng during the Song Dynasty in China. The transmission of this technology to the Chinese Tributary Sate of Korea where some further technological improvements were made which lead to the creation of the first metal movable type system for printing which was developed in Korea.

The Movable Type was improved in Europe by a German printer Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. He made a hand mould which allowed for rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities. The printing press displaced the earlier methods of printing to become the first line style printing technique which lead to a mass production of books.

Printing spread from Mainz in Germany to more than two hundred cities in European countries. The operation of a printing press became so synonymous with the printing enterprise that it had its own name "The Press". In Renaissance Europe the arrival of the mechanical movable type printing started off the era of mass communication which permanently change the structure of society. In the 19th century the replacement of hand operated Gutenberg style press by the steam powered press allowed printing on an industrial scale. 

I have found a list which shows most of the printing techniques from 200 to 1993. 

• Woodblock printing (200)
• Movable type (1040)
• Printing press (1454)
• Etching (ca. 1500)
• Mezzotint (1642)
• Aquatint (1768)
• Lithography (1796)
• Chromolithography (1837)
• Rotary press (1843)
• Hectograph (1869)
• Offset printing (1875)
• Hot metal typesetting (1886)
• Mimeograph (1890)
• Screen printing (1907)
• Spirit duplicator (1923)
• Dye-sublimation (1957)
• Phototypesetting (1960s)
• Dot matrix printer (1964)
• Laser printing (1969)
• Thermal printing (ca. 1972)
• Inkjet printing (1976)
• 3D printing (1984)
• Giclée (1991)
• Digital press (1993)

The photo above shows us the Printing Press from 1811 which was presented in Munich, Germany.