MI Printing History of Typesetting from Wood Blocks

Now that we have taken printing from the 1041 when a Chinese alchemist named Pi Sheng invented the earliest printing press to a modern offset printing press we are going to look at the other side of printing and that is the actual type.

The earliest known printing of notices, legal documents, inventories (for tax records) and books were produced using wooden blocks with the text carved on them which was then used as the actual printing plate. These "plates" were produced in much the same manner as those for wood engravings -- except instead of an "picture" carved into them, the actual text of a page of the document was carved into them.

We hear the word woodcut and we think of just an image but it is both the text and any graphic that was part of the printed page.

Setting a page was a time consuming and difficult process.  The first typesetters were actually carving artists.  This made “printed” documents very expensive.

We will follow the changes in typesetting that lead up to today’s modern methods.