How it began
Johannes Gutenberg, a craftsman born in Mainz, originated a method of printing from movable type. Records place him in Strassburg from 1434 to 1444, where a 1439 lawsuit revealed that he was working in secret on a new invention involving a wooden press and printing materials. By October 1448 he was back in Mainz. By 1450 his experiments were refined enough to persuade the financier Johann Fust to lend him 800 guilders, with the printing tools as security. The Gutenberg Bible was printed on his press in Mainz in 1455.
Before it existed
Before the press, texts in Europe were copied by hand, which was slow and expensive, and by the 15th century the supply of manuscripts was far below demand. Letters were also stamped on surfaces and pages were printed from carved woodblocks. Gutenberg did not invent printing with movable type itself, which Britannica notes occurred in Korea in the 14th century. His contribution was a complete working system for Europe.
How it works
Britannica describes three elements thought to make up the invention: a metal alloy that melted readily and cooled quickly to form durable, reusable type; an oil-based ink thick enough to adhere to metal type and transfer to vellum or paper; and a new press, likely adapted from those used for wine, oil, or paper, that applied firm, even pressure to the printing surface. None of these features existed in the European techniques used until then.
Who pushed back
The enterprise was costly and led to conflict with its backer. Fust and Gutenberg became estranged, and Fust won a suit against him recorded in the Helmasperger notarial instrument of November 6, 1455. Gutenberg was ordered to repay both loans with interest. Traditional accounts held that this ruined him, but more recent scholarship suggests the settlement allowed him to keep operating a printing shop through the 1450s.
What changed first
For the first time in Europe, large numbers of books could be manufactured for relatively little cost. Books and other printed matter became available to a wide general audience. The cost of printed texts declined and their availability increased, and books increasingly appeared in vernacular languages rather than Latin.
What lasted
The spread of printing brought an era of mass communication to European society and contributed to the spread of literacy and education. The basic design of the wooden handpress stayed largely the same for more than three centuries, until iron presses appeared around 1800 and steam-powered presses were adopted by The Times in 1814. During the twentieth century, letterpress was largely replaced in commercial work by offset printing, phototypesetting, and digital printing. Gutenberg's press is still regarded as a history-changing invention that opened an information revolution.
