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Movable type is the system of printing and typography using movable pieces of metal type, made by casting from matrices struck by letterpunches.

Metal movable type was invented in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty (around 1230), but was not widely used, one reason being the enormous Chinese character set. Around 1450, in what is regarded as an independent invention, Johannes Gutenberg introduced movable type in Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould. Gutenberg created his type pieces from an alloy of lead, tin and antimony – the same components still used today.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved November 27, 2006, from Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD – entry 'printing'</ref>

Compared to woodblock printing, movable type pagesetting was quicker and more durable. The metal type pieces were more durable and the lettering was more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type, and printing presses rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. Today, practically all movable type printing ultimately derives from Gutenberg's invention.

Contents 1 Precursors 1.1 Origin of the letterpunch 1.2 Woodblock printing 1.3 Baked clay movable type 2 Metal movable type in Korea 3 Metal movable type in Europe 4 Type-founding 5 Typesetting 6 See also 7 References

[edit] Precursors

[edit] Origin of the letterpunch

The technique of imprinting multiple copies of symbols or glyphs with a master type punch made of hard metal first developed in coining around 3000 BC in ancient Sumer. Bars or ingots of precious metal were imprinted with a distinctive stamped design; the act of stamping the ingots certified them as currency by the power of the authority symbolized by the type image. These metal punch types can be seen as precursors of the letter punches adapted in later millenia to printing with movable metal type.

By 650 BC the ancient Greeks were using larger diameter punches to imprint small page images onto coins and tokens. Cylinder seals were a related form of early typography capable of printing small page designs in relief (cameo) on wax or clay—a miniature forerunner of rotogravure printing used by wealthy individuals to seal and certify documents.

The artists who made the first coin punches were in effect the first typographers and type designers. Their designs, including glyphs and words, were stylized with a degree of skill that could not be mistaken for common handy-work—salient and very specific types designed to be reproduced ad infinitum. Unlike the first typefaces used to print books in the 13th century, coin types were neither combined or printed with ink on paper, but "published" in metal—a more durable medium—and survived in substantial numbers. As the portable face of ruling authority, coins were a compact form of standardized knowledge issued in large editions, an early mass medium that stabilized trade and civilization throughout the Mediterranean world of antiquity.

Combining multiple types in a single punch-like device might conceivably have first occurred around 1700 BC, The mysterious Phaistos Disc found in Crete in 1908 has been claimed to be an early writing machine^{[citation needed]}. Symbols are stamped with an intaglio-formed punch to appear in relief on the face of the ceramic disc. The true purpose is unknown, but comparisons can be made with the Dymo labeling machine and drum-based writing machines such as the Blickensderfer typewriter. Most historians of printing and epigraphers cannot see a connection.

[edit] Woodblock printing

Main article: Woodblock printing

Prior to the development of metal movable type, printing was performed with blocks carved from wood. A counterpart to metal type punches, woodblocks were used by scribes in Ancient Egypt to stamp common hieroglyphic symbols into tiles.<ref name="Man"> Man, John The Gutenberg Revolution:The story of a genius that changed the world (c) 2002 Headline Book Publishing, a division of Hodder Headline, London. ISBN 0-7472-4504-5. A detailed examination of Gutenberg's life and invention, skillfully interwoven with the underlying social and religious upheaval of Medieval Europe on the eve of the Renaissance.</ref>

Woodblock printing with text and illustrations on paper was first recorded in China in the 5th century. This and the invention of paper in China led to a proliferation of printing activity. By the 8th century entire books were being printed with carved blocks of wood or stone in China, Korea and Japan. Around 770 the Japanese empress Shotoku commemorated the end of an eight year civil war by commissioning one million printed prayers, the endeavour requiring the labour of 157 men over six years. In late 10th century China the complete Buddhist canon Tripitaka of 130,000 pages was printed with carved wooden blocks, using one block for each page.

The colossal labour involved in book typography using this technique reveals its fundamental limit and points the way forward to the next logical step—printing with movable types in a modular arrangement, using one type for each character or unit of writing.

[edit] Baked clay movable type

The first known movable type system was created in China around 1040 AD by Pi Sheng (990-1051) (spelled Bi Sheng in the Pinyin system). Pi Sheng's type was made of baked clay. As described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (1031–1095):

When he wished to print, he took an iron frame and set it on the iron plate. In this he placed the types, set close together. When the frame was full, the whole made one solid block of type. He then placed it near the fire to warm it. When the paste [at the back] was slightly melted, he took a smooth board and pressed it over the surface, so that the block of type became as even as a whetstone.

For each character there were several types, and for certain common characters there were twenty or more types each, in order to be prepared for the repetition of characters on the same page. When the characters were not in use he had them arranged with paper labels, one label for each rhyme-group, and kept them in wooden cases.<ref name=Tsien>

Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin (1985). “part one, vol.5”, Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China,: Paper and Printing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref>

However, Pi Sheng's baked clay types were fragile, and wooden movable type was developed soon thereafter. By the late eleventh century, characters carved onto movable wooden blocks were being used to print books in China. Although the wooden type was more durable under the mechanical rigors of handling, repeated printing wore the character faces down, and the types could only be replaced by carving new pieces. This system was later enhanced by pressing wooden blocks into sand and casting metal types from the depression in copper, bronze, iron or tin. The set of wafer-like metal stamp types could be assembled to form pages, inked, and page impressions taken from rubbings on cloth or paper.

Irrespective of materials used, movable type in China could not proliferate due to the logistical problems of handling the 40,000 to 50,000 logographs making up the Chinese language. It was faster to carve one woodblock per page than to composit a page from so many different types.

[edit] Metal movable type in Korea

For the main article, see History of typography in East Asia

Transition from wood type to metal type occurred ca. 1230 AD during the Goryeo Dynasty of Korea and is credited to Chwe Yun-Ui. A set of ritual books, Sangjong Gogeum Yemun were printed with the movable metal type in 1234.<ref name=christensen> Thomas Christensen (2007). Did East Asian Printing Traditions Influence the European Renaissance?. Arts of Asia Magazine (to appear). Retrieved on 2006-10-18.</ref><ref>Sohn, Pow-Key (summer 1993). "Printing Since the 8th Century in Korea". Koreana 7 (2): 4-9.</ref> Examples of this metal type are on display in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The oldest extant movable metal print book is the Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377.<ref>Michael Twyman, The British Library Guide to Printing: History and Techniques, London: The British Library, 1998 [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0802081797&id=KXoaalwyOjAC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=korea+gutenberg+surviving&sig=4QBhy9ty1jbXJASJcUzFBDfKbGo online]</ref>

The techniques for bronze casting, used at the time for making coins (as well as bells and statues) were adapted to making metal type. The following description of the Korean font casting process was recorded by the Joseon dynasty scholar Song Hyon (15th c.):

At first, one cuts letters in beech wood. One fills a trough level with fine sandy [clay] of the reed-growing seashore. Wood-cut letters are pressed into the sand, then the impressions become negative and form letters [molds]. At this step, placing one trough together with another, one pours the molten bronze down into an opening. The fluid flows in, filling these negative molds, one by one becoming type. Lastly, one scrapes and files off the irregularities, and piles them up to be arranged.<ref name=christensen/>

A potential solution to the linguistic and cultural bottleneck that held back movable type in Korea for two hundred years appeared in the early 15th century—at exactly the same time Gutenberg was working on his invention in Europe—when King Sejong devised a simplified alphabet of 24 characters (Hangul) for use by the common people, which could have made the typecasting and compositing process more feasible. But Sejong's brilliant creation did not receive the attention it deserved. Adoption of the new alphabet was stifled by the inertia of Korea's cultural elite, who were "…appalled at the idea of losing Chinese, the badge of their elitism."<ref name="Man"/>

Proliferation of movable type was also obstructed by a "Confucian prohibition on the commercialization of printing" restricted the distribution of books produced using the new method to the government.<ref name="Burke"/> The technique was restricted to use by the royal foundry for official state publications only, where the focus was on reprinting Chinese classics lost in 1126 when Korea's libraries and palaces had perished in a conflict between dynasties.<ref name="Burke"/>

During the Mongol Empire (1206–1405), printing using movable type spread from Korea. The Uighurs of Central Asia used movable type, their script type adopted from the Mongol language.

Despite these conjectures (also see <ref name=christensen/>) there is no evidence that movable type from the East ever reached Europe.

[edit] Metal movable type in Europe

Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz is acknowledged as the first to invent a metal movable type printing system in Europe. Gutenberg was a goldsmith familiar with techniques of cutting punches for making coins from moulds. Compared with Asian inventors he was working at a considerable advantage with the much smaller character set of the Latin alphabet. Between 1435 to 1450 he developed hardware and techniques for casting letters from matrices using a device called the hand mould. Gutenberg's key invention and contribution to movable type printing in Europe, the hand mould was the first practical means of making cheap copies of letterpunches in the vast quantities needed to print complete books, making the movable type printing process a viable enterprise.

Gutenberg and his associates developed oil-based inks ideally suited to printing with a press on paper, and the first Latin typefaces. His method of casting type may have been different from the hand mould used in subsequent decades. Detailed analysis of the type used in his 42-line Bible has revealed irregularities in some of the characters that cannot be attributed to ink spread or type wear under the pressure of the press. Scholars conjecture that the type pieces may have been cast from a series of matrices made with a series of individual stroke punches, producing many different versions of the same glyph.<ref> Agüera y Arcas, Blaise; Paul Needham (November 2002). "Computational analytical bibliography". Proceedings Bibliopolis Conference The future history of the book', The Hague (Netherlands): Koninklijke Bibliotheek. </ref> It has also been suggested that the method used by Gutenberg involved using a single punch to make a mould, but the mould was such that the process of taking the type out disturbed the casting, creating variants and anomolies, and that the punch-matrix system came into use possibly around the 1470s.<ref> What Did Gutenberg Invent? – Discovery. BBC / Open University (2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-25.</ref> This raises the possibility that the development of movable type in the West may have been progressive rather than a single innovation.<ref>James L. Adams (1991). Flying Buttresses, Entropy and O-Rings: the World of an Engineer. Harvard University Press.</ref>

Gutenberg's movable type printing system spread rapidly across Europe, from the single Mainz press in 1457 to 110 presses by 1480, of which 50 were in Italy. Venice quickly became the center of typographic and printing activity. Significant were the contributions of Nicolas Jenson, Francesco Griffo, Aldus Manutius, and other printers of late 15th century Europe.

For the development of typographic design and style see History of western typography.

[edit] Type-founding

Type-founding as practiced in Europe and the west consists of three stages.

Punchcutting: If the glyph design includes enclosed spaces (counters), a counterpunch is made. The counter shapes are transferred in relief (cameo) onto the end of a rectangular bar of mild steel using a specialized engraving tool called a graver. The finished counterpunch is hardened by heating and quenching (tempering), or exposure to a cyanide solution (case hardening).

The counterpunch is then struck against the end of a similar rectangular steel bar—the letterpunch—to impress the counter shapes as recessed spaces (intaglio). The outer profile of the glyph is completed by scraping away with a graver the material outside the counter spaces, leaving only the stroke or lines of the glyph. Progress toward the finished design is checked by successive smoke proofs; temporal prints made from a thin coating of carbon deposited on the punch surface by a candle flame. The finished letterpunch is finally hardened to withstand the rigors of reproduction by striking.

One counterpunch and one letterpunch are produced for every letter or glyph making up a complete font.

Matrix: The letterpunch is used to strike a blank die of soft metal to make a negative letter mould, called a matrix.

Casting: The matrix is inserted into the bottom of a device called a hand mould. The mould is clamped shut and molten type metal alloy consisting mostly of lead and tin, with a small amount of antimony for hardening, is poured into a cavity from the top. When the type metal has sufficiently cooled the mould is unlocked and a rectangular block approximately 4 centimeters long, called a sort, extracted. Excess casting on the end of the sort, called the tang, is later removed to make the sort the precise height required for printing, known as "type height", approximately 0.918 inches.

[edit] Typesetting

Sorts are assembled into words and lines of text with the aid of a composing stick, and the whole assembly is tightly bound together to make up a page image called a forme, where all letter faces are exactly the same height to form a flat surface of type. The forme is mounted on a printing press, a thin coating of viscous ink is applied and impressions made on paper under great pressure in the press.

[edit] See also

• History of western typography
• History of typography in East Asia
• Matrix (printing)
• Printing
• Printing Press
• Punchcutting
• Spread of printing
• Sort (typesetting)
• Type foundry
• Typesetting

[edit] References

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