Early Stages of Printing
The first creation of printed work dates back to 868 A.D. in China during the Tang Dynasty, when a religious Buddhist book, The Diamond Sutra, was printed using a method called block printing. Block printing was a method which uses carved wood coated with ink to create letters on surfaces like cloth, paper, and textile. Other forms of printing, including metal block printing and the first movable type which was made with clay, have been created nearly 600 years before Johannes Gutenberg. Bi Sheng (970-1051 A.D.) had developed the first ever movable type of block printing, which was carefully made out of clay and later hardened into a solid. These blocks were then arranged on an iron frame which was pressed on an iron plate. This form yet still used work from a person, but Johannes Gutenberg, centuries later had established the first machine powered printing mechanism.
"The Diamond Sutra"was the first dated printed book from Dunhuang, China 868 A.D.
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Magazine.
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Magazine.