Printing Press – A Landmark Invention

Every literate person should be thankful to Johann Gutenberg for his incredible invention of the printing press. Every book or printed material that we have ever used is because this man thought out of the box and created something that was never was in use before. All our modern printers, computers, internet and in fact all that is printed own a great deal to the thought of printing press and the futuristic thinking of this inventor. One should remember that when he actually started printing, no one had ever kept books in their house as we do today. Thus mass education, growth and accessibility of knowledge should be greatly credited to the great effort this German goldsmith. World before the Printing Press:rnThe earliest for of printing was actually seen the Sumerian civilization where people used to make signs and symbols in raw clay tablets and dry them. Many such pieces of clay have been found by the historian and are proof that people of that age used this method to communicate or to note down any information. Printing China is the again of great significance because they started using round shaped seals as mark. Later on printing was practiced with carvings on wooden boards. Indians artisans have been using block printing on cloth for hundreds of centuries. It was in the Buddhist era that China saw another big leap in the field of printing. Monks used to sit and make manuscript copies of the holy scriptures and that how book printing China became popular. Same practices were followed by Christian monks as well who made copies of the Bible by hand. The Impact of Printing Press on the World:rn1. Within the reach of all: The manuscripts took a lot of patience and trouble to be written and thus were very expensive. Commoners could not afford to buy then but only could read for a while at the libraries. But as the books began to be printed, they reduced the cost of production compared to the manuscripts. Now people could afford to have a copy of their favourite book at home and read when they want. 2. Standard Knowledge for all: When a book gets printed it stays the same no matter how many prints you take. This way the last person will get exactly the same copy as the first one. Printing has made reading really reachable and beyond the class culture. 3. Global impact: Manuscripts were found at only important cities and were only read by the religious or the rich. But after the invention of printing press, books started getting distributed everywhere. People even in the farthest corners started reading and accumulating knowledge. 4. Foundation for modernization: Modernization is a thought before it became action and the invention of printing press gave birth to this thought. People started sharing knowledge, they started getting inspired from various inventions and the world as we know was built one thought at time. Thus the world of printing is evolving every day and we will see it make our lives more fun and colourful in the future.