The Development of Paper and Printing Technology

AD 105  Invention of paper — inventor Cai Lun / Tsai-Lun (China)

770  Dharani Sutra from Japan, printed from woodblocks

1390  First German paper mill — the Gleismühle in Nuremberg

1392  Earliest documented printing with movable metal type — Korea

1423  Oldest dated woodcut

1445  The art of printing — Johannes Gutenberg, Mainz

1446  Oldest surviving print by Gutenberg — the Mainz Fragment of the Last Judgement

1450  Rise of the woodcut

1512  First italic type — Aldus Manutius the Elder, Venice

1515  Oldest surviving etching — Daniel Hopfer, Augsburg

1566  First standardisation (norm) of type and printing sizes — Aldus Manutius the Younger, Venice

1605  The Relation appears in Strasbourg as the first newspaper, making Germany the country where the newspaper originated.

1737  Invention of the typographic point system and creation of the variable, rounded music-note type for printing musical notation — Pierre Simon Fournier, Paris

1739  Plaster stereotyping — William Ged, Scotland

1790  Tone woodcut (wood engraving) — Thomas Bewick, England

1796  Lithography — Alois Senefelder, Munich

1797  Alois Senefelder invents stone printing (lithography)

1799  Paper machine — Louis Robert, France

1800  Iron hand press — Lord Stanhope, England

1812  High-speed press — Friedrich Koenig, England

1814  Friedrich Koenig receives the patent for the first perfecting press (printing both sides in one pass)

1817  Lithographic press — Alois Senefelder, Munich

1829  Paper stereotyping — Claude Genoux, France

1837  Electrotype — Jacobi, St Petersburg

1843  Groundwood pulp — F. G. Keller, Germany

1848  Line etching — Firmin Gillot, Paris

1850  Gordon platen press — G. Phineas Gordon, USA

1850  Liberty platen press — Otto Degener, USA

1851  First perfecting press

1855  Collotype — Louis Poitevin, France

1858  Boston platen press — J. Golding, Boston, USA

1860  Rotary press — William Bullock, USA

1870  Gally platen press — J. M. Gally, USA

1871  High-speed collotype press — Joseph Albert, Munich

1879  Introduction of the typographic point system based on the Didot standard — Hermann Berthold, Berlin

1881  Halftone (autotype) — Georg Meisenbach, Munich

1882  Dry stereotyping — Carl Kempe, Nuremberg

1886  Linotype line-casting machine — Ottmar Mergenthaler, in the USA

1888  Typograph line-casting machine — R. Rogers, USA

c. 1890  James Livesey presents the first folding machine

1892  Three-colour halftone printing — W. Kurtz, USA

1893  Rotogravure — K. Klietsch (Klíč), Austria

1897  Monotype — Tolbert Lanston, USA

1903  Offset printing — Washington Rubel, USA, and Kaspar Hermann, USA/Germany

1906  Ludlow line-casting machine — Ludlow, USA

c. 1907  Karl Klietsch (Klíč) invents gravure printing

1907  MKZ make-ready process — Lankes & Schwärzler, Munich

1912  Offset rotary press — Kaspar Hermann, USA

1913  Intertype typesetting machine — Hermann Ridder and W. S. Scudder, USA

c. 1920  Invention of offset printing

1932  First four-colour sheet-fed offset press (Planeta-Deca) — Würzburg

1938  Semperit printing block — Prof. Trötzmüller, Austria

1938  Development of screen printing

1941  Lumbeck adhesive (perfect) binding — Emil Lumbeck, Essen

1946  Ozasol printing plates — Kalle & Co., Wiesbaden

1948  Linofilm phototypesetting machine — James Plastaras, USA

1950  Megum printing block — Karl Wedekind, Bad Homburg

1952  Hickethier colour system (first version 1839) — Alfred Hickethier, Hanover

1987  Computer-to-plate process — Linotype-Hell, Germany

1993  Digital printing process / digital press — Benny Landa, Israel

c. 1995  Development of electrophotography and digital printing

1997  The e-book "Rocket eBook system" — NuvoMedia, Palo Alto, California, USA

2000  First inkjet 3D printer (Objet Geometries) and first multi-colour 3D printer (Z Corp) — Israel / USA

2004  Sony Librie, the first commercial e-ink reader (developed by Sony, Philips, Toppan Printing and E Ink) — Japan

2006  Sony Reader PRS-500, the first dedicated e-ink e-reader sold outside Japan — Sony

2007  Amazon Kindle (first generation), launched on 19 November; it sold out within hours and brought e-reading to a mass market — Amazon / LAB126, USA

c. 2010  Rise of print-on-demand and the maturing of high-speed commercial inkjet presses, allowing single copies to be printed economically

2010s  Consolidation of digital printing in the book trade — offset for long runs, digital and print-on-demand for short runs and self-publishing

2022  Kindle Scribe and the spread of e-ink writing tablets — the reader becomes a device to write on as well as read

2024  First colour e-ink Kindle (Kindle Colorsoft) — Amazon