THE HISTORY OF PRINTING Kyle Taveira, Cara Vedral, Angie Wang, Kahleem Wilkins, and Nancy Elharon 1

Woodblock Printing ■Earliest known use: –China before 220 C.E. –Strongly associated with Buddhism ■How it works: –Method of printing on textiles then later on paper –Woodblock is carefully prepared as a relief pattern –The block was cut along the grain of the wood. It is necessary only to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. 2

Stenciling ■Earliest known use: –Caveman years in 9000 B.C.E. –Put hand on wall and blew pigments around it –First colonists brought stenciling to America ■How it works: –the method of applying a design by brushing or sponging paint through a cutout overlay placed on the surface ■Facts: –Colonists couldn’t afford wallpaper so used stenciling to decorate 3

Movable Type ■Inventor: Bi Sheng –Made of ceramic materials in China around 1040 C.E. –In the 1450’s Johannes Gutenberg made a mechanical metal movable type printing press ■Types: –Metal Movable type –Wooden Movable type –Ceramic Movable type 4

Rotary Printing Press ■Inventor: Richard March Hoe –Originated in 1843, perfected in 1846, patented in 1847 ■How it works: –Prints on paper passing between a supporting cylinder and a cylinder containing printing plates ■Facts: –Paper passes through some presses at nearly 20 miles (30 km) per hour, the speed limited partly by the tensile strength of the paper –Large presses can print up to 60,000 copies of 128 standard-size pages in an hour. 5

Intaglio  First became popular in Europe  How it works:  Image is carved into a surface, and the carved line or area is filled with ink, then rolled in a press against a sheet to replicate the image  Cons-  Image is reflected, have to draw backwards  Hard to fix unwanted carvings 6

Lithography ■Inventor: Alois Senefelder –Discovered in 1798 but kept secret until 1818 ■How it works: –Uses the immiscibility of grease and water ■Ink is applied to a grease-treated image on the flat printing surface; nonimage (blank) areas, which hold moisture, repel the lithographic ink. This inked surface is then printed—either directly on paper, by means of a special press, or onto a rubber cylinder 7

Screen Printing ■Earliest known use: –Song Dynasty in China around C.E. –Early 1910’s saw a change in technique using photo-reactive chemicals ■How it works: – mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate –Also a stencil method in which the design is imposed on a screen polyester or other fine mesh, with blank aareas coated with an impermeable substance 8

Flexography ■Use: –For printing on plastic, foil, acetate film, brown paper, and other packaging materials –A modern version of the letterpress used for printing on almost any substrate ■During the 1940’s, the food and drug administration classified aniline dyes unsafe for food packaging –1951, Franklin Moss, the the president of Mosstype Corporation, conducted a poll among the reader’s of his journal, The Mosstype to submit new names for the printing process ■Types: –Platemaking –Mounting 9

Photocopy ■Inventor: Chester Carlson –Led to partnership of Battelle Memorial Institute and Haloid –Later became known as Xerox –Xerox officially introduced Photocopying in 1959 ■How it works: –Uses the technology xerography ■A dry process that uses electrostatic charges on a light sensitive photoreceptor to first attract then transfer toner particles onto paper in the form of an image. Heat, pressure or a combination of both then are used to fuse the toner to the paper 10

Thermal Printing ■How it works: –Uses heat and carefully applied pressure to mark paper in patterns ■Requires heat reactive paper ■Modern thermal-sensitive paper is stable enough to last years ■Printer does not require ink so is cheaper to operate 11

Inkjet Printing ■Inventor: Elmqvist of Siemens –Patented by Elmqvist in 1951 –Later became popular in 1997 with the PT-80 serial character printer ■How it works: –Uses serial printing process, where the printer uses print heads with nozzles arranged in vertical columns, same as dot matrix process ***Most Commonly used today 12

Digital Press ■Earliest known use: –1993 world’s first digital colour printing press was launced called Indigo ■Digital printing refers to methods of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media ■Major upgrade: –No need to replace printing plates which got costly ■Most popular methods: –Inkjets or laser printers 13

Future= 3D Printing  Inventor: Charles W. Hull  Mid 1980s-first 3D printer  Used stereolithography-UV laser is shined into a vat of ultraviolet- sensitive photopolymer, tracing the object to be created on its surface  How it works today:  3D printed objects are achieved using additive process where successive layers of materials are laid down until the entire object is made 14 literally-make-the-future/

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