The history of printing can be traced from Ancient civilizations writing on stone or clay to our current technology-oriented desktop publishing and digital printing. Before printing on paper, ancient societies used clay, wood, bark, animal skin, cloth and degradable substances like papyrus and rice pith. Technology has continually shaped the history of printing, from the creation of paper and metal text casters to machine printing and digital printing. Richard Gabriel Rummonds, a respected hand press publisher, maintains that ôAll printing has been a delicate balance between aesthetics and productivity, art and industry, craft and expediency,ö (Monaghan, 2005, p. A15). This report will provide a discussion of the history of printing, from Ancient Egyptians use of papyrus to current use of computer technology and software in digital printing.
The history of printing dates back to ancient civilizations like that of EgyptÆs or ChinaÆs. The Chinese used rice pith while the Egyptians used papyrus to make paper, something that would transform society. Papyrus was made by taking out the stringy fibers from the pith of stalks of plants. These strips were then woven together and beaten until they were flat. As Romano (2005, p. 40) explains, ôThe resulting æsheetÆ of crossed fibers was smoothed further with a stone, bone, or shell.ö In this, we have the origins of paper which served as the foundation of printing then and for centuries, but its existence is threatened at the current time by electronic books, newspapers, and magazines. One archeological discovery found a piece of paper that dates back to 105 AD in China, (Romano, 2005). The paper consisted of bark of trees, rags, and hemp. Parchment or vellum was widely used for printing in Europe up until about the 15th century, when paper gained use for printing just before the invention of the printing press.
Ink or ink-like substances can be traced back to the Sum...