Moveable type was invented in Asia but was not widely used due to the logographic nature of Asian languages, meaning that most Asian printers relied on xylography and other forms of block printing. In Europe, moveable type was invented separately by the goldsmith and merchant Johannes Gutenberg, drawing on processes from numerous extant technologies. Further innovations followed and the specific details of Gutenberg's own press have been lost, but within a few years, the printing press had largely taken the form it would retain throughout the rest of the hand press period until the mechanization of printing in the nineteenth century.
The following videos are included below:
Steps were being taken towards mechanical printing as early as the 1790s, when the English inventor William Nicholson developed a design for a flat-bed machine. In the 1810s, Friedrich Koenig built steam-powered machines capable of printing 900 perfected sheets per hour, a sixfold increase in speed from hand presses. By the 1850s and 1860s, the hand press had been largely supplanted by a variety of fully mechanized presses. Although hand presses are still used today by artists and fine presses, printing from the 19th century on was a mechanical rather than manual operation.
The following videos are included below:
This series of short documentaries from the Museum of Modern Art takes you through different aspects of print illustrative techniques. The documentaries all stand alone, though it is best to watch the general introduction (1:48) and then both the introduction to each technique (2 minutes or less) and the actual demonstration of a given technique (generally 5 to 7 minutes). Phil Sanders was the director of the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop at the time when the video was done and is now an independent artist and printer based in Asheville, North Carolina.
Relief Printing
Intaglio Printing
Lithography
Relief Printing
Intaglio Printing
Lithography
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has resources describing different printing approaches in detail with short videos of each step.
Linotype was one of the great printing innovations of the 19th century. Developed by the German-born engineer Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899), Linotype machines dispensed with the need for manual composition. Instead, Mergenthaler developed a complex machine that cast lines of type as needed, controlled by a single keyboard. Linotype dramatically accelerated the production of printed materials: a skilled Linotype operator could set type at double the rate of a typical hand compositor without needing to redistribute type after use. It was particularly useful for newspapers, which required a furious pace of typesetting. The first Linotype machine was introduced in 1886 at the New York Tribune and was quickly successful: when Mergenthaler died in 1899, over 6,000 Linotype machines were in use around the world. was only supplanted by the advent of digital printing.
The following videos are included below:
Paper was invented in ancient China, probably around 100 BCE. The technology came to the Middle East in the 8th century CE and from there to Europe, arriving with the Moors in Spain in the 12th century. In Europe, the pulp used for paper was usually linen until the 1840s, at which point it began to be replaced by wood pulp, which was cheaper and easier to produce in large quantities but less durable. Medieval paper was made of linen rags and was produced by hand. It was the preferred medium for print, though sometimes a print run would include luxury copies printed on parchment.
The following videos are included below:
Papermaking by hand at Hayle Mill, England in 1976. A documentary made in 1976 in a paper mill that was still producing paper by hand at the time. (The Hayle Mill closed in 1987.) It includes an explanation of the production of watermarks. Because the paper mill was still operating in the 20th century, the process includes some modern innovations, particularly in the drying of the paper.
