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Six Centuries of Type and Printing
If you ever wondered how the craft of printing was invented and how it evolved, this book answers that question and many others. Starting with Gutenberg, Six Centuries of Type and Printing traces the development of type design, type manufacture, presses, and printing through the present digital era with many stops along the way. The book explains how many aspects of printing and type remain the same, despite a shift from metal to photography to bits, across almost six centuries of constant improvement.
You’ll learn about Gutenberg’s unique invention, the type hand mold, and how it pulled all the pieces of contemporary technology together to print one of the still most beautiful books ever published. Six Centuries details how the standard press worked, a fixture from the 1450s to the 1800s, and why development stagnated in many areas. It explains how, in the late 1700s, innovation picked up and never stopped, with new techniques to produce type in massive quantities and print at ever-faster speeds.
The book also covers the modern era, detailing the transition from metal to photographic to digital technologies, which disrupted the lives of printers and the industry again and again. It ends on a cheery note with the reinvigoration of letterpress printing, a craft that nearly died in the digital era, but now is in the midst of a craft renaissance.
You’ll learn about Gutenberg’s unique invention, the type hand mold, and how it pulled all the pieces of contemporary technology together to print one of the still most beautiful books ever published. Six Centuries details how the standard press worked, a fixture from the 1450s to the 1800s, and why development stagnated in many areas. It explains how, in the late 1700s, innovation picked up and never stopped, with new techniques to produce type in massive quantities and print at ever-faster speeds.
The book also covers the modern era, detailing the transition from metal to photographic to digital technologies, which disrupted the lives of printers and the industry again and again. It ends on a cheery note with the reinvigoration of letterpress printing, a craft that nearly died in the digital era, but now is in the midst of a craft renaissance.
- GenresHistory
Kindle Edition
Published October 17, 2019
3 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Glenn Fleishman
81 books226 followersI started writing as a child and never stopped. I’ve always been interested in what makes things tick and how to explain that. That led to a career as a technology journalist and how-to article and book author. I’ve written dozens of books over my career in some combination of the two.
In the 2010s, I started publish a series of book that combined printing and type history and technology in a variety of ways. These titles include Not To Put Too Fine a Point on It, a collection of essays and reporting; London Kerning, a look at two magnificent London printing collections and the city’s typographical history; Six Centuries of Type & Printing; and How Comics Were Made, a heavily visual history of the production and reproduction of newspaper comics from the 1890s to the present.
I live in Seattle, Washington, with my family, and drink very little coffee.
In the 2010s, I started publish a series of book that combined printing and type history and technology in a variety of ways. These titles include Not To Put Too Fine a Point on It, a collection of essays and reporting; London Kerning, a look at two magnificent London printing collections and the city’s typographical history; Six Centuries of Type & Printing; and How Comics Were Made, a heavily visual history of the production and reproduction of newspaper comics from the 1890s to the present.
I live in Seattle, Washington, with my family, and drink very little coffee.
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July 17, 2025
I love a book about process, and this is a spectacularly detailed love letter to the fading art of printing. It’s short, but does a great job of sketching out hundreds of years worth of the important developments in print and type.
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