Movable type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is
the system and technology of printing and typography that uses
movable components to reproduce the elements of a document
(usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation marks)
usually on the medium of paper.
Overview A case of cast metal type pieces
and typeset matter in a composing
The world's first movable type printing technology for paper stick
books was made of porcelain materials and was invented around
1040 AD in China during the Northern Song dynasty by the
inventor Bi Sheng (990–1051).[1] The earliest printed paper money with movable metal type to print the
identifying code of the money was made in 1161 during the Song dynasty.[2] In 1193, a book in the Song
dynasty documented how to use the copper movable type.[3] The oldest extant book printed with movable
metal type, Jikji, was printed in Korea in 1377 during the Goryeo dynasty.
The spread of both movable-type systems was, to some degree, limited to primarily East Asia. The
creation of the printing press in Europe may have been influenced by various sporadic reports of movable
type technology brought back to Europe by returning business people and missionaries to China.[4][5][6]
Some of these medieval European accounts are still preserved in the library archives of the Vatican and
Oxford University among many others.[7]
Around 1450, German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the metal movable-type printing press,
along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould. The small number of
alphabetic characters needed for European languages was an important factor.[8] Gutenberg was the first
to create his type pieces from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony—and these materials remained standard
for 550 years.[9]
For alphabetic scripts, movable-type page setting was quicker than woodblock printing. The metal type
pieces were more durable and the lettering was more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. The high
quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type
in Europe and the use of printing presses spread rapidly. The printing press may be regarded as one of the
key factors fostering the Renaissance[10] and, due to its effectiveness, its use spread around the globe.
The 19th-century invention of hot metal typesetting and its successors caused movable type to decline in
the 20th century.
Precursors to movable type
Letter punch and coins
The technique of imprinting multiple copies of symbols or glyphs
with a master type punch made of hard metal first developed
around 3000 BC in ancient Sumer. These metal punch types can
be seen as precursors of the letter punches adapted in later
The King of Na gold seal, bestowed
millennia to printing with movable metal type. Cylinder seals were
by Emperor Guangwu of Han to
used in Mesopotamia to create an impression on a surface by
Wana (Yayoi Japan) in 57 AD
rolling the seal on wet clay.[11]
Seals and stamps
Seals and stamps may have been precursors to movable type. The
uneven spacing of the impressions on brick stamps found in the
Mesopotamian cities of Uruk and Larsa, dating from the 2nd
millennium BC, has been conjectured by some archaeologists as
evidence that the stamps were made using movable type.[12] The
enigmatic Minoan Phaistos Disc of c. 1800–1600 BC has been
The intricate frontispiece of the
considered by one scholar as an early example of a body of text
Diamond Sutra from Tang dynasty
being reproduced with reusable characters: it may have been China, the oldest extant woodblock-
produced by pressing pre-formed hieroglyphic "seals" into the soft printed book, 868 AD (British
clay. A few authors even view the disc as technically meeting all Museum)
definitional criteria to represent an early incidence of movable-
type printing.[13][14]
Woodblock printing
Bones, shells, bamboo slips, metal tablets, stone tablets, silk, as well as other materials were previously
used for writing. However, following the invention of paper during the Chinese Han dynasty, writing
materials became more portable and economical. Yet, copying books by hand was still labour-consuming.
Not until the Xiping Era (172–178 AD), towards the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, did sealing print and
monotype appear. These were used to print designs on fabrics and to print texts.
By about the 8th century during the Tang dynasty, woodblock printing was invented and worked as
follows. First, the neat hand-copied script was stuck on a relatively thick and smooth board, with the front
of the paper sticking to the board, the paper being so thin it was transparent, the characters showing in
reverse distinctly so that every stroke could be easily recognized. Then, carvers cut away the parts of the
board that were not part of the character, so that the characters were cut in relief, completely differently
from those cut intaglio. When printing, the bulging characters would have some ink spread on them and
be covered by paper. With workers' hands moving on the back of paper gently, characters would be
printed on the paper. By the Song dynasty, woodblock printing came to its heyday. Although woodblock
printing played an influential role in spreading culture, there were some significant drawbacks. Carving
the printing plate required considerable time, labour, and materials. It also was not convenient to store
these plates and was difficult to correct mistakes.
History
Ceramic movable type
Bi Sheng (畢昇) (990–1051) developed the first known movable-
type system for printing in China around 1040 AD during the
Northern Song dynasty, using ceramic materials.[16][17] As
described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (沈括) (1031–1095):
When he wished to print, he took an iron frame and set
it on the iron plate. In this he placed the types, set close
together. When the frame was full, the whole made one
solid block of type. He then placed it near the fire to
warm it. When the paste [at the back] was slightly Chinese characters are arranged in
melted, he took a smooth board and pressed it over the the shape of buddha on a page
remain of Amitayurdhyana Sutra
surface, so that the block of type became as even as a
printed in 1103 (Northern Song
whetstone.
dynasty) by ceramic movable type.
Found in Baixiang Pagoda,
For each character there were several types, and for
Wenzhou.[15]
certain common characters there were twenty or more
types each, in order to be prepared for the repetition of
characters on the same page. When the characters were
not in use he had them arranged with paper labels, one
label for each rhyme-group, and kept them in wooden
cases.
If one were to print only two or three copies, this
method would be neither simple nor easy. But for
printing hundreds or thousands of copies, it was
marvelously quick. As a rule he kept two forms going.
While the impression was being made from the one
form, the type was being put in place on the other. When
the printing of the one form was finished, the other was
then ready. In this way the two forms alternated and the
printing was done with great rapidity.[16]
After his death, the ceramic movable-type passed onto his descendants. In 1193, Zhou Bida, an officer of
the Southern Song dynasty, made a set of clay movable-type method according to the method described
by Shen Kuo in his Dream Pool Essays, and printed his book Notes of The Jade Hall 《玉堂雜記》
( ).[18]
The ceramic movable type was also mentioned by Kublai Khan's counsellor Yao Shu, who convinced his
pupil Yang Gu to print language primers using this method.[3]
The claim that Bi Sheng's clay types were "fragile" and "not practical for large-scale printing" and "short
lived"[19] was refuted by later experiments. Bao Shicheng (1775–1885) wrote that baked clay moveable
type was "as hard and tough as horn"; experiments show that clay type, after being baked in an oven,
becomes hard and difficult to break, such that it remains intact after being dropped from a height of two
metres onto a marble floor. The length of clay movable types in China was 1 to 2 centimetres, not 2 mm,
thus hard as horn. But similar to metal type, ceramic type did not hold the water-based Chinese
calligraphic ink well, and had an added disadvantage of uneven matching of the type which could
sometimes result from the uneven changes in size of the type during the baking process.[20][21]
There has been an ongoing debate regarding the success of ceramic printing technology as there have
been no printed materials found with ceramic movable types. However, it is historically recorded to have
been used as late as 1844 in China from the Song dynasty through the Qing dynasty.[18][22]: 22
Wooden movable type
Bi Sheng (990–1051) of the Song dynasty also pioneered the use
of wooden movable type around 1040 AD, as described by the
Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (1031–1095). However, this technology
was abandoned in favour of clay movable types due to the
presence of wood grains and the unevenness of the wooden type
after being soaked in ink.[16][23]
In 1298, Wang Zhen (王禎), a Yuan dynasty governmental official
of Jingde County, Anhui Province, China, re-invented a method of
making movable wooden types. He made more than 30,000
wooden movable types and printed 100 copies of Records of
Jingde County 《旌德縣志》
( ), a book of more than 60,000 Chinese A revolving typecase for wooden
characters. Soon afterwards, he summarized his invention in his type in China, from Wang Zhen's
book published in 1313
book A method of making moveable wooden types for printing
books. Although the wooden type was more durable under the
mechanical rigors of handling, repeated printing wore down the character faces, and the types could only
be replaced by carving new pieces. This system was later enhanced by pressing wooden blocks into sand
and casting metal types from the depression in copper, bronze, iron or tin. This new method overcame
many of the shortcomings of woodblock printing. Rather than manually carving an individual block to
print a single page, movable type printing allowed for the quick assembly of a page of text. Furthermore,
these new, more compact type fonts could be reused and stored.[16][17] Wang Zhen used two rotating
circular tables as trays for laying out his type. The first table was separated into 24 trays in which each
movable type was categorized based on a number corresponding with a rhyming pattern. The second
table contained miscellaneous characters.[3]
The set of wafer-like metal stamp types could be assembled to form pages, inked, and page impressions
taken from rubbings on cloth or paper.[17] In 1322, a Fenghua county officer Ma Chengde (馬称德) in
Zhejiang, made 100,000 wooden movable types and printed the 43-volume Daxue Yanyi 《大學衍義》
( ).
Wooden movable types were used continually in China. Even as late as 1733, a 2300-volume Wuying
Palace Collected Gems Edition 《武英殿聚珍版叢書》
( ) was printed with 253,500 wooden movable types
on order of the Qianlong Emperor, and completed in one year.[3]
A number of books printed in Tangut script during the Western Xia (1038–1227) period are known, of
which the Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union, which was discovered in the ruins of Baisigou
Square Pagoda in 1991 is believed to have been printed sometime during the reign of Emperor Renzong
of Western Xia (1139–1193).[24] It is considered by many Chinese experts to be the earliest extant
example of a book printed using wooden movable type.[25]
Metal movable type
China
At least 13 material finds in China indicate the invention of bronze
movable type printing in China no later than the 12th century,[26]
with the country producing large-scale bronze-plate-printed paper
money and formal official documents issued by the Jin (1115–
1234) and Southern Song (1127–1279) dynasties with embedded
bronze metal types for anti-counterfeit markers. Such paper-
money printing might date back to the 11th-century jiaozi of
Northern Song (960–1127).[22]: 41–54
The typical example of this kind of bronze movable type
embedded copper-block printing is a printed "check" of the Jin
dynasty with two square holes for embedding two bronze
movable-type characters, each selected from 1,000 different
characters, such that each printed paper note has a different
combination of markers. A copper-block printed note dated
between 1215 and 1216 in the collection of Luo Zhenyu's
Pictorial Paper Money of the Four Dynasties, 1914, shows two
Copperplate printed 5000-cash
special characters—one called Ziliao, the other called Zihao—for paper money in year 1215 (Jin
the purpose of preventing counterfeiting; over the Ziliao there is a dynasty) with bronze movable type
small character (輶) printed with movable copper type, while over counterfeit markers
the Zihao there is an empty square hole—apparently the
associated copper metal type was lost. Another sample of Song
dynasty money of the same period in the collection of the Shanghai Museum has two empty square holes
above Ziliao as well as Zihou, due to the loss of the two copper movable types. Song dynasty bronze
block embedded with bronze metal movable type printed paper money was issued on a large scale and
remained in circulation for a long time.[27]
The 1298 book Zao Huozi Yinshufa 《造活字印書法》
( ) by the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) official Wang
Zhen mentions tin movable type, used probably since the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), but this
was largely experimental.[28] It was unsatisfactory due to its incompatibility with the inking
process.[16]: 217 But by the late 15th century these concerns were resolved and bronze type was widely
used in Chinese printing.[29]
During the Mongol Empire (1206–1405), printing using movable type spread from China to Central Asia.
The Uyghurs of Central Asia used movable type, their script type adopted from the Mongol language,
some with Chinese words printed between the pages—strong evidence that the books were printed in
China.[30]
During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Hua Sui in 1490 used bronze type in printing books.[16]: 212 In
1574 the massive 1000-volume encyclopedia Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era 《
( 太平御覧》) was
printed with bronze movable type.
In 1725 the Qing dynasty government made 250,000 bronze movable-type characters and printed 64 sets
of the encyclopedic Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China (《 古 今 圖 書 集 成 》). Each set
consisted of 5,040 volumes, making a total of 322,560 volumes printed using movable type.[30]
Korea
In 1234 the first books known to have been printed in metallic
type set were published in Goryeo dynasty Korea. They form a set
of ritual books, Sangjeong Gogeum Yemun, compiled by Ch'oe
Yun-ŭi.[31][32]
While these books have not survived, the oldest book existing in
the world printed in metallic movable types is Jikji, printed in
Korea in 1377.[33] The Asian Reading Room of the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C., displays examples of this metal Korean movable type from 1377
type.[34] Commenting on the invention of metallic types by used for the Jikji
Koreans, French scholar Henri-Jean Martin described this as "
[extremely similar] to Gutenberg's".[35] However, Korean movable
metal type printing differed from European printing in the
materials used for the type, punch, matrix, mould and in method of
making an impression.[36]
The techniques for bronze casting, used at the time for making
coins (as well as bells and statues) were adapted to making metal
type. The Joseon dynasty scholar Seong Hyeon (성현, 成 俔 ,
1439–1504) records the following description of the Korean font-
casting process:
Printed pages of the Jikji
At first, one cuts letters in beech wood. One fills a
trough level with fine sandy [clay] of the reed-growing
seashore. Wood-cut letters are pressed into the sand,
then the impressions become negative and form letters
[moulds]. At this step, placing one trough together with
another, one pours the molten bronze down into an
opening. The fluid flows in, filling these negative
moulds, one by one becoming type. Lastly, one scrapes
and files off the irregularities, and piles them up to be
arranged.[31]
A potential solution to the linguistic and cultural bottleneck that held back movable type in Korea for 200
years appeared in the early 15th century—a generation before Gutenberg would begin working on his
own movable-type invention in Europe—when Sejong the Great devised a simplified alphabet of 24
characters (hangul) for use by the common people, which could have made the typecasting and
compositing process more feasible. But Korea's cultural elite, "appalled at the idea of losing hanja, the
badge of their elitism", stifled the adoption of the new alphabet.[17]
A "Confucian prohibition on the commercialization of printing" also obstructed the proliferation of
movable type, restricting the distribution of books produced using the new method to the government.[37]
The technique was restricted to use by the royal foundry for official state publications only, where the
focus was on reprinting Chinese classics lost in 1126 when Korea's libraries and palaces had perished in a
conflict between dynasties.[37]
Scholarly debate and speculation has occurred as to whether Eastern movable type spread to Europe
between the late 14th century and early 15th centuries.[31][6]: 58–69 [38][5][39] For example, authoritative
historians Frances Gies and Joseph Gies claimed that "The Asian priority of invention movable type is
now firmly established, and that Chinese-Korean technique, or a report of it traveled westward is almost
certain."[4] However, Joseph P. McDermott claimed that "No text indicates the presence or knowledge of
any kind of Asian movable type or movable type imprint in Europe before 1450. The material evidence is
even more conclusive."[39]
Europe
Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, invented the printing
press, using a metal movable type system. Gutenberg, as a
goldsmith, knew techniques of cutting punches for making coins
from moulds. Between 1436 and 1450 he developed hardware and
techniques for casting letters from matrices using a device called
the hand mould.[6] Gutenberg's key invention and contribution to
movable-type printing in Europe, the hand mould, was the first
practical means of making cheap copies of letterpunches in the
vast quantities needed to print complete books, making the
movable-type printing process a viable enterprise.
Before Gutenberg, scribes copied books by hand on scrolls and
paper, or print-makers printed texts from hand-carved wooden The Printing Revolution in the 15th
century: Within several decades
blocks. Either process took a long time; even a small book could
around 270 European towns took up
take months to complete. Because carved letters or blocks were
movable-type printing.[40]
flimsy and the wood susceptible to ink, the blocks had a limited
lifespan.
Gutenberg and his associates developed oil-based inks ideally suited to printing with a press on paper,
and the first Latin typefaces. His method of casting type may have differed from the hand-mould used in
subsequent decades. Detailed analysis of the type used in his 42-line Bible has revealed irregularities in
some of the characters that cannot be attributed to ink spread or type wear under the pressure of the press.
Scholars conjecture that the type pieces may have been cast from a series of matrices made with a series
of individual stroke punches, producing many different versions of the same glyph.[42]
It has also been suggested that the method used by Gutenberg
involved using a single punch to make a mould, but the mould was
such that the process of taking the type out disturbed the casting,
causing variants and anomalies, and that the punch-matrix system
came into use possibly around the 1470s.[43]
This raises the possibility that the development of movable type in
the West may have been progressive rather than a single
innovation.[44]
Gutenberg's movable-type printing system spread rapidly across
Europe, from the single Mainz printing press in 1457 to 110
presses by 1480, with 50 of them in Italy. Venice quickly became
European output of movable-type
the centre of typographic and printing activity. Significant
printing from Gutenberg to 1800[41]
contributions came from Nicolas Jenson, Francesco Griffo, Aldus
Manutius, and other printers of late 15th-century Europe.
Gutenberg's movable type printing system offered a number of
advantages over previous movable type techniques. The lead-
antimony-tin alloy used by Gutenberg had half the melting
temperature of bronze,[45][46] making it easier to cast the type and
aided the use of reusable metal matrix moulds instead of the
expendable sand and clay moulds. The use of antimony alloy
increased hardness of the type compared to lead and tin[47] for
improved durability of the type. The reusable metal matrix
Editing with movable metal – c.
allowed a single experienced worker to produce 4,000 to 5,000 1920
individual types a day,[48][49] while Wang Chen had artisans
working 2 years to make 60,000 wooden types.[50]
Type-founding
Stages
Type-founding as practised in Europe and the West consists of three
stages:
Punchcutting
If the glyph design includes enclosed spaces (counters) then
a counterpunch is made. The counter shapes are transferred
in relief (cameo) onto the end of a rectangular bar of carbon
steel using a specialized engraving tool called a graver. The
finished counterpunch is hardened by heating and quenching
(tempering), or exposure to a hot cyanide compound (case
hardening). The counterpunch is then struck against the end
of a similar rectangular steel bar—the letterpunch—to A piece of cast metal type,
impress the counter shapes as recessed spaces (intaglio). Garamond style long s i
The outer profile of the glyph is completed by scraping away ligature. See also: Sort.
with a graver the material outside the counter spaces, leaving
only the stroke or lines of the glyph. Progress toward the
finished design is checked by successive smoke proofs; temporary prints made from a
thin coating of carbon deposited on the punch surface by a candle flame. The finished
letter punch is finally hardened to withstand the rigours of reproduction by striking. One
counterpunch and one letterpunch are produced for every letter or glyph making up a
complete font.
Matrix
The letterpunch is used to strike a blank die of soft metal to make a negative letter mould,
called a matrix.
Casting
The matrix is inserted into the bottom of a device called a hand mould. The mould is
clamped shut and molten type metal alloy (consisting mostly of lead and tin, with a small
amount of antimony for hardening) is poured into a cavity from the top. Antimony has the
rare property of expanding as it cools, giving the casting sharp edges.[51] When the type
metal has sufficiently cooled, the mould is unlocked and a rectangular block approximately
4 cm (1.6 in) long, called a sort, is extracted. Excess casting on the end of the sort, called
the tang, is later removed to make the sort the precise height required for printing, known
as "type height".
National traditions
The type-height varied in different countries. The Monotype Corporation Limited in London UK
produced moulds in various heights:
0.918 inches (23.3 mm): United Kingdom, Canada, U.S.
0.928 inches (23.6 mm): France, Germany, Switzerland and most other European countries
0.933 inches (23.7 mm): Belgium height
0.9785 inches (24.85 mm): Dutch height
A Dutch printer's manual mentions a tiny difference between French and German Height:[52]
62.027 points Didot = 23.30 mm (0.917 in) = English height
62.666 points Didot = 23.55 mm (0.927 in) = French height
62.685 points Didot = 23.56 mm (0.928 in) = German height
66.047 points Didot = 24.85 mm (0.978 in) = Dutch Height
Tiny differences in type-height can cause quite bold images of characters.
At the end of the 19th century there were only two typefoundries left in the Netherlands: Johan Enschedé
& Zonen, at Haarlem, and Lettergieterij Amsterdam, voorheen Tetterode. They both had their own type-
height: Enschedé: 65 23/24 points Didot, and Amsterdam: 66 1/24 points Didot—enough difference to
prevent a combined use of fonts from the two typefoundries: Enschede would be too light, or otherwise
the Amsterdam-font would print rather bold. This was a way of keeping clients.[53]
In 1905 the Dutch governmental Algemeene Landsdrukkerij, later: "State-printery" (Staatsdrukkerij)
decided during a reorganisation to use a standard type-height of 63 points Didot. Staatsdrukkerij-hoogte,
actually Belgium-height, but this fact was not widely known.
Typesetting
Modern, factory-produced movable type was available in the late 19th century. It was held in the printing
shop in a job case, a drawer about 2 inches high, a yard wide, and about two feet deep, with many small
compartments for the various letters and ligatures. The most popular and accepted of the job case designs
in America was the California Job Case, which took its name from the Pacific coast location of the
foundries that made the case popular.[54]
Traditionally, the capital letters were stored in a separate drawer or case that was located above the case
that held the other letters; this is why capital letters are called "upper case" characters while the non-
capitals are "lower case".[55]
Compartments also held spacers, which are blocks of blank type used to separate words and fill out a line
of type, such as em and en quads (quadrats, or spaces. A quadrat is a block of type whose face is lower
than the printing letters so that it does not itself print.). An em space was the width of a capital letter
"M"—as wide as it was high—while an en space referred to a space half the width of its height (usually
the dimensions for a capital "N").
Individual letters are assembled into words and lines of text with the aid of a composing stick, and the
whole assembly is tightly bound together to make up a page image called a forme, where all letter faces
are exactly the same height to form a flat surface of type. The forme is mounted on a printing press, a thin
coating of viscous ink is applied, and impressions are made on paper under great pressure in the press.
"Sorts" is the term given to special characters not freely available in the typical type case, such as the "@"
mark.
Metal type combined with other methods
Sometimes, it is erroneously stated that printing with metal type
replaced the earlier methods. In the industrial era printing methods
would be chosen to suit the purpose. For example, when printing
large scale letters in posters etc. the metal type would have proved
too heavy and economically unviable. Thus, large scale type was
made as carved wood blocks as well as ceramics plates.[56] Also in
many cases where large scale text was required, it was simpler to
hand the job to a sign painter than a printer. Images could be
printed together with movable type if they were made as woodcuts Ceramic type from the collections of
University of Reading
or wood engravings as long as the blocks were made to the same
type height. If intaglio methods, such as copper plates, were used
for the images, then images and the text would have required separate print runs on different machines.
See also
History of printing in East Asia
History of Western typography
Letterpress printing
Odhecaton – the first sheet music printed with movable type
Spread of European movable type printing
Type foundry
Typesetting
Style guides
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Further reading
Nesbitt, Alexander (1957). The History and Technique of Lettering ([Link]
s/historytechnique0000nesb_r0f7/). Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-486-40281-9.
LCCN 57-13116 ([Link] The Dover edition is an abridged and
corrected republication of the work originally published in 1950 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. under
the title Lettering: The History and Technique of Lettering as Design.
Moxon, Joseph (1683–84). Herbert Davies; Harry Carter (eds.). Mechanick Exercises
on the Whole Art of Printing ([Link]
c3) (1962 reprint ed.). New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-23617-X. LCCN 77-
20468 ([Link] The classic manual of hand-press technology.
Wilkinson, Endymion (2012), Chinese History: A New Manual ([Link]
nesehistoryne0000wilk), Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute,
ISBN 978-0-674-06715-8
External links
International Printing Museum Web site ([Link]
Category:Typographical symbols – Articles related to typographical symbols
Demonstration of Goryeo Period Korean Movable Type Printing ([Link]
atch?v=NIgUExYct4Y)
Movable type of printing ([Link]
03100213284) at Oxford Reference
Retrieved from "[Link]