Chapter 3. The Basics of Commercial Printing

Printing is simply the reproduction of images in quantity. Creating one image, such as a painting or a drawing, is art; reproducing an image into many copies is printing.

Printing has been around for centuries. Although Gutenberg created the first moveable type printing press in 1440, the Chinese had block printing as early as 200 AD. The speedier rotary press came in the middle of the 19th century.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, office workers have needed to quickly make many copies of their typewritten and illustrated documents. Most of these techniques used versions of photography, stencils, or carbon papers. Photography required messy liquids and expensive equipment. Stencils had a limited ...

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