Together with the lack of reading and writing skills of much of the population in Europe, the time-consuming process of mass-producing written works meant that ideas and information were slow to spread to other towns and countries.

Sometime around 1440, a German goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press that used movable type. Moveable type made use of individual letters, made of metal or wood, that could be arranged to spell out words and paragraphs.

Once the page was set, they were placed face up in a frame on a flat metal bed and inked using a roller made of leather. A piece of paper was placed on top of the inked letters, then the whole frame was rolled under a flat metal plate. With a handle or screw, the operator would press the plate down onto the frame. The pressure would stamp the inked type on the paper.

The frame was rolled out and the page removed. The type would be inked again and another piece of paper added. Once the desired number of copies were printed, the next set of type would be arranged and added to the frame, so the next set of pages could be printed.

While one person inked the letters, another could remove and reset the sheet of paper ready for printing. While two people worked the press, others would work arranging the type in frames ready for the next page run. Efficient printers could produce around 250 pages an hour. With this new method of printing, the same information could be duplicated exactly many times over with accuracy and clarity. This extended to images as well as text.

One of the first major works to be published using moveable type was the Bible. It would become known as the Gutenberg Bible. Wildly popular when new, with many copies being sold, only 49 complete copies remain in existence today. The National Library of Australia holds a single leaf from a Gutenberg Bible.

Learning activities

• The invention of the printing press changed the world. New discoveries, ideas and information reached more people, more quickly and in higher volume.
  • As a class, create a list of innovations or technologies that changed the world (for better or worse).
  • Have the class vote and rank the top ten developments and create a survey.
  • Have the class survey other students/classes/teachers on their choices for more influential innovation.
  • Compile the survey results and rank the results accordingly.
• Although the printing press was a feat of technology and engineering at the time, the idea of stamping shapes, patterns or letters onto a surface to tell a story or convey an idea is thousands of years old.
  • Have the class write a simple story or idea.
  • To tell their story they can create a series of stamps: they could be shapes, patterns, letters, numbers, etc. These can be created out of a range of materials including vinyl, plastic, rubber, sponge, wood, etc.
  • Using paint or ink, have the students print their story, idea or concept using their stamps.
• The English language employs a range of idioms that relate to printing.
  • Using the list below, see if the class can deduce the meaning of the idioms and if they have heard them before.
  • Research the meaning behind each idiom.
    • Not worth the paper it’s printed on
    • Read the fine/small print
    • Upper case
    • Lower case
    • Mind your p’s and q’s
    • Stop the presses!
    • A licence to print money
    • Hit print!
    • Hot off the press(es)!