History of Printing Timeline
This data, provided as an aid to students, was compiled from many sources. All entries should be verified. To suggest entries or corrections, please contact the editor.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| ca. 3100 BCE | Cuneiform, one of the earliest known writing systems developed in Sumer (modern day Iraq). Wedge-shaped marks were made on clay tablets by a blunt stylus cut from a reed. |
| ca. 3000 | Papyrus plant, paper-like material used as a writing surface in Egypt. Ink from lamp-black made in China. |
| ca. 500 | Amate, a beaten paper-like material, made in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. |
| ca. 200 | Parchment, a material made from processed animal skin, used as a writing surface in Pergamon (Anatolian Greece, Asia Minor, now Turkey). |
| 105 CE | Invention of the papermaking process credited to Ts'ai Lun [Cai Lun] a palace advisor during the Han Dynasty of China. |
| ca. 500 | Papermaking in Samarkand (modern day Uzbekistan). |
| 711 | Moors invade Spain, introducing papermaking techniques from the east. |
| 742–751 | Dharani Sutra on Immaculate and Pure Light (Korean: 무구정광대다라니경, 無垢淨光大陀羅尼經) is the world’s oldest extant printing material, printed using woodblock in Unified Silla (統一新羅) Dynasty of Korea |
| 794 | Papermill established in Baghdad, Abbasid dynasty (present day Iraq). |
| ca. 800 | Book of Kells illuminated Latin manuscript Gospel produced in Britain and Ireland. |
| 868 | The Diamond Sutra, a Chinese translation of a Buddhist text now preserved in the British Library. |
| 932 | Chinese printers adapt Wood-block printing to mass-produce classical books. |
| 1041 | Movable type, made from baked clay, invented in China. |
| 1151 | First papermill in Europe at Xàtiva (Spain). |
| 1239 | The oldest Metal-Movable-Type printed book is The Song of Enlightenment with Commentaries by Buddhist Monk Nammyeong Cheon (Korean: 남명천화상송증도가, 南明泉和尙頌證道歌). (The Goryeo (高麗) Dynasty of Korea) |
| 1282 | Watermarks first used in Italian-made paper. |
| 1298 | Marco Polo reported seeing the printing of paper money in China. |
| 1309 | Paper first used in England. |
| 1377 | The world's second oldest extant book printed with movable metal type |
| 1403 | Guild of Stationers, consisting of booksellers, scribes, illustrators and bookbinders, founded in London. |
| 1423 | European wood block print: St. Christopher with the infant Christ. |
| 1430s | Engraving, combined with drypoint, was first used for intaglio printing plates in Germany |
| 1438–44 | Adjustable type mold developed by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz (Germany). |
| 1454 | First dated European document: a papal indulgence attributed to Gutenberg. |
| 1455 | Gutenberg's Bible completed by his creditor Johann Fust and his own workman Peter Schoeffer. |
| 1457 | First printed colophon in the Psalter by Fust and Schoeffer. It also had the first error: "Spalmorum" instead of Psalmorum. Corrected in subsequent editions. |
| 1462 | Fust and Schoeffer first to use a printer's mark. |
| 1464 | Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweinheim, first printers in Italy (Subiaco) and first to use a Roman printing type. |
| 1465 | Drypoint engraving developed in Germany. Greek type used in Cicero's De officiis printed by Fust and Schoeffer. |
| 1473 | The Constance Gradual, the earliest printed music (after the single line of music in the 1457 Mainz Psalter). William Caxton prints the first book in English, Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy, in Bruges in collaboration with the Flemish printer Colard Mansion. Three years later Caxton then set up a printshop in England. |
| 1476 | Intaglio used for book illustration, a printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, and the incision line or sunken area holds the ink. It is the opposite of relief printing such as letterpress. First modern title page in Regiomontanus's Kalendario printed by Erhard Ratdolt in Venice. |
| 1478 | Printing begins at Oxford University. |
| 1486 | Erhard Ratdolt issues earliest known type specimen in Venice. |
| 1493 | Nuremberg Chronicle one of the first books to successfully integrate illustrations and text. |
| 1495 | Paper mill established in England. |
| ca.1495 | Etching developed by metalsmith Daniel Hopfer in Augsburg (Germany). |
| 1498–1501 | Odhecaton, book of music printed from movable type. |
| 1499 | Woodcut of a printing press appears in La Grande Danse Macabre printed by Matthias Huss at Lyon. |
| 1501 | Italic type and small format books introduced by Aldus Manutius in Venice. |
| 1514 | Book of Hours printed in Arabic types in Fano (Italy). |
| 1520–23 | Babylonian Talmud printed by Daniel Bomberg in Venice. |
| 1529 | Champfleury published by Geoffroy Tory in Paris. It promoted grammar, punctuation and letterform proportion. |
| 1530 | Claude Garamond designs a Roman typeface in Paris. |
| 1537–38 | Paganino and Alessandro Paganini produced the first printed edition of the Qur'an in Arabic (Venice). |
| 1539 | Juan Pablos (Giovanni Paoli) became the first printer in North America (Mexico City). |
| 1545 | Claude Garamond designs his typeface; forms first independent foundry. |
| 1563 | Printing in France forbidden without royal permission under penalty of death. |
| 1568–1573 | Biblia Polyglotta printed in five languages by Christopher Plantin in Antwerp. |
| 1569 | Mercator's world map, his projection was a boon to navigation. |
| 1584 | The University Press at Cambridge begins operation, and has done so continuously since. It lays claim to being both the world's oldest university press in and the oldest printing & publishing house. |
| ca. 1600 | Spain outlaws papermaking in its New World colonies. |
| 1605 | German language newspaper Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien (Strasbourg). |
| 1611 | Publication of the first edition of the King James Bible |
| 1623 | Shakespeare's First Folio published. |
| 1639 | The Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in the American colonies (Cambridge). |
| 1642 | Mezzotint, the first tonal method to produce half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques such as cross-hatching or stippleling. It is achieved by roughening the plate with thousands of little dots made by a metal tool with small teeth called a "rocker." |
| 1665 | The Oxford Gazette, first regularly published English newspaper. Charles II moved his family (and the newspaper) back to London in 1666. |
| 1683 | Mechanick Exercises on The Whole Art of Printing by Joseph Moxon, the first manual on printing. |
| 1690 | Papermaking in America (Philadelphia). Newspaper published in America, Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick (Boston). |
| 1692 | Romain du Roi, the first produced type based rational design. Influenced the later transitional typefaces of Pierre Simon Fournier and John Baskerville. |
| 1698 | Public library opens in Charleston, South Carolina. |
| 1702 | Daily newspaper in England, the Daily Courant. |
| 1710 | Statute of Anne regulates copyright in Great Britain. |
| 1725 | Coloritto by Jacob Christoph Le Blon. Described a RYB three-color printing process. |
| 1728 | Stereotype printing plates developed. It was means of reproducing composed type forms to prevent wear of original types and free them for other use. |
| 1731 | Library Company of Philadelphia, first American subscription library, founded by Benjamin Franklin and fellow members of the Junto, a club for mutual improvement. |
| 1733 | Poor Richard's Almanack, published by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
| 1735 | Publisher John Peter Zenger acquitted of libel in colonial New York City, setting the legal standard. |
| 1743 | Joh. Enschedé began manufacturing type in Haarlem (The Netherlands). |
| 1750 | John Baskerville designs a typeface in Cambridge, England. |
| 1751 | Diderot's Encyclopédie published in France. |
| 1752 | Canada's first newspaper the Halifax Gazette in Nova Scotia. |
| 1755 | A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson. The Printer's Grammar by John Smith. |
| 1757 | Wove paper developed by James Whatman for Baskerville's Virgil. |
| 1764 | Manuel Typographique by Pierre-Simon Fournier. A treatise on the history of French types and printing. |
| 1768 | Encyclopædia Britannica |
| 1775 | Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Wood engraving developed by Thomas Bewick. Kibyoshi, Japanese picture books, birth of the graphic novel. |
| 1776 | Declaration of Independence printed July 4 by John Dunlap. |
| 1780 | A typographic point system developed by (and later named for) François-Ambroise Didot. Based on the pre-metric French inch. |
| 1790 | William Nicholson (1753–1815) patents cylindrical printing press, London. |
| 1786 | Philadelphia printers conduct first successful strike for increased wages. |
| 1793 | The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake. |
| 1796 | Lithography invented by Alois Senefelder. Binny & Ronaldson type foundry established in Philadelphia. |
| 1798 | Giambattista Bodoni designs a typeface in Parma (Italy). |
| 1803 | An all iron hand press built by Charles Mahon, third Earl of Stanhope. Fourdrinier continuous web papermaking machine. |
| 1803 | Fourdrinier continuous web papermaking machine. |
| 1805 | R. Hoe & Company, a printing press manufacturer, established in New York. Carbon paper developed |
| 1806 | Canada's first French language newspaper Le Canadien published in Quebec City until 1810. |
| 1810 | Composition ink rollers developed in London to replace ink balls. The History of Printing in America by Isaiah Thomas |
| 1813 | George Clymer develops the Columbian printing press, a cast-iron hand press featuring a lever, which replaced the simple screw mechanism for lowering the platen. It is distinguished by its bald eagle counterweight at top. |
| 1814 | Steam-powered, cylinder printing press, built by Frederick Koenig and Conrad Bauer installed at The Times in London. |
| 1816 | Sans-serif type shown in a specimen by William Caslon IV. |
| 1818 | Manual Tipografico by Giambattista Bodoni, posthumously published by his widow in Parma. Stephenson Blake typefoundry established in Sheffield, England. |
| 1820s | Photoengraving process emerges. Albion press iron hand press developed by Richard Whittaker Cope. Its simple toggle action is an improvement on the complex lever-mechanism of the Columbian press and the Stanhope press. American Daniel Treadwell developed the first bed and platen press powered by a treadle (London). |
| 1821 | Commercial lithographic firm established by William Armand Genet Barnet and Isaac Doolittle. |
| 1823 | Newly-founded Republic of Mexico establishes a Government Printing Office in Mexico City, inside the National Palace. |
| 1824 | Books bound in cloth issued by William Pickering in London. |
| 1825 | Typographia by Thomas Curson Hansard Louis John Pouchée, a London typefounder, produces ornamented types now regarded among the best of their kind. |
| 1826 | Daniel Fanshaw, NYC, arguably the first "production printer of the machine age." Using Treadwell presses, he held the contracts for the American Bible Society and the American Tract Society. Active till about 1846." Paper first made in the Toronto area from rags in by Eastwood and Skinner. |
| 1827 | John B. Russwurm establishes Freedom's Journal, first African-American newspaper in New York. Means for mass-producing wood type invented by Darius Wells in New York. Mass-produced newspaper, The New York Sun, "the penny press." |
| 1827–38 | Audubon's The Birds of America. Hand-colored, life-size prints, often referred to its large size as the double elephant folio. |
| 1828 | Darius Wells published the first known catalogue of wood type. Wells introduced the lateral router for cutting endgrain wood type which, when combined with the pantograph in 1834, created the essential wood type making machinery that lasted over 150 years. |
| 1829 | Louis Braille develops a tactile writing system used by the blind. |
| 1830 | Adams Power Press introduced. Calendered paper produced in England. |
| 1830s | Paperback books appear in England and Ireland. |
| 1834 | London Union of Compositors formed by the merger of the London Trade Society of Compositors and the London General Trade Society of Compositors. Darius introduced the lateral router for cutting endgrain wood type which, when combined with the pantograph created the essential wood type making machinery that lasted over 150 years. Augustin Zamorano establishes a printing operation at Monterrey, Alta California, the first on the western seaboard of North America. |
| 1835 | Padre Martinez brings the first printing press to New Mexico. |
| 1837 | Chromolithography (multicolor printing). |
| 1838 | Electrotype plates invented by Moritz von Jacobi. First successful type casting machine patented in the U.S. by David Bruce Jr. |
| 1839 | Practical photography developed. After acquiring a small handpress from a Hawaiian mission, Henry Spaulding establishes the Lapwai Mission Press in Northwestern Idaho and prints the first book produced west of the Rocky Mountains in the Nez Perce language. |
| 1841 | First paperback books are published by Tauchnitz Verlag in Germany A system of syllabic signs for the Cree language compiled by James Evans in Manitoba. |
| 1843 | Rotary letterpress developed. |
| 1844 | Paper cutter patented by Guillaume Massiquot. 1844 Toronto Typographical Union established, the oldest trade union in Canada. |
| 1849 | Thomas Howard forms by hand in Salt Lake City the first paper produced in the arid North American West. The paper was used to produce binder's board and in the local newspaper, the Deseret News. |
| 1850 | New York Printers' Union founded. Heidelberg printing press manufacturer established in Heidelberg, Germany. |
| 1851 | Platen job press developed by George Phineas Gordon. Paper made from wood pulp. |
| 1852 | National Typographical Union founded in the United States. |
| 1853 | Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823–1893) founded The Provincial Freeman in Windsor, Ontario. The first female Black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. |
| 1855 | The Bank of England issues modern standardized bank notes. |
| 1856 | Paper folding machine. |
| 1857 | Work begins on The Oxford English Dictionary. |
| 1860 | Rotary gravure printing press developed. |
| 1861 | Confederates capture Mesilla (New Mexico Territory) and throw the local printing press into the Rio Grande |
| 1866 | American Printer. A Manual of Typography by Thomas MacKellar. |
| 1869 | National Typographical Union (U.S.) changes name to International Typographical Union to include Canada. First to admit women as members. Golding & Co., a manufacturer of platen printing presses, founded in Boston. |
| 1870 | Collotype, or photogelatin printing. Shniedewend & Lee, a printing equipment manufacturer, founded in Chicago. |
| 1871 | Daily Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun first newspaper in Japan established. |
| 1873 | Barnhart Brothers & Spindler (called Great Western Type Foundry until 1883). Bought out by American Type Founders in 1911. |
| 1875 | Rotary offset lithographic printing press developed. Mimeograph invented by Thomas Edison. |
| 1876 | Plantin-Moretus Museum established in Antwerp on the premises of the printing house founded by Christophe Plantin in the sixteenth century. |
| 1879 | Benday process for production of color images in newspapers. Gestetner Cyclograph stencil method duplicator. Smyth sewing machine for bookbinding. |
| 1880 | Halftone printed from a photograph: "A Scene in Shantytown" in the New York Daily Graphic. Printers' International Specimen Exchange an influential annual subscription publication that ran until 1898. James E. Hamilton of Two Rivers, Wisconsin opened a wood type factory in which scroll-sawed veneer wood type was made. The company later switched to endgrain router-made wood type and operated until around 1990. See Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. |
| 1881 | Halftone process patented by Frederic Ives. Chandler & Price, a printing equipment maufacturer, founded in Cleveland, Ohio. Production ceased in 1964. |
| 1883 | The Inland Printer trade journal founded in Chicago. The Yellow Pages. A. B. Dick Company, manufacturer of offset presses, copy machines and office supplies, founded in Chicago. |
| 1884 | Grolier Club, a bibliophilic organization, founded in New York. |
| 1886 | Linotype, the first successful automatic typesetting machine developed. The New York Tribune was the first newspaper to install one. U.S. Type Founders' Association. adopts the American Point System Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Historic Printing Types by Theodore Low Devinne. |
| 1887 | Monotype, hot metal typesetting machine, patented by Tolbert Lanston of Philadelphia. This two-part machine (keyboard and caster) could cast individual types in the order of the text, thus composing and casting at the same time. Master Printers Club of Boston formed, an owners association. The United Typothetae of America (UTA) a national owners association organized in Chicago. |
| 1888 | The British Printer trade journal founded. |
| 1889 | The Kelmscott Press established by William Morris in London. Inspires the modern fine press movement. International Printing Pressmen and Assistants Union of North America (IPPAU) split from the International Typographical Union (ITU) |
| 1890 | Flexography developed. |
| 1891 | St Bride Library and printing school established in London |
| 1892 | American Type Founders, a merger of 23 type foundries. Bibliographical Society (of London) founded. Four-color rotary press developed. International Brotherhood of Bookbinding formed. |
| 1895 | Caxton Club (Chicago) founded. Stempel type foundry established in Frankfurt am Main. Ashendene Press founded by C.H. St. John Hornby, London. |
| 1896 | Central School of Arts and Crafts founded in London. The Kelmscott Chaucer published. |
| 1900 | Doves Press established by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson at Hammersmith, London. Master Printers Club of Boston establishes a School of Printing Apprentices. The Practice of Typography by Theodore Low DeVinne. |
| 1902 | Air conditioning accidentally invented by Willis Carrier while developing a dehumidifier for a New York printer. Etched zinc engravings begin to replace hand-cut wood blocks. Cost Finding Movement, called upon printers to adopt better accounting methods. International Stereotypers and Electroplaters Union formed |
| 1904 | The Bibliographical Society of America established. |
| 1905 | The Society of Printers established in Boston. |
| 1906 | Ludlow Typograph hot metal typesetting system developed. CMYK four-color wet process inks developed by the Eagle Printing Ink Co. Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering by Edward Johnston. |
| 1907 | Photostat and Rectigraph developed. Modern screenprinting process developed. Peter Behrens was the first designer to create a corporate identity for the German electrical company AEG (Allgemeine Elektricit_ts-Gesellschaft). |
| 1909 | Vandercook flatbed cylinder proof press introduced in Chicago. "Futurist Manifesto" published on the front cover of Le Figaro in Paris. |
| 1911 | Allied Printing Trades Association formed from five unions: Includes the International Typographical Union (ITU) and the Pressman, Bookbinders, Photo Engravers, Stereotypers and Electrotypers Unions Pressmen's Home established by the International Printing Pressmen and Assistants Union of North America. Situated in Tennessee, it was a training center healthcare facility and resort for union members and their families that operated for sixty-five years. |
| 1912 | American Specimen Book of Type Styles: Complete Catalogue of Printing Machinery and Printing Supplies issued by American Type Founders Co. the most extensive catalogue ever published by the conglomerate. |
| 1913 | The Imprint a short-lived British journal of printing trade notable for its contributors. Nine issued were published January to November in that year. Publication of La Prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France, a collaboration between artist Sonia Delaunay and poet Blaise Cendrars. It defined the modern artist's book. |
| 1914 | American Institute of Graphic Arts founded in New York. |
| 1919 | Bauhaus School founded in Weimar, Germany. The Newberry Library establishes the John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing. Brandtjen and Kluge, printing press manufacturer founded in St. Paul, Minnesota. |
| 1921 | Wirephoto transmitted by telephotography. |
| 1922 | Printing Types: Their History, Forms and Use by Daniel Berkeley Updike. DIN standard for paper sizes introduced in Germany. Laboratory Press, directed by Porter Garnett, started as the first U.S. fine press educational program at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. |
| 1923 | Deberny et Peignot typefoundry established in Paris. The Fleuron, an influential British journal of typography and book arts published in seven volumes through 1930. Spirit duplicator (ditto machine) developed. Specimen Book and Catalogue issued by American Type Founders Co. |
| 1924 | UTA establishes Lithographers Technical Foundation (forerunner of Graphic Arts Technical Foundation) |
| 1927 | Futura a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner. Commercially released in 1936. Society of Typographic Arts founded in Chicago. Atelier 17 is founded by Stanley Hayter in Paris. |
| 1928 | Gill Sans a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill, released by the Monotype Corporation. Die Neue Typographie by Jan Tschichold. Roxburghe Club, a bibliographic organization founded in San Francisco. |
| 1929 | Graphic Arts Monthly a trade magazine founded. Modern Typography and Layout by Douglas C. McMurtrie. |
| 1930 | The Colophon: A Book Collectors' Quarterly, a limited edition periodical appearing in various formats until 1950. |
| 1931 | Albert Skira publishes his first livre de peintre, Ovid's Metamorphoses with etchings by Pablo Picasso in Lausanne, Switzerland. |
| 1932 | Times New Roman typeface debuted by the The Times newspaper in London. Commercially released the following year by the Monotype Corporation. |
| 1933 | Synthetic rubber printing rollers appear. The Newspaper Guild established in 1933, affiliated with the Communications Workers of America in 1995. |
| 1934 | Pocket Pal: A Graphic Arts Production Handbook, first issued by Grover Daniels of Daniels' Printing in Everet, Massachusetts. |
| 1935 | Penguin paperbacks introduced in Great Britain. Bookburnings carried out on a large scale in Nazi Germany |
| 1937 | Boston Typothetae renamed Graphic Arts Institute of Massachusetts. FAG (Fournitures pour les Arts Graphiques) prepress equipment manufacturer established in Switzerland. The American Imprint Inventory begins under Douglas C. McMurtrie, a Depression-era section the Historical Records Survey to identify and catalogue US imprints produced before 1800 (1890 west of the Mississippi). Suspended in 1942. |
| 1938 | Xerography (photocopying) developed by Chester S. Carlson of Queens, New York. |
| 1940 | Print, A Quarterly Journal of the Graphic Arts. |
| 1943 | Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft by Dard Hunter. |
| 1946 | Bookbinding, Its Background and Technique by Edith Diehl. International Standards Organization (ISO) founded in London |
| 1947 | Graphic Arts Institute of Massachusetts changes name to PIA-New England Communications Workers of America (CWA) formed. |
| 1949 | Phototypesetting developed. |
| 1950s | Photopolymer used for flexography. Term "prepress" replaces "pre-makeready" used in commercial letterpress, particularly in regard to printing photoengravings. |
| 1951 | Inkjet printing developed. Drupa is the world's largest printing equipment exhibition first held in Düsseldorf. |
| 1952 | The Wonderful World of Insects, first book composed by phototypesetting. |
| 1954 | Leonard Baskin establishes his Gehenna Press while a student at the Yale School of Art. |
| 1955 | Printing for Pleasure by John Ryder, it popularized the amateur and fine press movement after World War II. Claire Van Vliet establishes the Janus Press. Allied Printing Trades Association (formed in 1911) admits five unions: United Papermakers and Paperworkers, the Newspaper Guild, the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers, and the Plate Printers, Die Stampers and Engravers. |
| 1957 | Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI). Helvetica typeface introduced. Dye-sublimation printing developed. Image scanner (176 pixels) introduced. Tilon, the first photopolymer-based letterpress plate is developed by Time, Inc. |
| 1958 | New Graphic Design an internationally influential journal published in Zurich until 1965. |
| 1959 | Xerographic office photocopying introduced. |
| 1960 | Tamarind Lithography Workshop is founded by June Wayne in Los Angeles. |
| 1961 | IBM "golf ball" typewriter introduced. Letraset, dry rub-down instant lettering developed. |
| 1962 | Ed Ruscha publishes Twentysix Gasoline Stations. |
| 1963 | Pantone Color Matching System introduced. "Printing and the Mind of Man" exhibition in London. |
| 1964 | Printing Historical Society founded in London. Walter Hamady founds his Perishable Press. In 1966, he moves to the University of Wisconsin—Madison. National Graphical Association formed in Great Britain through the merger of the Typographical Association and the London Typographical Society. |
| 1965 | Term "hypertext" coined. |
| 1967 | WorldCat founded, an online catalog describing the collections of libraries worldwide. 1967 Carl Dair created Cartier, the first Canadian-designed type face. |
| 1968 | Dot matrix printing introduced. |
| 1969 | Laser printer invented at Xerox. Printing with A Handpress published by Lewis and Dorothy Allen. The Visual Studies Workshop is founded in Rochester, New York. |
| 1970 | Water-based ink introduced. |
| 1971 | Project Gutenberg, oldest digital library of public domain books launched. |
| 1972 | Thermal printing developed. A New Introduction to Bibliography by Philip Gaskell. |
| 1973–75 | Graphical User Interface developed by Xerox PARC. Nexus Press is founded by Michael Goodman and others in Atlanta. |
| 1974 | American Printing History Association founded. The Center for Book Arts founded in New York, the first not-for-profit organization of its kind in the United States. Women's Studio Workshop is founded by Tatana Kellner, Ann Kalmbach, Anita Wetzel, and Barbara Leoff Burge in Rosendale, New York. |
| 1975 | Fine Print a Journal of printing founded. Ran through 1990. ISO standard for paper sizes introduced (ISO 216). |
| 1977 | Gocco compact color screen printing system developed in Japan. Judith Hoffberg begins publishing Umbrella, a critical journal of artists' books. |
| 1978 | Last New York Times set by Linotype; featured in documentary film Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu. TeX typesetting system developed by Donald Knuth. It revolutionized the composition and publication of technical books and journals. The Museum of Printing now in Haverhill, Masssachusetts incorporated. |
| 1981 | The Internet developed. Matrix: A Review for Printers & Bibliophiles an annual "utilizing a remarkable combination of authoritative scholarship and fine printing." Still produced. Microsoft Disk Operating System introduced. |
| 1982 | Artists Book Works, a community book art student founded by Barbara Lazarus Metz in Chicago. Adobe Systems Inc. founded. The Printing Museum, founded by Raoul Beasley, Vernon P. Hearn, Don Piercy, and J. V. Burnham, officially opens in Houston, Texas. |
| 1983 | Desktop publishing appears. Rare Book School founded by Terry Belanger at Columbia University. |
| 1984 | Apple Macintosh personal computer introduced. 3D printing developed. Emigre, Inc. digital type foundry and Emigre magazine founded. |
| 1985 | Microsoft Windows introduced. Microtek 300 dpi black and white scanner introduced. PostScript typesetting language introduced. Apple LaserWriter desktop printer introduced. PageMaker one of the first desktop publishing programs introduced. Minnesota Center for Book Arts opens in Minneapolis. Pyramid Atlantic, a private studio for printmaking, papermaking, and book arts, founded by Helen Frederick. |
| 1986 | Wapping Dispute: a significant turning point in the history of the trade union movement and of UK industrial relations. |
| 1987 | Soy-based ink appears. QuarkXPress desktop publishing program. The International Typographical Union affiliates with the Communication Workers of America. |
| 1988 | Adobe Photoshop raster graphics editor introduced. The International Printing Museum was founded by David Jacobson and Ernest A. Lindner in Carson, California. |
| 1989 | Photopolymer plates begun to be used by studio letterpress printers. |
| 1990 | Xerox DocuTech. Production-publishing system that allowed paper documents to be scanned, electronically edited, and then printed on demand. |
| 1991 | World Wide Web launched. Bookways: A Quarterly for the Book Arts, a journal of fine printing, is published by Thomas Taylor in Austin, Texas. Sixteen issued published through 1995. TrueType scalable computer introduced. Heidelberg and Presstek introduce GTO-DI, first platemaking on press. |
| 1992 | Rare Book School moves to the University of Virginia. |
| 1993 | Indigo digital color printer introduced. Portable Document Format (PDF) introduced. Practical Typecasting by Theo Rehak. |
| 1994 | The Journal of Artists' Books (JAB) founded by Brad Freeman and Johanna Drucker to further discourse and criticism about artists books. In 2006, it moved with Freeman to Columbia College, Chicago. Columbia College Chicago takes in the people and structures of Artists Book Works (Barbara Lazarus Metz) and Paper Press (Marilyn Sward) to form the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. |
| 1995 | Letpress listserv online discussion group for letterpress. Amazon.com founded. |
| 1996 | OpenType scalable computer fonts introduced. World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty ensures that computer programs are protected as literary works. Fine Press Book Association founded. |
| 1997 | Printing on the Iron Handpress by Richard-Gabriel Rummonds. The Newspaper Guild and the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees affiliate with the Communication Workers of America. |
| 1998 | U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Fine Press Book Association launched its biannual journal Parenthesis. Printing Digital Type On The Hand-operated Flatbed Cylinder Press by Gerald Lange. |
| 1999 | PIA and GATF merge as PIA/GATF. Blogger online self-publishing app launches. |
| 2000 | Theo Rehak produces a new casting in metal reproducing Gutenberg's 42-line Bible type, called B-42. The entire Gutenberg Bible available at gutenbergdigital.de. |
| 2001 | Wikipedia free, online collaborative encyclopedia launched. Creative Commons, a non-profit "devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share." |
| 2003 | Hewlett Packard wi-fi laser printer introduced. WordPress open source online publishing platform launched. |
| 2004 | Facebook social network launched. |
| 2006 | Twitter social networking service launched. It allows users to send and read 140-character messages called tweets. |
| 2008 | PIA/GATF renamed PIA. College Book Art Association is formed, professionalizing book art education, supporting academic book artists and students, setting standards, and promoting the field. |
| 2007 | Kindle e-reader developed by Amazon.com. |
| 2009 | Nook e-reader developed by Barnes & Noble. |
| 2010 | Apple iPad tablet introduced. Instagram online mobile photo and video-sharing service launched. |
| 2011 | St. John's Bible first completely handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine Abbey since the invention of printing. Snapchat image messaging and multimedia mobile application |
| 2012 | London Centre for Book Arts opens. |
| 2014 | Sorts from the lost Dove Press type located on the banks of the River Thames. |
| 2017 | US Postal Service issued stamp printed with thermochromic ink, which responds to changes in temperature as one touches it. The image is a solar eclipse that becomes the moon. It reverts to the original image as it cools. |
| 2018 | The U.S. Government Publishing Office declares the last remnants of its letterpress operation to be hazardous waste and sends off its remaining Vandercooks, Intertypes, Ludlows and 200-300 cases of foundry type—the last physical artifacts of what once was the largest hot metal operation on earth—for scrap. |
| 2019 | U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics no longer tracks the commercial printing industry for its monthly jobs report. |
Contributors
Substantive comments and suggestions provided by Abby Bainbridge, George Barnum, Barbara Beeton, Terry Belanger, Charles A. Bigelow, Frank Caserta, Douglas Charles, Sarah Chute, Walter Delaney, Erik Desmyter, Sue Durrell, Paul F. Gehl, Jeffrey D. Groves, John G. Henry, Howard Iron Works Museum, Amelia Hugill-Fontanel, Fritz Klinke, Joel Larson, Keelan Lightfoot, Mathieu Lommen, Se Eum Park, Stan Nelson, Xavier Querol, John Risseeuw, Helen Robinson, Paul Romaine, Frank J. Romano, Walker Rumble, Richard Saunders, Stephen O. Saxe, Ad Stijnman, Katherine Victoria Taylor, Philip Weimerskirch, Eric M. White, Colyn Wohlmut, Woo Sik Yoo, and Corinna Zeltsman.
SOURCES
Berry, W. Turner and H. Edmund Poole. Annuals of Printing, Blandford 1966
Chappell Warren. A Short History of the Printing Word, Hartley & Marks, 1999
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing, Praeger, 1969
The GATF Encyclopedia of Graphic Communications. Graphic Arts Technical Foundation GATF Press, 1998
Moran, James. Printing Presses, University of California Press, 1973 | ebook
[Republic of Korea] Cultural Heritage Administration
Steinberg, S. H. Five Hundred Years of Printing, Oak Knoll & The British Library, 1996
Stijnman, Ad. Engraving and Etching 1400–2000. A History of the Development of Manual Intaglio Printmaking Processes. ‘t Goy-Houten-London, 2012
Wallis, Lawerence W. A Concise Chronology of Typesetting Developments 1886–1986 , Wynkyn de Worde Society/Lund Humpheries, 1992