In her book “ The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe” (Cambridge University Press, 2012), late historian Elizabeth L. With this movable type process, printing presses exponentially increased the speed with which book copies could be made, and thus they led to the rapid and widespread dissemination of knowledge for the first time in history. Though others before him - including inventors in China and Korea - had developed movable type made from metal, Gutenberg was the first to create a mechanized process that transferred the ink (which he made from linseed oil and soot) from the movable type to paper. Key to its development was the hand mold, a new molding technique that enabled the rapid creation of large quantities of metal movable type.
German inventor Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press sometime between 14. A 19th century engraving of Gutenberg printing the first page of the Bible (Image credit: Photo by Roger Viollet via Getty Images)