La fonte de caractères mobiles

In Europe, until the middle of the 15th century, there were two methods of making copies of books: by writing them out by hand or by the use of woodcuts. In the latter case each page of text was treated as if it was an image and then printed by hand by rubbing the back of a sheet of paper placed on the inked surface of the wood. The invention of letterpress printing brought about a remarkable change in this field and is regarded as one of the foundations of modern society. Unlike moveable types produced in the Far East, Gutenberg’s technique opened the way to the mass-production of all sorts of texts and images. Basing his invention on the fact that any text could be made up from a limited set of letters, punctuation marks and blank spaces, Gutenberg used a hand mould to mass-produce moveable types in lead. Once assembled to form a text, the types could be printed in large quantities on a printing press. In contrast to Korean moveable types, which were moulded in sand and of an irregular appearance, Gutenberg’s types were regular and could be composed with great precision. As a result of the standardisation of the dimensions of his metal types, the surface of the composition is perfectly flat. This feature contributed to the invention of a printing press, which could be operated by exerting uniform pressure on the sheet of paper, thanks to a system of screw and platen. Gutenberg’s invention of letterpress printing resulted in a spectacular increase in production of books.