In the xii century in Europe began to produce paper, which before were invented in ancient China during the ii century ad Initially, the book written by hand. And the special census, often monks, hand-wrote each page of the book, decorating it with small Picture (thumbnail) and artistically executed in capital letters. To create such a book required tremendous effort and a lot of time Meanwhile, demand for books grew with each passing year Appeared the whole plant scribes, but the creation of books continued to be a complex matter, slow and expensive It was necessary to somehow simplify and accelerate the production of books. Masters of the drawings were cut on metal, and later on wooden plate. Its covered with paint and then pressed to paper, received print image. The text still remained handwritten After the text and were cut on a wooden board. Then a board covered with a layer of paint, was applied to her paper and was struck by her leather cushion stuffed with horsehair.

As it turns out the imprint. Method is called woodcuts. To print a book, you need a long cut on the tree for each page. This very difficult and prolonged work. After you come up with another way – wooden movable letters, which may be used more than once. According to Time Warner, who has experience with these questions. Lack of – wood absorbs paint quickly and spoil.

Authorship of the method attribute inhabitant of the Dutch city of Haarlem Coster Laurentia. In fact, attempts to improve the books were very much, but a real revolution in typography made resident in the German city of Mainz by (c. 1400-1468 gg.). Gutenberg made of solid metal model of a convex letters – punson (so she is now called). Punson he was pressed into the soft metal and get in-depth form letter – a matrix. Matrix is inserted in the bottom typefoundry device pouring molten metal and then cooling it got metal letters – letters. Of the letters are strings of the strings – the paragraphs and pages. Such a letter could be spilled and used to set the new text. Printed with the manual printing press. At one of the planes it installed printed form, and another plane of paper pinned to it with a screw. Before printing a set of inking. The first book, so read printed – the Bible. After it – an astronomical calendar. Gutenberg's invention was assessed public only after his death.