About printing?

Ancient printing was invented in China, and gradually improved, spread to many countries in Asia and Europe, and was recognized by all countries in the world, while modern printing technology was introduced from the West. This is a pity.

J. Gutenberg, a German, contributed to modern printing technology. /kloc-in the 1930s and 40s of 0/5, Gutenberg engaged in the research of movable type printing, and made a wooden printing machine instead of manual printing by using the principle of bronzing machine. Before and after 1450, lead alloy movable type was cast with the made movable type mold, which laid the foundation for the development of lead movable type printing. 1456, The Forty-two Lines Bible and other books were typeset and printed with lead movable type. Gutenberg's main contributions are as follows: first, he used letters as movable type, which is suitable for the needs of pinyin; Secondly, a simple book printing machine is used, which opens the way for printing mechanization; Thirdly, the created metal movable type mold makes the specifications of movable type strictly controlled, which is more convenient for typesetting.

1457 The Poem of Mainz, printed in Germany, is the first poem to record the printer, publication year, publication place and initial capitalization of red and blue. /kloc-Europeans in the 0 th and 5 th centuries are eager to pursue new knowledge and have a great demand for books. Movable type printing is very popular because it can greatly speed up the publication of books. Movable type printing spread from Germany to Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Britain, Sweden, Norway, Portugal and other European countries from 146s to 1487. Introduced to Mexico on 15 1. 16 and 17 centuries, the development of natural science and technical science, especially the development of machine manufacturing technology, created conditions for the mechanization of printing. At that time, China was a closed-door and self-sufficient feudal society, and the development of science and technology was greatly hindered. Of course, printing technology could not develop.

/kloc-After the 6th century, western aggression forces gradually invaded China. With the invasion of foreign invasion, modern printing technology was introduced into China, which had an impact on the printing industry in China. First, relief printing, then lithography, and then gravure printing.

First, relief printing

1807, lead movable type printing technology began to be introduced to China, when an Englishman, Ma Lixun, came to China to preach. Need to print Chinese Bible. So he tried to reform the printing technology in China. He secretly hired someone to carve Chinese characters and cast them himself, which was forbidden by our local government. 18 14, Ma Lixun accepted two China Christians and sent an assistant to open a printing factory in Malacca (now). It was the first time that 18 19 printed a Chinese character.

1844, the Presbyterian Church of America opened a flower bible study room in Macau, 184s moved to Ningbo and changed its name to Presbyterian Mission Publishing House. The host w.Gamble initiated the electroforming of Chinese characters, which carved boxwood into orthography, plated with copper master mold and embedded in yellow steel shell, so the carving work was greatly reduced and made into extremely small fonts.

Because there are many Chinese characters, it is difficult to choose words on the typesetting frame, so Jiang Beili reformed the typesetting frame of 1860. Firstly, the usage frequency of Chinese characters in books is classified. He counted 28 books with a total of 165438+ 10,000 words, and found that only 13 was used more than100000 times, 224 words were used more than100000 times, and only 37 15 words were reused 25 times. According to sampling statistics,

China's national bourgeoisie and enlightened intellectuals demand reform and transformation, accept western culture, advocate new learning, run newspapers and print textbooks. However, circular printing technology can no longer meet the new demand, so they introduced new printing machinery. During the period of 1865, the book printing bureau of Shanghai Jiangnan manufacturing bureau, which was officially opened by the Qing government, translated and printed a large number of western scientific and technological books. In addition to movable type typesetting, photographic copper plates and zinc plates have also been developed. 1872, Shenbao was founded by British businessmen in Shanghai, and later operated by China people, becoming a famous newspaper in China. The Commercial Press was established in 1897. These printing institutions have made great contributions to the development of printing technology in China.

1909 The Commercial Press improved Jiang Beili's Chinese character typesetting framework, because Jiang Beili's typesetting framework is suitable for the typesetting of the Bible, but not for the typesetting of newspapers and textbooks. After improvement, the Commercial Press is more suitable for book typesetting.

1838, casters were made in the United States, and gradually became automatictype casters after continuous improvement. 19 13 The Commercial Press used an automatic word casting machine, each of which can cast 15000 words a day. It can be used after it is taken out of the furnace, which is much more convenient than the old word casting furnace.

19 from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the United States invented various typesetting machines and put them into practical use. 1925, according to the principle of western universal wheel, China developed the Chinese universal wheel. 1936, Liu Puqing and Chen Hongge designed and manufactured a typesetting machine according to the photographic principle. Its exquisite structure can not only arrange characters of various sizes, but also arrange official scripts and artistic fonts, which is suitable for the arrangement of books and magazines. At that time, because War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was not popular. At that time, it was only less than 10 years later than the Japanese imagesetter made by Shigeki Ishii and Nobuo Morizawa.

1829, a Frenchman, Genaux, invented paper mattix, which can be used to cast lead plates for more than ten times without damage. When you save them, you don't have to save heavy lead plates, just save paper mats. Paper was used in Shanghai from 65438 to 0920s. Compared with the old paper method, the new classifier purchased by the Commercial Press has simpler working procedures and shorter working hours, which is superior to newspaper printing.

185 1 year, wet plate photography was first invented in Britain, and in 1845, Britain made a photographic solution consisting of dichromate and glue. Therefore, printing plates can be made on steel plates and zinc plates by photography and chrome glue, which is called photographic copper-zinc plate, 65438+. The earliest application of photographic plate making in China was in Tushanwan Printing Factory in Shanghai. The experiment started at 1900, and 190 1 succeeded. China started color copperplate printing in about 19 10. When the Commercial Press improved the photographic copper plate, it tried out the craft engraving and achieved good results. At that time, the mesh angle was solved by rotating the manuscript angle, and it was not until 1920 that the rotary screen was used to change the mesh angle.

As for relief printing machines, in the 1940s and 1950s, France and the United States successively produced book rotary printing machines and sheet-fed rotary printing machines for newspapers. Initially, it was imported to China by manual conveyor and manual inking, with a daily output of several hundred sheets. 1872, the museum of Shanghai customs broker introduced a manual rotary machine, which can print hundreds of sheets per hour. To 19 1 1, it launched a two-color rotary machine, which can print 2000 sheets per hour. During this period, we mainly rely on imported various printing machines to meet the printing needs.

Second, lithography.

1796, German Alois Senefelder invented lithography. The earliest lithograph publication in China was "National News" edited by Guangzhou maddox in 1838. 1876, Shanghai Tushanwan Printing Factory began to use lithography, which was limited to printing Catholic propaganda materials and chanting scriptures. First, the book Detailed Explanation of Oracle Bone Inscriptions was printed by the Shiyizhai Shiyin Bookstore, and then the ancient books, such as Kangxi Dictionary, were reprinted. Later, Dianshizhai Pictorial was published in the form of lithograph, which was the earliest pictorial published in China.

1904, Wenming Bookstore began to operate color lithographs, printed pictures and printed materials, which can reflect the lightness and depth of colors and are similar to the real thing. 1920, Shanghai Commercial Press began to use direct photo lithography to make negative master directly on zinc plate. The production speed is fast and the products are good. Color photo lithography was first adopted by the Commercial Press. 1920 adopts the principle of three-color photography plus screen printing, and the printing plate is printed on the zinc plate. With an offset press, you can print a variety of colors with a few plates, which is faster and finer than color lithography. During this period, Corot printing equipment and technology were also introduced for Corot printing.

Offset press was invented in 1900, introduced by China Commercial Press in19/5, and introduced by 192 1 year.

Third, gravure printing.

China's engraving and copperplate printing technology came from Italy and the United States. The Italians taught the technology to the Japanese, and the famous Japanese sculptors were all students of Italian sculptors. Some people in China printed maps in Japan and learned about the method of engraving copper plates, so they learned the method of engraving copper plates. Later, they began to have woodcut in Shanghai Jiang Customs Printing House. 1908, the Banknote Printing Bureau of the Ministry of Finance of China hired an American intaglio technician to carve valuable securities with a universal engraving machine, which was the only banknote printing bureau in China and trained a group of people engaged in intaglio engraving.

Gravure was invented around 1890, and was introduced to China in 19 17. British American Tobacco Company uses gravure printing in Shanghai. 1923 The Commercial Press hired German technicians to teach gravure printing, printing magazine illustrations and famous landscape paintings. 1924, the printing house of Shanghai British American Tobacco Company sent people to the Netherlands to study color film printing.

After the modern western printing technology was introduced to China, in terms of printing technology, because our people are hardworking, brave and smart, they can master the technology only available in foreign countries, which is no worse than that of foreigners. In terms of printing machinery, paper, ink and other materials, it used to rely mainly on imports, and then gradually expanded from the repair department of printing machines to the machinery manufacturing department, manufacturing type printing machines, circular disc machines, letterpress machines, lithographs, flat-panel printing machines, staplers, paper cutters and so on. , reducing the import of printing machines; Due to the change of printing technology, the original rough paper and even historical paper can no longer meet the printing requirements, so they rely on imported paper. In order to reduce the import of paper, Shanghai Huazhang Paper Factory was put into operation in 1884. Later, Shanghai Zhang Long Weaving Factory and Wuchang Baishazhou Paper Factory were also put into operation, but on a smaller scale, producing glossy paper, forest paper, white newspaper, picture paper and kraft paper. 19 10, China's first private ink factory, Shanghai Zhongyuan ink factory, was established, specializing in producing black ink for printing books. 19 15, Shanghai China ink factory produced colored ink, but at this time, most pigments and binders still depended on imports.

The training of talents in the printing industry has long been a way for teachers to take apprentices, and there is no special way for school education. The earliest way to cultivate printing technical talents was the plate-making and printing class set up by the Qing government in the 30th year of Guangxu (19D4) in Shi Jing Army Surveying and Mapping School, which was subordinate to the Military Advisory Office. The earliest formal printing school was/kloc-0, a private Beiping Journalism College founded in March, 933, which was divided into two types: primary vocational classes and advanced vocational classes. Later, some schools with printing classes were developed. With the development of printing technology and the establishment of schools, printing academic groups have emerged. On 1935, the printing circles of some major printing units organized and established the China Printing Society, with the aim of "researching printing technology, discussing printing theory, advocating printing education, and promoting the progress of printing technology in China", publishing China Printing magazine. After 1937, due to the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Institute stopped its activities.