22 Facts About Movable type

Movable type is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation marks) usually on the medium of paper.

World's first movable type printing technology for paper books was made of porcelain materials and was invented around AD 1040 in China during the Northern Song dynasty by the inventor Bi Sheng.

The metal Movable type pieces were more durable and the lettering was more uniform, leading to typography and fonts.

Technique of imprinting multiple copies of symbols or glyphs with a master Movable type punch made of hard metal first developed around 3000 BC in ancient Sumer.

The ceramic movable type was mentioned by Kublai Khan's counsellor Yao Shu, who convinced his pupil Yang Gu to print language primers using this method.

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Bao Shicheng wrote that baked clay moveable Movable type was "as hard and tough as horn"; experiments show that clay Movable type, after being baked in an oven, becomes hard and difficult to break, such that it remains intact after being dropped from a height of two metres onto a marble floor.

Movable type was invented during the Northern Song dynasty around the year 1041 by the commoner Bi Sheng.

The next mention of movable type occurred in 1193 when a Southern Song chief counsellor, Zhou Bida, attributed the movable-type method of printing to Shen Kuo.

However Shen Kuo did not invent the movable type but credited it to Bi Sheng in his Dream Pool Essays.

Rather than manually carving an individual block to print a single page, movable type printing allowed for the quick assembly of a page of text.

The first table was separated into 24 trays in which each movable type was categorized based on a number corresponding with a rhyming pattern.

Typical example of this kind of bronze movable type embedded copper-block printing is a printed "check" of the Jin dynasty with two square holes for embedding two bronze movable-type characters, each selected from 1, 000 different characters, such that each printed paper note has a different combination of markers.

Song dynasty bronze block embedded with bronze metal movable type printed paper money was issued on a large scale and remained in circulation for a long time.

The Uyghurs of Central Asia used movable type, their script type adopted from the Mongol language, some with Chinese words printed between the pages – strong evidence that the books were printed in China.

However, Korean movable metal type printing differed from European printing in the materials used for the type, punch, matrix, mould and in method of making an impression.

Scholarly debate and speculation has occurred as to whether Eastern movable type spread to Europe between the late 14th century and early 15th centuries.

For example, authoritative historians Frances Gies and Joseph Gies claimed that "The Asian priority of invention movable type is firmly established, and that Chinese-Korean technique, or a report of it traveled westward is almost certain.

Detailed analysis of the Movable type used in his 42-line Bible has revealed irregularities in some of the characters that cannot be attributed to ink spread or Movable type wear under the pressure of the press.

Gutenberg's movable type printing system offered a number of advantages over previous movable type techniques.

The lead-antimony-tin alloy used by Gutenberg had half the melting temperature of bronze, making it easier to cast the Movable type and aided the use of reusable metal matrix moulds instead of the expendable sand and clay moulds.

The use of antimony alloy increased hardness of the Movable type compared to lead and tin for improved durability of the Movable type.

Thus, large scale Movable type was made as carved wood blocks as well as ceramics plates.