PRINTING

After the invention of the printing press in the mid 15th century, it has become possible to produce a much greater number of books and other written material than ever before. The effect of this on society was enormous, since it now became much easier to spread words and ideas. In the real world this contributed to the decline of the Guilds (as it was now possible to widely publish their secret methods) and to the Reformation (as anti-Catholic ideas could be more easily spread across Europe).

The use of parchment to manufacture books has significantly declined since the invention of the press, with paper now being the standard writing material. The usual ink used is linseed oil coloured with lamp black, which has the advantage over more traditional recipes that it can be easily applied to metal and transferred to paper without blurring.

A typical printing press is essentially identical to a linen press; which indeed, was what the earliest ones actually were. It is operated by two men: one fixes the paper to a parchment-covered frame called the tympan, folds it down, places the backing material over it, slides it under the platen and then screws down the press before opening it again to remove the paper. The second man inks the type-face while the paper is being replaced. A typical printing office will have six presses.

The most technical aspect of working at a printing office, however, is producing the type face. This is done in a foundry attached to the office. The first step is to produce a punch engraved with the letter or symbol required. About three of these punches can be made per week by a typical printing foundry. The punch is then struck into a blank of softer metal, to produce a matrix. A full set of matrices, or font, countains over 150 characters and would take about a year to manufacture. For this reason, fonts are very valuable - although they are also, of course, very heavy!

The matrix is used to cast the type in; about twenty thousand types will be requried and with two men (one casting and one dressing) about twenty five can be made in an hour. The type is a rectangular prism about an inch high, and has to be wedged carefully into the frame to keep each line firm and square. Woodcuts are then added to the frame to provide any pictures needed. Most printing offices will produce about one page of a book a day, depending on the size of the print run.

The final stage before printing itself is composition. In addition to composing the type onto the page, the compositor also checks the accuracy of the result and proof-reads the text. The tools of the compositor are a bodkin, a pair of tweezers and a set of compositing sticks used to set the letters in a line.

The total staff of a typical printing office is thus:

• Twelve pressmen
• Two typefounders
• Six compositors
• Four miscellaneous assistants
• One reader

Every major city will have at least one printing office, and most will have several.

In the early sixteenth century, specially designed printing presses began to be produced, rather than using modified linen presses. The tympan has an inner and outer frame separated by a blanket, and can be fed in and out of the press on runners. The screw passes through a hose (hollow block of wood) to which the platen is attached. However, even these designs of press were unable to print more than half a page at a time, since one man was not strong enough to screw any platen larger than this down sufficiently hard.