History of printing
39 inventions by year: what each evolved from and what it led to.
How the inventions are connected
| Year | Invention | What it is | Evolved from | Led to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3500 BC | Cylinder seal | A carved stone cylinder rolled over clay — an early way to reproduce an image. | ||
| 3000 BC | Papyrus | A writing material made from papyrus stems. | Paper | |
| 2500 BC | Ink | A coloured liquid for writing. | ||
| 600 BC | Coin | A metal token of value bearing a stamped image. | Paper money | |
| 600 BC | Coining (die stamping) | Transferring an image with a blow of a die — an early idea of mass reproduction. | ||
| 200 BC | Parchment | A writing material made from prepared animal skin. | ||
| 141 BC | Paper Cai Lun | A material made of plant fibres; the oldest find is from Fangmatan (2nd century BC), and Cai Lun improved the technique (105). | Papyrus | |
| 100 | Codex (book) | A book of bound leaves instead of a scroll. | E-reader | |
| 220 | Woodblock printing | Printing from a carved wooden block. | Movable type | |
| 600 | Quill pen | A pen made from a bird’s flight feather. | Steel nib | |
| 1000 | Paper money | Jiaozi — the first paper money (China). | Coin | Payment card |
| 1040 | Movable type | Individual characters that are assembled into text and reused. In China — Bi Sheng; in Europe, metal type — Gutenberg. | Woodblock printing | Linotype |
| 1440 | Gutenberg printing press Johannes Gutenberg | A machine for reproducing text: type set from letters, ink and a screw press. | Rotary printing press | |
| 1450 | Typography | The art of setting text in type. | Desktop publishing | |
| 1500 | Wall calendar | A printed calendar. | ||
| 1501 | Music printing | Printing music with movable type (Petrucci). | ||
| 1565 | Pencil Nicolas-Jacques Conté | A graphite rod in a casing. | Mechanical pencil | |
| 1605 | Newspaper | A periodical printed publication. | Blog | |
| 1751 | Encyclopedia | A systematic compendium of knowledge (Diderot’s Encyclopédie). | Wikipedia | |
| 1760 | Index card | A card for systematizing information (Linnaeus). | ||
| 1770 | Eraser | Rubber for erasing graphite (Priestley, Nairne). | ||
| 1790 | Mechanical pencil Sampson Mordan, John Isaac Hawkins | A pencil with a retractable lead (late 18th century; Hawkins and Mordan’s patent, 1822). | Pencil | |
| 1791 | Library catalogue | A card catalogue (France). | Database | |
| 1796 | Lithography | Printing from a flat stone (Senefelder). | Offset printing | |
| 1799 | Paper machine | Continuous paper production (Robert, Fourdrinier). | ||
| 1801 | Blackboard | A board for writing with chalk. | ||
| 1822 | Steel nib | A metal nib for writing. | Quill pen | |
| 1824 | Braille | A raised-dot script for blind people. | Writing | Screen reader |
| 1843 | Rotary printing press | Printing from a rotating cylinder (Hoe). | Gutenberg printing press | |
| 1844 | Wood pulp | The raw material for cheap paper (Keller). | ||
| 1867 | Billboard | Outdoor advertising. | ||
| 1876 | Decimal classification | The Dewey classification. | ||
| 1884 | Fountain pen | A pen with an ink reservoir (Waterman). | Ballpoint pen | |
| 1884 | Linotype Ottmar Mergenthaler | A line-casting typesetting machine (Mergenthaler). | Movable type | |
| 1904 | Offset printing | Ink is transferred through a rubber cylinder. | Lithography | |
| 1938 | Xerography Chester Carlson | Electrostatic copying (Carlson). | ||
| 1938 | Ballpoint pen Marcel Bich | Bíró’s pen with a ball at the tip. | Fountain pen | |
| 1959 | Photocopier | The Xerox 914. | ||
| 1980 | Security hologram | A hologram on cards and banknotes. |