Letterpress

By: Nikki Villatoro

​The history of writing was created to express emotions, imagination and language by letters or any other mark, Through writing, we had the ability to transfer complex information, ideas etc from one individual to another, because of this we were able to grow and learn from one another. Since 25,000 – 30,000 BP, humans were painting pictures on cave walls. Through this, we learned stories from one another. 
 
Learning how to write taught us how to express ourselves– whether it was a way to represent our tribe, our emotions or our experiences. 
 
The writing system started to become more of a representation of hunter-gatherer societies. People's property were solely relied on their 'mark'– food, land, animals. We saw this on their 'tokens.'
 
The history of writing was created to express emotions, imagination and language by letters or any other mark, Through writing, we had the ability to transfer complex information, ideas etc from one individual to another, because of this we were able to grow and learn from one another. Since 25,000– 30,000 BP, humans were painting pictures on cave walls. Through this, we learned stories from one another. 
 
Learning how to write taught us how to express ourselves–whether it was a way to represent our tribe, our emotions or our experiences. The writing system started to become more of a representation of hunter-gatherer societies. People's property were solely relied on their 'mark'– food, land, animals. We saw this on their 'tokens.' The tokens began to be symbols, then they started to transition into being used as an impression or inscribed in clay. First they were pictographs but started to become more, certain pictures representing an idea or concept, ideographs and then sounds. 
 
We have grown much more since then. 
 
From glyphs, to Greek/Trajan/Roman, alphabets to Gothic lettering, to Letterpress. 
 
Gutenberg was in 1439 was the first European to use printing press and movable type in Europe. Along with the many experimental things that create the printing– the invention of movable type, the machinery, oil-based ink, wooden print press etc. Through his invention of all these elements, he was able to make a system which we all know as today as Letterpressing. 

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Gutenberg is well known for one of his works, The Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-Line Bible. It was his first major book to be printed in the West. It was praised for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities. His book was written in Latin, it's an edition to the Vulgate. It is a late 40th century Latin translation of the Bible. It is now known as the Catholic Church's official promulgated Latin version of the Bible.
 

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​Thanks to Gutenberg, the use of movable type was marked as such a magnificent improvement in on handwritten manuscripts. Gutenberg has changed the printing world, this rapidly started to spread around Europe and soon, the world.

​Mankind is known for is evolution: in its self and it's inventions– although we have not forgotten about Letterpressing, it's now as easy as clicking a letter on a keyboard. Letterpress is making its comeback since we have founded the 'computer' but, there will always be something unique of the process of letterpress, and the outcome of the work itself. Having to gather the ink, going through drawers to find the typeface and manually having to put the work into it. Every step of it is so beautiful and different each time. We have grown so much but will never forget where it all started from.

REFERENCES:
http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=344
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing
​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible