fme_633429 - IMPRIMERIE ET PAPETERIE Médaille, Christophe Plantin, n°18

PRINTING AND STATIONERY

The printing press was known in the Far East long before it was invented in the West. In the middle of the 15th century, inspired by the processes used to manufacture playing cards and wishing to manufacture a Bible at a lower cost and in series, Gutenberg (and Johann Fuchs) developed the typographic printing process with movable type, the ink making, typesetting techniques and the printing press. Printing made rapid progress in Europe, it was introduced in France in 1469. Later progress perfected the process like lithography (late 18th century). Printers, assimilated to the body of booksellers under the Ancien Régime, were closely watched until 1881 when the law of July 29 proclaimed the complete freedom of the trade..