The Development of Modern Printing Technology in China

In modern printing technology, the German J. Gutenberg made a contribution. In the 1930s and 1940s, Gutenberg engaged in the study of movable type printing, and used the principle of embossing machine to make wood printing machinery instead of manual printing. Before and after 1450, the type of lead alloy was used to cast lead metal movable type, which was the development of lead type printing. The foundation was laid, and in 1456, the “42 lines of the Bible” and other books were typeset and printed with lead type. Gutenberg’s main contributions are: First, he used alphabetic characters to suit the needs of phonetic characters; secondly, he used a simple printer to create a path for printing mechanization; and thirdly, created metal patterns. Make the type of movable type strictly controlled, more convenient typesetting.

The Mainz Psalms, printed in Germany in 1457, is the first capital recorded in the first printing of the work, the year of publication, the place of publication, and red and blue. The Europeans of the 15th century were enthusiastically pursuing new knowledge. They had a large demand for books, and movable type printing could greatly accelerate the speed of publishing books, and were therefore welcomed. The type of movable type was printed between 146s and 1487, and it was transmitted from Germany to Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Portugal and other European countries. It was passed to Mexico in 1539, and it was introduced to India in 1561. Ah. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the development of natural sciences and technological sciences, especially the development of machine manufacturing technologies, created conditions for the mechanization of printing. At the time, China was at a time when it was a closed and self-sufficient feudal society. The development of science and technology was greatly hindered, and printing technology was certainly not developed.

After the 16th century, Western aggressive forces gradually invaded China. With the invasion of foreign aggressors, the introduction of modern printing technology into China has affected the printing industry in China. The earliest introduction of letterpress printing was followed by lithographic printing, and the gravure printing was transmitted later.

First, letterpress printing

In 1807, lead-type printing technology began to spread to China, when British Morrison came to teach in China. Need to print Chinese Bible. So he worked hard to reform China's printing technology. He secretly hired people to cast Chinese characters and cast it himself and was banned by local governments in China. In 1814, Morrison took two Chinese followers and sent assistants to open a printing factory in Malacca (now Malaysia). By the time of 1819, the Chinese New and Old Testament Bible was printed for the first time in Chinese characters. This was the first book to be printed in Chinese characters in lead type. From then on, the Chinese book was printed with lead type.

In 1844, the American Presbyterian Church opened a Huahua Bible Study House in Macau. The study moved to Ningbo in 184s and was renamed the Meihua Bookstore. The host, w. Gamble, founded the electroformed Chinese characters, and used boxwood woodcuts to write characters. The copper negative mold is set in the yellow steel shell, so the engraver is greatly reduced, and a small font is made to facilitate the improvement of the specification of the Chinese movable type. According to the point system standard, seven kinds of standards for the size of the Chinese character are determined, which are matched with the size of the lead characters in the western language. , can be mixed in the middle and West.

Because of the large number of Chinese characters, it was difficult to pick characters on the typeset. Therefore, in the 1860s, Jiang Bieli reformed the Chinese character typesetting system. First of all, the use of Chinese characters in books was categorized. He counted 28 books, a total of 110 thousand words, found that only 13 words were used more than 10,000 times, 224 were used more than 1,000 times, and 25 times were used repeatedly. The only 3,715 words, according to the sample statistics, he divided the Chinese characters into three categories: common words, spare words, and rare words, according to the "Kangxi Dictionary" head choreography.

The national bourgeoisie and enlightened intellectuals of our country require the reform of the reforms, acceptance of Western culture, promotion of new schools of learning, publication of newspapers and periodicals, and printing of textbooks. Recycling printing technology can no longer meet the new needs and introduce new printing machinery. In 1865, the printing office of the Shanghai Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau of the government of the Qing government produced a large number of western science and technology books. In addition to typesetting, it also produced a photocopy of copper and zinc. In 1872, the "Declaration" was founded by a British businessman in Shanghai and was later owned by the Chinese and became a well-known newspaper in the country. In 1897, the Commercial Press was founded. These printing organizations have made many contributions to the development of China's printing technology.

In 1909, the Commercial Press made improvements to Jiang Baili's Chinese character typesetting rack. Because Jiang Baili's frame is adapted to the Bible, it is not suitable for typographical newspapers and textbooks. After the improvement of the Commercial Press, it is more suitable for printing books. Edition.

In 1838, the United States made a caster, which was gradually improved and gradually became an automatic type caster. In 1913, the Commercial Press used automatic word-casting machines, each of which could cast 15,000 words per day. They could be used after being baked, and no need to make corrections. It was much more convenient than the old type of cast-ironing furnace.

From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the United States invented a variety of composing machines that could be put to practical use. In 1925, China had developed a Chinese character caster according to the principle of Western-style caster. In 1936, Liu Yiqing and Chen Hongge used the principle of photography to design and manufacture a typewriter. Its structure was ingenious, it could arrange all kinds of characters, and it was also a librarian and art font. It was suitable for books, magazines and magazines. At that time, due to the War of Resistance Against Japan, Failed to be promoted. At the time, it was only less than 10 years later than Japan's Ishii Mokichi and Senze Shinofu’s Japanese-styled phototypers.

In 1829, the Frenchman Geno invented the paper mattix, cast the lead plate in paper form, and can be cast for more than ten times without damage. The heavy lead plate can no longer be saved when saving, only the paper type can be saved. In the 1890s, Shanghai began to use the paper type, and the new-type machine purchased by the Commercial Press in 1920 was simpler than the old paper-based method, shortening the working hours, and being superior to newspaper printing.

In 1851, we first invented wet-plate photography in the United Kingdom. In 1845, the United Kingdom made a dichromate and gum-based photographic solution. Therefore, we can use photography and chrome glue. Plates were made on steel plates and zinc plates and called photocopper-zinc plates. In 1882, Germany also created a screen that could be screened for screening. The earliest use of photographic printing in China was at the Tushanwan Printing Office in Shanghai. The experiment began in 1900 and was successful in 1901. In color copperplate printing, China started around 1910, when the Commercial Press improved the three-color version of the photocopying copper-zinc plate, and achieved very good results. At that time, the angle of the mesh relied on the angle of the rotating manuscript, and it was not until 1920 that the rotary screen was used. Screen to change the color mesh angle.

In the area of ​​letterpress printing, in the 1940s and 50s, it produced French rotary presses and newspaper single-sheet rotary presses in France and the United States. The first input to China was manual transmission, manual inking, and hundreds of Nissan. In 1872, the Shanghai Filing Office introduced hand-rotating machines, which could print hundreds of sheets per hour. By 1911, it introduced a two-color rotary press. 2000 prints, in the meantime, rely mainly on the import of various printing presses to meet the printing needs.

Second, lithographic printing

In 1796, German Alois Senefelder invented lithography. The earliest lithographies that appeared in China were the "national news" edited by Medos in Guangzhou in 1838. In 1876, the Tushanwan Printing Office in Shanghai began to use lithography, which was limited to printing of Catholic propaganda materials, singing songs, etc. The first stone-print book was the Shanghai Shishizhai Shiyinshu Bookstore. It was printed with a book titled “The Holy Ghost Comments” and later reprinted. Ancient books, such as the Kangxi Dictionary. Afterwards, the publication of "Dian Shizhai Pictorial" by Lithograph was the earliest published pictorial in China.

In 1904, the civilized bookstore began to produce color lithographs and printed pictures. The prints can reflect the lightness and darkness of colors, and are similar to real objects. In 1920, the Shanghai Commercial Press began to use direct photographic lithography, directly on the yin-like bottom plate on the zinc plate, fast production, good products, color lithography, the earliest commercial press used. In 1920, the principle of adding three-color photographs and screens was adopted. The printing was used on zinc plates. Offset printing machines were used. A few printing plates could be used to print multiple color patterns. It was faster and more precise than color lithography. During this period, the Minami version of the equipment and technology was also introduced to carry out the Minami printing.

The offset press was invented in 1900. China was introduced by the Commercial Press in 1915, and in 1921 it introduced a two-color offset press.

Third, gravure printing

China's engraving copperplate printing technology is to learn from Italy and the United States. The Italians taught the technique to the Japanese. The famous Japanese engravers were students of the Italian Engraver. Some people in China printed maps in Japan and learned about the method of engraving bronze plates. Thus they learned the method of engraving copper plates, and later they were at the river in Shanghai. The Customs Printing Office began to print with engraving copper printing. In 1908, the Printing Department of the Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China hired American intaglio technicians to use universal engraving machines and other engraved securities, which was the only printing bureau in China to print banknotes, and trained a group of personnel engaged in engraving and intaglio printing.

Photogravure was invented around 1890 and introduced to China in 1917. British American Tobacco used photogravure printing in Shanghai. In 1923, the Commercial Press hired German technicians to teach photogravure methods, print magazine illustrations, and landscapes. In 1924, the printing company of British American Tobacco Co., Ltd. in Shanghai sent another person to the Netherlands to learn color photo printing.

After the Western modern printing technology was introduced into China, in terms of printing technology, because our people are industrious, brave, and intelligent, we can achieve technology that is available in foreign countries and our country can grasp it, and it is not worse than foreign delegations. In terms of printing machinery, paper, ink and other materials, it mainly relied on imports. Later, it gradually expanded from the repair department of the printing press to the machine manufacturing department, manufacturing lead printing machines, disc machines, type-casting machines, lithographic printing machines, and printing machines. Book machines, paper cutters, etc., have reduced the import volume of printing presses; because of the change in printing technology, the raw paper produced, raw paper, etc. could no longer meet the printing requirements, and they relied on imported paper to reduce paper imports. In 1884, the Shanghai Huazhang Paper Mill was put into production, and later the Shanghai Longzhang Textile Making Plant and the Wuchang Baishazhou Paper Mill were put into production. However, the scale was relatively small, producing glossy paper, forest paper, white paper, picture paper, and kraft paper. In 1910, China’s first ink factory, Shanghai Zhongyuan Ink Factory, was established. It specializes in printing black ink. In 1915, Shanghai China Ink Factory produced colored inks, but at this time, the pigments and binders Most still rely on imports.

The talent cultivation in the printing industry has long been a way for the master to bring apprenticeships. There is no school education. The earliest method of cultivating printing technical talents in school was the printing and printing class set up by the Qing government in the 30th year of Guangxu (19th4th year) in the Army Surveying and Mapping Academy of the Imperial College under the Military Advisory Office. The earliest formal printing school was the private Peking University Press College founded in March 1933. It is divided into two categories: junior professional class and senior professional class. Later, some schools with printed classes were developed. The printing academic community also appeared with the development of printing technology and the establishment of schools. Some printing organizations in the major printing units organized the Chinese Printing Society in Shanghai in 1935. Their purpose was to study printing technology, discuss printing theory, advocate printing education, promote the progress of Chinese printing technology, and publish the journal “Chinese Printing”. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan in 1937, the society stopped its activities.