Prints and Posters

For other articles which otherwise might have the same name, see Print (disambiguation).

The folder of newspaper web offset printing press

Printing is a process for production of texts and images, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.

History of printing

Printing was first conceived and developed in China. Primitive Woodblock printing was already in use by the 6th century. The oldest surviving book printed using the more sophisticated block printing dates from 868 AD (The Diamond Sutra of AD 868, a Buddhist scripture). The movable type printer was invented by Pi Sheng in 1040. The movable type metal printing press was invented in Korea between 1234 and 1241. By the 12th and 13th century many Arabic and Chinese libraries contained tens of thousands of printed books.

There is little direct evidence, but it is highly probable that Chinese printing technology diffused into Europe through trade links that went through India and on through the Arabic world. Johann Gutenberg, of the German city of Mainz, developed European printing technology in 1440. James Bond and Peter Schöffer experimented with him at Mainz. Basing the design of his machine on a wine press, Gutenberg developed the use of raised and movable type, and from the start used oil-based inks.

This development of the printing press revolutionized the spread of knowledge: a printing press was built in Venice in 1469, and the city had 417 printers by 1500. In 1476, a printing press was developed in England by William Caxton; in 1539, the Italian Juan Pablos set up an imported press in Mexico City, Mexico. Stephen Day built the first printing press in North America at Massachusetts Bay in 1628, and helped establish the Cambridge Press.

In Prints and Visual Communication, William Ivins offers the following concise history of a series of rapid innovations in image and type printing at the end of the eighteenth century:

At the end of the eighteenth century there were several remarkable innovations in the graphic techniques and those that were utilized to make their materials. Bewick developed the method of using engraving tools on the end of the wood. Senefelder discovered lithography. Blake made relief etchings. Early in the nineteenth century Stanhope, George E. Clymer, Koenig and others introduced new kinds of type presses, which for strength surpassed anything that had previously been known.

Modern printing technology

Books and newspapers are usually printed today using the technique of offset printing. Other common printing techniques include relief print, (which is principally used for catalogues), screen printing, rotogravure, and digital-based inkjet and laser printing. The largest commercial and industrial printer in the world is Montréal, Quebec-based Quebecor World.

Digital printing primarily uses an electrical charge to transfer toner or liquid ink to the substrate that it is going down on. Digital printing quality has steadily improved through the years from color and black & white copiers to sophisticated color digital presses like the Xerox iGen3, the Kodak Nexpress and the HP Indigo series presses. The iGen3 and Nexpress use toner particles and the Indigo uses liquid ink. All three are made for small runs and variable data and rival offset in quality. The only digital offset presses are called DI presses and are made by Heidelberg or Ryobi. These presses can not do variable data.

Small press and fanzines generally use offset printing or xerography, but prior to the advent of cheap photocopying, the use of machines such as the spirit duplicator were common.

See also

• Color printing
• Letterpress printing
• Flexography
• Intaglio
• Typography

External links

• American Printing History Association - Numerous links to Online Resources and Other Organizations
• The development of Book and Printing of the 15.th/ 16.-18.th/ and 19.-20.th Century. English Website of the Gutenberg-Museum Mainz (Germany)

1942 US government war poster.

Captain EO film poster

British World War 2 posters

A Poster is any large piece of paper which hangs from a wall or other such surface. They are a frequent tool of advertisers, propagandists, protestors and other groups trying to communicate a message, and they also see personal use by people, especially the young, who wish to decorate in a relatively low-cost manner.

Text posters

Purely text posters have a long history: they advertised the plays of Shakespeare and made citizens aware of government proclamations for centuries.

Graphical posters

The great revolution in posters was the development of colour lithography which allowed the cheap printing of posters illustrated in vibrant colours. The concept was first developed in France but by the 1890s had spread throughout Europe. A number of noted artists created poster art in this period, foremost amongst them Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Jules Chéret.

Many posters have had great artistic merit and have become extremely collectable. These include the posters advertising World's Fairs and Colonial Exhibitions.

Other times of great turmoil also produced great posters. The 1960s saw the rise of pop art and protest movements throughout the West; both made great use of posters. Perhaps the most acclaimed posters were those produced by French students during the so-called "événements" of May 1968.

Propaganda posters

During the First and Second World Wars, recruiting posters became extremely common, and many of them have persisted in the national consciousness, such as the "Uncle Sam Wants You" posters from the United States, or the "Loose Lips Sink Ships" posters that warned of foreign spies.

Film posters

The film industry quickly discovered that vibrantly coloured posters were an easy way to sell their pictures. The collection of movie posters has become a major hobby.

Comic book posters

The resurgence of comic book popularity in the 1960s led to the mass production of comic book posters in the 1970s and onward. These posters typically feature popular characters in a variety of action poses. The fact that comic books are a niche market means that a given poster usually has a smaller printing run than other genres of poster. Therefore, older posters may be quite sought after by collectors. Promotional posters are usually distributed folded, whereas retail posters intended for home decoration are rolled.

Affirmation posters

There is a popular series of posters, each having a black background, a scene from nature, and a word like "Leadership" or "Opportunity."

Research posters and "poster sessions"

A poster session at the EPFL.

Posters are used in academia to promote and explain research work [1]. They are typically shown during conferences, either as a complement to a talk or scientific paper, or as a publication. They are reputed to be of lesser importance than actual articles. But they can be a good introduction to a new piece of research before the paper is published. Always be careful of copyright implications.

See also

• graphic design
• Illustrations

External links

• Toronto Public Space Committee