History of Western typography
Modern typographers view typography as a craft with a very long history tracing its origins back to the first punches and dies used to make seals and coinage currency in ancient times. The basic elements of typography are at least as old as civilization and the earliest writing systems—a series of key developments that were eventually drawn together into one systematic craft. While woodblock printing and movable type had precedents in East Asia, typography in the Western world developed after the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century. The initial spread of printing throughout Germany and Italy led to the enduring legacy and continued use of blackletter, roman, and italic types.
First page of the first volume of the Gutenberg Bible, printed with an early textur typeface c. 1455. In this copy the decorative colored initials were hand-lettered separately by a scribe.
Roman inscriptional capitals on the base of Trajan's Column, c. 113.
Evangelium Sanctum Domini Nostri Jesu Christi in Arabic, 1590, with Arabic types of Robert Grandjon, Typographia Medicea, Rome.
Monotype machine
History of printing in East Asia
Printing in East Asia originated in China, evolving from ink rubbings made on paper or cloth from texts on stone tablets, used during the sixth century. A type of printing called mechanical woodblock printing on paper started in China during the 7th century in the Tang dynasty. The use of woodblock printing spread throughout East Asia. As recorded in 1088 by Shen Kuo in his Dream Pool Essays, the Chinese artisan Bi Sheng invented an early form of movable type using clay and wood pieces arranged and organized for written Chinese characters. The earliest printed paper money with movable metal type to print the identifying code of the money was made in 1161 during the Song dynasty. In 1193, a book documented instructions on how to use the copper movable type. The use of metal movable type spread to Korea by the 13th century during the Goryeo period, with the world's oldest surviving printed book using moveable metal type being from 1377 in Korea.
Literary collection of Han Yu, printed late 13th century by Liao Yingzhong
A fragment of a dharani print in Sanskrit and Chinese, c. 650–670, Tang dynasty
The Great Dharani Sutra, one of the world's oldest surviving woodblock prints, c. 704-751
The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra from Tang-dynasty China, 868 AD (British Museum), the earliest extant printed text bearing a date of printing