Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is created by carving a wooden block to leave only some areas and lines at the original level; it is these that are inked and show in the print, in a relief printing process. Carving the blocks is skilled and laborious work, but a large number of impressions can then be printed.
The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra from Tang dynasty China, the world's earliest printed text containing a date of production, AD 868 (British Library)
A fragment of a dharani print in Sanskrit and Chinese, c. 650–670, Tang dynasty
Replica of The Great Dharani Sutra, the oldest printed text in Korea, c. 704-751
The Hyakumantō Darani, the oldest printed text in Japan, c. 770
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The earliest known form of printing evolved from ink rubbings made on paper or cloth from texts on stone tablets, used during the sixth century. Printing by pressing an inked image onto paper appeared later that century. Later developments in printing technology include the movable type invented by Bi Sheng around 1040 AD and the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. The technology of printing played a key role in the development of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.
The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra from Tang dynasty China, AD 868 (British Library), discovered at the Library Cave of Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, but probably printed in Sichuan.
The earliest known woodcut, 1423, Buxheim, with hand-colouring
Copperplate of 1215–1216 5000 cash paper money with ten bronze movable types
Jikji, "Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son Masters" from Korea, the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, 1377. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris