GutenbergвЂ™s printing method was largely unchanged until the late 1700s, although it was refined in that period.

(Some earlier printing presses existed, used for block printing, typically an entire carved page or illustration.) Gutenberg also had to adjust existing inks to meet the needs of printing, and developed a process of wetting and preparing the typical paper of the day so that it would accept ink under pressure from type without smearing. That paired with his invention of the printing press, an adaptation from wine presses and other screw-driven presses of the day. The earliest illustration of typesetting and a printing press (1499), вЂњThe Dance of Death.вЂќ (He also figured out the slightly alchemical formulation of lead, antimony, and tin that cooled instantly on casting, retained sharpness to keep fine details, and was hard enough for repeated printing.) This so-called movable type allowed the relatively rapid composition of any arbitrary word. His truly great innovation, around 1450, was perfecting a way to produce consistent pieces of metal type repeatedly and quickly. We have to travel back to the earliest days of printing, as with many aspects of the art, to Johannes Gutenberg. WhatвЂ™s the utility of creating a mold when youвЂ™ve already typeset a page and itвЂ™s ready to go on press just as youвЂ™ve made it? The answer encompasses a lot of elements: cost, durability, speed, mechanics, and efficiency. You spin me right round, baby, like a cylinder press The flong is gone, but its history provides insight into how newspapers grew. Letterpress printing and hot-metal casting transformed from the 1970s from the heart of commercial printing into a much-smaller but vibrant craft in the last two decades, usually hand-in-hand with a historical component in keeping history alive. The process may remain in limited use - in some parts of the developing world, a few newspapers continue to use hot-metal type and letterpress printing. ThatвЂ™s where IвЂ™ve seen all of them in person, though you can find photos online, often with incomplete or misleading explanations. Newspapers in particular leaned on this combination of mold and plate to expand in every direction.ДЇlongs and stereotypes largely survive in printing and industrial museums. The flong/stereotype process was a critical part of a set of improvements that allowed printing to expand in scope: more words typeset, more pages printed, more copies produced. Little of either remains, in contrast to wood and metal type, letterpresses, and all the other paraphernalia of printing meant to endure for years or decades. Flongs were burned, and stereotypes melted down at the end of a shift or job and the plate metal reused. This missing link is rarely discussed because it wasnвЂ™t designed to last: flongs and stereotypes were largely used for perishable tasks, especially in newspaper and advertising printing, and then gotten rid of.

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