History of Printing Timeline: 1971 – 2019
August 7, 2024 | Posted in: PGSF Blogs | Student Resources
Source – printinghistory.org/timeline/
1971
Project Gutenberg, oldest digital library of public domain books launched.
1972
Thermal printing developed.
A New Introduction to Bibliography by Philip Gaskell.
1973-75
Graphical User Interface developed by Xerox PARC.
Nexus Press is founded by Michael Goodman and others in Atlanta.
1974
American Printing History Association founded.
The Center for Book Arts founded in New York, the first not-for-profit organization of its kind in the United States.
Women’s Studio Workshop is founded by Tatana Kellner, Ann Kalmbach, Anita Wetzel, and Barbara Leoff Burge in Rosendale, New York.
1975
Fine Print a Journal of printing founded. Ran through 1990.
ISO standard for paper sizes introduced (ISO 216).
1977
Gocco compact color screen printing system developed in Japan.
Judith Hoffberg begins publishing Umbrella, a critical journal of artists’ books.
1978
Last New York Times set by Linotype; featured in documentary film Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu.
TeX typesetting system developed by Donald Knuth. It revolutionized the composition and publication of technical books and journals.
The Museum of Printing now in Haverhill, Masssachusetts incorporated.
1981
The Internet developed.
Matrix: A Review for Printers & Bibliophiles an annual “utilizing a remarkable combination of authoritative scholarship and fine printing.” Still produced.
Microsoft Disk Operating System introduced.
1982
Artists Book Works, a community book art student founded by Barbara Lazarus Metz in Chicago.
Adobe Systems Inc. founded.
The Printing Museum, founded by Raoul Beasley, Vernon P. Hearn, Don Piercy, and J. V. Burnham, officially opens in Houston, Texas.
1983
Desktop publishing appears.
Rare Book School founded by Terry Belanger at Columbia University.
1984
Apple Macintosh personal computer introduced.
3D printing developed.
Emigre, Inc. digital type foundry and Emigre magazine founded.
1985
Microsoft Windows introduced.
Microtek 300 dpi black and white scanner introduced.
PostScript typesetting language introduced.
Apple LaserWriter desktop printer introduced.
PageMaker one of the first desktop publishing programs introduced.
Minnesota Center for Book Arts opens in Minneapolis.
Pyramid Atlantic, a private studio for printmaking, papermaking, and book arts, founded by Helen Frederick.
1986
Wapping Dispute: a significant turning point in the history of the trade union movement and of UK industrial relations.
1987
Soy-based ink appears.
QuarkXPress desktop publishing program.
The International Typographical Union affiliates with the Communication Workers of America.
1988
Adobe Photoshop raster graphics editor introduced.
The International Printing Museum was founded by David Jacobson and Ernest A. Lindner in Carson, California.
1989
Photopolymer plates begun to be used by studio letterpress printers.
1990
Xerox DocuTech. Production-publishing system that allowed paper documents to be scanned, electronically edited, and then printed on demand.
1991
World Wide Web launched.
Bookways: A Quarterly for the Book Arts, a journal of fine printing, is published by Thomas Taylor in Austin, Texas. Sixteen issued published through 1995.
TrueType scalable computer introduced.
Heidelberg and Presstek introduce GTO-DI, first platemaking on press.
1992
Rare Book School moves to the University of Virginia.
1993
Indigo digital color printer introduced.
Portable Document Format (PDF) introduced.
Practical Typecasting by Theo Rehak.
1994
The Journal of Artists’ Books (JAB) founded by Brad Freeman and Johanna Drucker to further discourse and criticism about artists books. In 2006, it moved with Freeman to Columbia College, Chicago.
Columbia College Chicago takes in the people and structures of Artists Book Works (Barbara Lazarus Metz) and Paper Press (Marilyn Sward) to form the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts.
1995
Letpress listserv online discussion group for letterpress.
Amazon.com founded.
1996
OpenType scalable computer fonts introduced.
World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty ensures that computer programs are protected as literary works.
Fine Press Book Association founded.
1997
Printing on the Iron Handpress by Richard-Gabriel Rummonds.
The Newspaper Guild and the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees affiliate with the Communication Workers of America.
1998
U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Fine Press Book Association launched its biannual journal Parenthesis.
Printing Digital Type On The Hand-operated Flatbed Cylinder Press by Gerald Lange.
1999
PIA and GATF merge as PIA/GATF.
Blogger online self-publishing app launches.
2000
Theo Rehak produces a new casting in metal reproducing Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible type, called B-42. The entire Gutenberg Bible available at gutenbergdigital.de.
2001
Wikipedia free, online collaborative encyclopedia launched.
Creative Commons, a non-profit “devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share.”
2003
Hewlett Packard wi-fi laser printer introduced.
WordPress open source online publishing platform launched.
2004
Facebook social network launched.
2006
Twitter social networking service launched. It allows users to send and read 140-character messages called tweets.
2007
Kindle e-reader developed by Amazon.com.
2008
PIA/GATF renamed PIA.
College Book Art Association is formed, professionalizing book art education, supporting academic book artists and students, setting standards, and promoting the field.
2009
Nook e-reader developed by Barnes & Noble.
2010
Apple iPad tablet introduced.
Instagram online mobile photo and video-sharing service launched.
2011
St. John’s Bible first completely handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine Abbey since the invention of printing.
Snapchat image messaging and multimedia mobile application
2012
London Centre for Book Arts opens.
2014
Sorts from the lost Dove Press type located on the banks of the River Thames.
2017
US Postal Service issued stamp printed with thermochromic ink, which responds to changes in temperature as one touches it. The image is a solar eclipse that becomes the moon. It reverts to the original image as it cools.
2018
The U.S. Government Publishing Office declares the last remnants of its letterpress operation to be hazardous waste and sends off its remaining Vandercooks, Intertypes, Ludlows and 200-300 cases of foundry type—the last physical artifacts of what once was the largest hot metal operation on earth—for scrap.
2019
U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics no longer tracks the commercial printing industry for its monthly jobs report.
Contributors
Substantive comments and suggestions provided by Abby Bainbridge, George Barnum, Barbara Beeton, Terry Belanger, Charles A. Bigelow, Frank Caserta, Douglas Charles, Sarah Chute, Walter Delaney, Erik Desmyter, Sue Durrell, Paul F. Gehl, Jeffrey D. Groves, John G. Henry, Howard Iron Works Museum, Amelia Hugill-Fontanel, Fritz Klinke, Joel Larson, Keelan Lightfoot, Mathieu Lommen, Se Eum Park, Stan Nelson, Xavier Querol, John Risseeuw, Helen Robinson, Paul Romaine, Frank J. Romano, Walker Rumble, Richard Saunders, Stephen O. Saxe, Ad Stijnman, Katherine Victoria Taylor, Philip Weimerskirch, Eric M. White, Colyn Wohlmut, Woo Sik Yoo, and Corinna Zeltsman.
Sources
Berry, W. Turner and H. Edmund Poole. Annuals of Printing, Blandford 1966
Chappell Warren. A Short History of the Printing Word, Hartley & Marks, 1999
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing, Praeger, 1969
The GATF Encyclopedia of Graphic Communications. Graphic Arts Technical Foundation GATF Press, 1998
Moran, James. Printing Presses, University of California Press, 1973 | ebook
[Republic of Korea] Cultural Heritage Administration
Steinberg, S. H. Five Hundred Years of Printing, Oak Knoll & The British Library, 1996
Stijnman, Ad. Engraving and Etching 1400–2000. A History of the Development of Manual Intaglio Printmaking Processes. ‘t Goy-Houten-London, 2012
Wallis, Lawerence W. A Concise Chronology of Typesetting Developments 1886–1986 , Wynkyn de Worde Society/Lund Humpheries, 1992
