Who Made the Printing Press

Short answer

• If the question means who made the mechanized movable type press that transformed printing in Europe, the answer is Johannes Gutenberg, a German craftsman working in Mainz in the middle of the 1400s.
• If the question means who first invented printing itself, Gutenberg is not the answer. Printing from carved woodblocks already existed in China centuries earlier, and movable type had already been made in China and Korea.
• If the question means who first made movable type, the earliest named maker in the surviving record is Bi Sheng in China, who made movable type from baked clay in the 1000s.
• If the question means who printed the oldest surviving book made with movable metal type, the answer is the makers of Jikji, a Korean Buddhist anthology printed in 1377.
• Gutenberg's achievement was a working system, not one single part: reusable metal type, a suitable metal alloy, an oil based ink that would stick to metal type, and a screw press adapted from wine, oil, or paper presses.
• His most famous product, the Gutenberg Bible, also called the Forty Two Line Bible, was completed no later than 1455. It was the first large format typographic book printed in Europe, according to the Library of Congress, not the first printed book in the world.
• The honest short answer for a test is therefore: Gutenberg invented the European movable type printing press. The fuller answer is that printing developed in stages, in more than one country, over more than 500 years.

Why This Question Has More Than One Answer

People use the phrase “printing press” to mean several different things: any method for printing, movable type itself, a mechanized press that applies even pressure to paper over inked type, or the whole European system that made books cheap enough to spread widely. Each meaning points to a different answer, and each answer is correct only for its own meaning.

There is a second difficulty. Gutenberg left very few personal records. Most of what historians know comes from legal and financial documents, from books printed in his circle, and from later accounts by people with their own interests. His birth year is not securely recorded, the exact date of his invention is not fixed by a single document, and even how he cast his type is still debated.

What Printing Meant Before Movable Type

Before movable type, books in Europe were usually copied by hand. A scribe wrote a text letter by letter, often on parchment made from animal skin. A single long book could take months, and each copy could differ from the next because a tired copyist could skip a line or misread a word. Books were therefore expensive, rare, and mostly owned by churches, universities, and wealthy households.

In China, printers had a different solution much earlier. They carved a whole page of text, in reverse, into a block of wood, inked the raised surface, laid paper over it, and pressed the paper down to take the impression. Once carved, a block could print the same page again and again. The weakness was obvious: a new block had to be carved for every new page.

The oldest dated printed book known to survive is a Chinese example of this method. The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist text printed from woodblocks in China, carries a colophon dated to May 11, 868. It is a scroll made from sheets of paper pasted together, now in the British Library, and described by the British Library and by Smithsonian Magazine as the oldest dated printed book in existence. Note the wording: oldest dated and surviving. Older printing may have existed and been lost, and undated printing may be older but cannot be proved to be older.

China: Bi Sheng and Movable Clay Type

The next step was to break the page into separate pieces that could be rearranged. Instead of carving a new block for every page, a printer could keep a stock of individual characters, set them in a frame to form any page, then break the page apart and reuse the same characters for the next page. That is movable type.

The earliest named maker of a movable type system in the surviving record is Bi Sheng, working in China during the Song dynasty. A university library guide from Florida State University Libraries dates his movable type to between 1041 and 1048. The account comes down through Shen Kuo, a Chinese scholar who described Bi Sheng’s method: characters cut in sticky clay, baked hard in fire, set in an iron frame on an iron plate coated with pine resin, wax, and paper ash, warmed so the coating softened, and pressed level before printing.

Britannica agrees on the broad point: movable type was developed in China in the 11th century as an extension of woodblock printing, but it was not immediately practical for a language written with tens of thousands of characters. Keeping and setting thousands of separate clay pieces was slow and costly compared with carving a woodblock for a frequently reprinted text, so woodblock printing remained dominant in China. Bi Sheng therefore invented a movable type system about 400 years before Gutenberg, but he did not invent a mechanized European style press.

Korea: Movable Metal Type and Jikji

Korean printers took the movable type idea further by casting type in metal. Metal type lasted longer than baked clay, held a sharper shape, and could be used for longer print runs. By the 1200s, Korean artisans were casting bronze type, and in 1377 they printed a Buddhist anthology now recognized as the oldest surviving book printed with movable metal type.

That book is Jikji, short for a longer Korean title that translates as an anthology of great Buddhist priests’ Zen teachings. It was printed at Heungdeok Temple in Cheongju, in what is now South Korea, in July 1377. Only the second volume of the metal type edition survives, held by the National Library of France in Paris. UNESCO inscribed Jikji on its Memory of the World Register in September 2001, recognizing it as the oldest extant book printed with movable metal type.

Jikji is about 78 years older than the Gutenberg Bible. That comparison stops a common error: the Gutenberg Bible was not the first book printed with movable metal type, and it was not the first printed book of any kind. It was the first large format typographic book printed in Europe, a narrower and accurate claim made by the Library of Congress. Jikji does not prove that Korean printers used a screw press of the European kind, or that there was a direct line from Korea to Europe.

Did Gutenberg Copy Printing From Asia?

There is no surviving documentary chain showing that Gutenberg learned printing from China or Korea. Paper, invented in China, had reached Europe long before Gutenberg, and woodblock printing was known in Europe before his press. But knowledge of paper and block printing is not the same as knowledge of movable type, and no letter, workshop record, or traveler account yet found connects Gutenberg’s workshop to an Asian movable type workshop.

That does not prove that Gutenberg worked in complete isolation. Ideas can travel without leaving a paper trail, and scholars continue to debate how much indirect knowledge may have reached Europe. The honest statement is limited: independent development in Europe is the best supported reading of the surviving evidence, because Gutenberg’s system differs in important details, above all its alphabet, alloy, ink, and screw press. But independence is an inference from the absence of a link and from those differences, not a fact recorded in a document.

The same caution applies to the old Dutch claim that Laurens Coster of Haarlem invented movable type printing before Gutenberg. That tradition is not supported by contemporary documents from Coster’s lifetime, and modern scholarship does not accept it as established. This article therefore does not credit Coster.

Gutenberg the Man: What Is Actually Known

Johannes Gutenberg was a German craftsman from Mainz. Britannica gives his dates as born in the 14th century and died probably on February 3, 1468, in Mainz. Other reference works give a birth year around 1398 or around 1400. His exact birth year is therefore not firmly documented, and any article that states one year as certain is overstating the record. His family name was Gensfleisch, and he used his mother’s family name, Gutenberg, as his own.

He was trained in metalwork, including goldsmithing and gem cutting. That training mattered: a printer of movable type needs to understand which alloy melts at a workable temperature, cools into a hard and durable piece, and keeps a sharp letter shape after repeated impressions.

Records place him in Strasbourg, now in France, in the 1430s and early 1440s. A lawsuit after the death of a business partner in 1438 revealed that he was working on a secret invention, with a wooden press being built and printing materials bought as early as 1436. By October 1448 he was back in Mainz, and by 1450 he could persuade the financier Johann Fust to lend him 800 guilders, with printing tools as security. Fust later added a second 800 guilders for a partnership. This reads like a workshop project that needed partners, loans, secrecy, and years of experiment.

What Gutenberg Actually Built

Gutenberg’s press is best understood as a system of parts that had to work together. Britannica lists its elements as a metal alloy that could melt readily and cool quickly to form durable reusable type, an oil based ink thick enough to stick to metal type and transfer well to vellum or paper, and a new press, likely adapted from presses used in producing wine, oil, or paper, for applying firm and even pressure to printing surfaces. None of these features existed in the European technique used up to that time for stamping letters or for woodblock printing.

Each part solved a different problem. Reusable type removed the need to carve a new block for every page. A suitable alloy made many identical pieces of type cheaply enough to fill a whole book. Oil based ink solved the problem that water based ink beads up on metal and does not transfer cleanly. A screw press pressed paper evenly against the type for a sharp impression across a whole page.

One detail deserves special care. Gutenberg was long thought to have invented the punch and matrix system for casting type, in which a hard punch bearing a letter is struck into a softer plate to make a matrix for casting identical pieces. Britannica reports that in the early 2000s, computer aided analysis showed too much variation in characters of a given sort, such as the letter i, for his type to have been cast that way, and some scholars now think that system emerged after his death. This article therefore does not credit Gutenberg with that system as a settled fact.

The press itself was a wooden screw press. A long handle turned a heavy wooden screw, driving a flat plate, called a platen, down onto paper laid over the inked type. Britannica gives the working rate of such a press as about 250 sheets per hour printed on one side: far faster than copying by hand, but not a modern speed, since every sheet still had to be placed, pressed, and removed by hand.

The Gutenberg Bible, Fust, and the Lawsuit

Gutenberg’s most famous product was a Latin Bible, printed in Mainz and completed no later than 1455 according to his major biographers, as reported by Britannica. It is called the Forty Two Line Bible because most of its pages carry 42 lines of text. The Library of Congress describes it as the first large format typographic book printed in Europe, crafted in Mainz in 1454 or 1455 by Gutenberg and his partner Johann Fust, with a print run of perhaps as many as 180 copies, about a quarter of them on vellum, a fine parchment made from animal skin, rather than on paper.

The phrase “perhaps as many as” matters, because the exact print run is not recorded in a surviving workshop ledger.

The Bible project also ended Gutenberg’s control of his own workshop. Fust sued Gutenberg, and the record of the case, the Helmasperger notarial instrument dated November 6, 1455, is preserved in part at the University of Gottingen. Britannica reports that Gutenberg was ordered to pay Fust the total of the two loans plus compound interest, probably totaling 2,020 guilders. Traditional accounts said this settlement ruined Gutenberg, but more recent scholarship suggests it allowed him to operate a printing shop through the 1450s and possibly into the 1460s. The Library of Congress adds a caution: the first surviving reference to the new European printing technology, a letter written in 1455, does not mention Gutenberg by name at all. The Helmasperger instrument is the document that does mention him by name in connection with printing.

After winning the suit, Fust gained control of the type for the Bible and for Gutenberg’s second masterpiece, a Psalter, and at least some of Gutenberg’s other equipment. He continued to print using Gutenberg’s materials, with the help of Peter Schoffer, his son in law, who had been Gutenberg’s most skilled employee. The first printed book in Europe to bear the name of its printer is a Psalter completed in Mainz on August 14, 1457, which lists Fust and Schoffer. Gutenberg’s own Bible carries no printer’s name.

In January 1465 the Archbishop of Mainz pensioned Gutenberg, giving him grain, wine, and clothing and exempting him from certain taxes. Britannica notes that his later finances were probably not destitute. He died in Mainz in 1468.

How the Press Worked, Step by Step

First, the printer set the type: individual pieces of metal type, each bearing one letter or symbol in reverse, arranged in a frame to form a page and locked tight. Second, the printer inked the type, spreading oil based ink evenly over the raised surfaces with leather ink balls. Third, the printer laid a dampened sheet of paper, or a sheet of vellum, over the inked type. Damp paper took the impression better than dry paper, which is one reason early printing remained a skilled hand craft even after the press was mechanized. Fourth, the printer turned the screw: the platen came down with firm and even pressure, transferring ink to paper, then was wound back and the sheet lifted off to dry. Fifth, the type was broken apart, cleaned, sorted back into cases, and reused for the next page.

A book was not printed in reading order in one pass. Printers printed sheets that would later be folded and bound in the right order, and hand finishing, including colored initials added by hand, meant that even copies of the same printed Bible could look different. The Library of Congress makes this point about its own Gutenberg Bible: every copy looks different, because the hand finishing was done by different artisans. Early printed books were therefore more uniform than handwritten copies in their printed text, but the finished book still varied.

Why the Press Spread, and What It Changed

Within a generation, printing shops appeared across Europe, staffed by printers who had learned the craft in Mainz or from someone who had. Books once copied one at a time could now be produced in runs of hundreds, and a text that once existed in a handful of copies could exist in hundreds of copies in different cities. Prices fell relative to handwritten books, though early printed books were still costly by modern standards.

That spread mattered for three reasons, stated carefully. First, it changed the economics of reading. When the same text exists in many copies, readers can compare versions, check quotations, and notice errors. The Library of Congress puts it well for the Gutenberg Bible: European culture suddenly gained the ability to study multiple versions of nearly identical texts.

Second, it changed the speed of debate. During the Reformation, reformers could print pamphlets and translations and have them carried to other towns within weeks. That did not make the Reformation happen on its own. It lowered the cost of spreading an argument and raised the cost of suppressing one, because seizing one copy no longer removed the text from circulation.

Third, it changed who could take part in written culture, but slowly. The press did not make everyone literate overnight, and it did not make books free. Literacy in Europe rose over centuries, for many reasons including schools, churches, and trade, not printing alone. Printing lowered one barrier, the cost and scarcity of texts.

The press did not make knowledge automatically true. Printers made mistakes and printed false texts alongside accurate ones. Its importance lies in multiplication and distribution, not in guaranteeing truth.

Who Made the Printing Press: The Answer by Meaning

Version of the question	Answer	Evidence in one line
Who first printed a book from carved blocks?	Printers in China, centuries before Europe, with the Diamond Sutra of 868 as the oldest dated surviving example	A dated colophon on the surviving scroll, now in the British Library
Who first made movable type?	Bi Sheng in China, in the 1000s, using baked clay type	The account preserved by Shen Kuo, with the date range 1041 to 1048 given by Florida State University Libraries
Who printed the oldest surviving book with movable metal type?	The makers of Jikji in Korea, in 1377	The surviving second volume in the National Library of France, and the UNESCO Memory of the World inscription of 2001
Who made the mechanized movable type press in Europe?	Johannes Gutenberg, working in Mainz in the 1400s	The 1455 Helmasperger instrument naming him in the printing enterprise, and the Bible completed no later than 1455
Who printed the first book in Europe to name its printers?	Johann Fust and Peter Schoffer, in the Psalter of August 14, 1457	The printed colophon of the Psalter itself, as reported by Britannica
Who made printing cheap and widespread in Europe?	No single person. Gutenberg’s system, carried by his workers and successors, and improved by later printers	The spread of printing shops across Europe in the decades after Mainz

If a quiz expects one name, that name is almost always Gutenberg, and that is the right exam answer. But a reader who stops there will believe something false: that printing began in Germany in the 1400s. Gutenberg made the European press, while printing, movable type, and movable metal type printing all began earlier, in China and Korea.

Common Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them

Gutenberg invented printing. He invented a European system of printing from movable type with a mechanized press. Printing from woodblocks, and movable type itself, already existed in East Asia.

The Gutenberg Bible was the first printed book. It was the first large format typographic book printed in Europe. The Diamond Sutra of 868 is far older, and Jikji of 1377 is older as a movable metal type book.

The Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed with movable type. Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377, holds that place among surviving books. The Gutenberg Bible is the most famous early European example, not the world first.

Gutenberg worked alone. He worked with partners, borrowed large sums from Fust, employed skilled workers including Schoffer, and lost control of his workshop in a lawsuit.

Gutenberg died in total poverty because Fust ruined him. He did lose the lawsuit of 1455 and control of his workshop, but he later received a pension in 1465, and Britannica reports that his later finances were probably not destitute.

Printing made everyone literate at once. Printing made texts cheaper and more numerous, which helped literacy rise over time. It did not teach people to read, and it did not make books affordable to everyone in the 1400s.

Every copy of an early printed book was identical. The printed text was far more uniform than hand copies, but hand finishing, including colored initials, varied from copy to copy.

The press was one invention, made on one date. Strasbourg records point to experiments in the late 1430s, Fust’s first loan dates to 1450, and the Bible was completed no later than 1455. The honest dating is a period of development, roughly from the late 1430s to 1455.

Timeline

• 868: Diamond Sutra printed from woodblocks in China, the oldest dated printed book known to survive.
• 1041 to 1048: Bi Sheng makes movable type from baked clay in China.
• 1377: Jikji printed with movable metal type at Heungdeok Temple, Cheongju, Korea.
• Late 1430s: Strasbourg records show Gutenberg working on a secret invention.
• 1450: Fust lends Gutenberg 800 guilders, with a second 800 guilders for a partnership.
• No later than 1455: Gutenberg Bible completed in Mainz.
• November 6, 1455: Helmasperger instrument records Fust’s lawsuit against Gutenberg.
• August 14, 1457: Fust and Schoffer complete the Psalter in Mainz, the first printed book in Europe to name its printers.
• January 1465: Archbishop of Mainz grants Gutenberg a pension.
• 1468: Gutenberg dies in Mainz.
• September 2001: UNESCO inscribes Jikji on the Memory of the World Register.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who made the printing press? Johannes Gutenberg made the mechanized movable type printing press in Europe in the 1400s. Printing itself, and movable type, existed earlier in China and Korea, so the full answer depends on whether the question means printing in general or the European press.

When was the printing press invented? There is no single invention date. Gutenberg was experimenting in Strasbourg in the late 1430s, received Fust’s first loan in 1450, and completed the Gutenberg Bible no later than 1455. Historians therefore date the European press to the middle of the 1400s, developed over roughly the late 1430s to 1455.

Did Gutenberg invent movable type? No. Movable type was made earlier in China by Bi Sheng in the 1000s, using baked clay, and movable metal type was used in Korea by the 1200s, producing Jikji in 1377. Gutenberg originated a method of printing from movable type in Europe, but he did not invent movable type itself.

What was the first book printed on Gutenberg’s press? The most famous early product is the Gutenberg Bible, completed no later than 1455. Smaller items are also attributed to Gutenberg’s circle, and the exact order of the earliest small printings is not settled. The Bible is the landmark book, not necessarily the very first sheet printed in the workshop.

Why is the Gutenberg Bible famous if it was not the first printed book? It was the first large format typographic book printed in Europe, it showed that a long book could be printed clearly, and it proved the new system at scale, with a print run of perhaps as many as 180 copies. Its fame comes from what it proved about European printing, not from being the first printed book in the world.

What is Jikji, and why does it matter? Jikji is a Korean Buddhist anthology printed with movable metal type in 1377 at Heungdeok Temple in Cheongju. Its surviving second volume is the oldest extant book printed with movable metal type, recognized by UNESCO in September 2001. It proves that movable metal type printing predates Gutenberg by about 78 years.

Did Gutenberg become rich from his invention? No, not in the way he had hoped. He borrowed heavily from Fust, lost a lawsuit to Fust in 1455, and lost control of his workshop. He later received a pension in 1465, and his later finances were probably not destitute, but he did not keep the fortune the Bible project might have produced.

Sources & references

• Encyclopedia Britannica, Johannes Gutenberg biography and Printing of the Bible articles. Institution reference work opened 27 October 2026. Covers Gutenberg's origin of a method of printing from movable type, the metal alloy, oil based ink, and press adapted from wine, oil, or paper presses, the Strasbourg records of the late 1430s, the Fust loans of 800 guilders each, the Helmasperger instrument of November 6, 1455, the Bible completed no later than 1455, the Psalter of August 14, 1457 naming Fust and Schoffer, the pension of January 1465, the debate over the punch and matrix casting system, and the statement that Gutenberg did not invent printing with movable type, which occurred in Korea in the 14th century.
• Library of Congress, The Gutenberg Bible at the Library of Congress: A Resource Guide, introduction. Institution guide opened 27 October 2026. Covers the Bible as the first large format typographic book printed in Europe, crafted in Mainz in 1454 or 1455 by Gutenberg and Fust, a print run of perhaps as many as 180 copies with about a quarter on vellum, the 1455 letter that does not name Gutenberg, the Helmasperger instrument naming him, and the hand finishing that made individual copies differ.
• UNESCO Memory of the World nomination record for Jikji, and the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Korea to UNESCO summary of the Bibliotheque nationale de France exhibition. Institution records consulted 27 October 2026. Cover Jikji as printed with movable metal type at Heungdeok Temple in Cheongju in July 1377, the oldest extant example of printing with movable metal type, and its inscription on the Memory of the World Register in September 2001.
• Florida State University Libraries, History of Text Technologies guide, Early Asian Movable Type section. University library guide opened 27 October 2026. Covers Bi Sheng's movable type in China during the Song dynasty between 1041 and 1048, and the continued dominance of woodblock printing in China. Note: this guide page contains an unrelated dating error for early Chinese woodblock printing elsewhere on the page, so only the Bi Sheng date range is used here, and it is corroborated by Britannica's 11th century movable type statement.
• British Library and Smithsonian Magazine accounts of the Diamond Sutra, consulted 27 October 2026. Cover the Diamond Sutra as a Chinese woodblock printed Buddhist text dated May 11, 868, held by the British Library, and described as the oldest dated printed book in existence.
• Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johann Gutenberg resource page. Institution page opened 27 October 2026. Covers Gutenberg's metalwork training, the adaptation of a wine press, and the transfer of the business to Fust. Note: this page's figures for the Bible print run and surviving copies differ from the Library of Congress figures, so those Lemelson figures are not used in this article, and the Library of Congress wording is used instead.