Johannes Gutenberg is credited with the development in the western hemisphere, in about 1440, of modern movable type printing from individually cast, reusable letters set together in a 'forme' (frame or chase). Movable type was first invented in China using ceramic type in 1040 AD during the Northern Song Dynasty by the inventor Bi Sheng (990вЂ“1051). Printer operating a Gutenberg-style screw press More recently, letterpress printing has seen a revival in an artisanal form. Letterpress printing remained the primary means of printing and distributing information until the 20th century, when offset printing was developed, which largely supplanted its role in printing books and newspapers. Letterpress printing was the normal form of printing text from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century to the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century.

thick between the bed and the paper can be printed using letterpress.

In theory, anything that is 'type high' and so forms a layer exactly 0.918 in. With certain letterpress units, it is also possible to join movable type with slugs cast using hot metal typesetting. In practice, letterpress also includes other forms of relief printing with printing presses, such as wood engravings, photo-etched zinc 'cuts' (plates), and linoleum blocks, which can be used alongside metal type, or wood type in a single operation, as well as stereotypes and electrotypes of type and blocks. A worker composes and locks movable type into the 'bed' or 'chase' of a press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type, which creates an impression on the paper. Using a printing press, the process allows many copies to be produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper.

Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing. The whole bed of type is printed on a single sheet of paper, which is then folded and cut to form many individual pages of a book. Each of the islands of text represents a single page. A printer inspecting a large forme of type on a cylinder press.

Letterpress art