Why was the movable type of the printing press so important for publishing?

Answer 1

Printing with movable type changed things entirely. To envision how, I want you to imagine three different ways of making books.

1. Sit down with a book with writing in it and another book that is blank. Copy all the writing into the blank book.
2. Carve the letters of each page on a big block of wood. Use the blocks in a press, inking the wood, putting paper against it, and pushing the paper against the wood with the press. You can make as many copies of the book as you want, and the blocks of wood can be used over and over, but you have to carve every letter of every page by hand.
3. Do the printing as in method 2, but use individual pieces of type, each carrying a letter, and assembling them into pages. When you are done printing all the copies you want of one page, the type is disassembled into little boxes, separating them so all the type of the same letter go together. Then you can reassemble them into a different page, which is much, much faster than carving the entire page. With movable type, all the type can be cast, so they don't have to be careved at all.

With method 1, each copy of The Bible represented about 18 months' work by a scribe. Method 2 was never used because it would have taken too long to set up. Picture bibles were done, however, rather like cartoon versions of classic novels. Method 3 made it possible for a crew of three people to produce 500 Bibles in about 6 months. This multiplied the speed of production by about 500. A bible was very costly, so the printing process paid big money.
The movable type of the printing press was so important for publishing because it multiplied the output and cut the costs of publishing.

Answer 2

Printing with movable type changed things entirely. To envision how, I want you to imagine three different ways of making books.

1. Sit down with a book with writing in it and another book that is blank. Copy all the writing into the blank book.
2. Carve the letters of each page on a big block of wood. Use the blocks in a press, inking the wood, putting paper against it, and pushing the paper against the wood with the press. You can make as many copies of the book as you want, and the blocks of wood can be used over and over, but you have to carve every letter of every page by hand.
3. Do the printing as in method 2, but use individual pieces of type, each carrying a letter, and assembling them into pages. When you are done printing all the copies you want of one page, the type is disassembled into little boxes, separating them so all the type of the same letter go together. Then you can reassemble them into a different page, which is much, much faster than carving the entire page. With movable type, all the type can be cast, so they don't have to be careved at all.

With method 1, each copy of The Bible represented about 18 months' work by a scribe. Method 2 was never used because it would have taken too long to set up. Picture bibles were done, however, rather like cartoon versions of classic novels. Method 3 made it possible for a crew of three people to produce 500 Bibles in about 6 months. This multiplied the speed of production by about 500. A bible was very costly, so the printing process paid big money.
The movable type of the printing press was so important for publishing because it multiplied the output and cut the costs of publishing.

Answer 3

The movable type of the printing press allowed for faster and more efficient printing of books and documents. This innovation revolutionized the spread of information and ideas by enabling mass production of written materials, leading to increased literacy rates and the democratization of knowledge.