Movable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual letters or punctuation). The first known movable type system was invented in China by Bi Sheng out of ceramic between 1041 and 1048. Metal movable type was first invented in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty (around 1230). This led to the printing of the Jikji in 1377—today the world's oldest extant movable ...
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Movable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual letters or punctuation). The first known movable type system was invented in China by Bi Sheng out of ceramic between 1041 and 1048. Metal movable type was first invented in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty (around 1230). This led to the printing of the Jikji in 1377—today the world's oldest extant movable metal print book.
Neither movable type system was widely used, probably because of the enormous amount of labour involved in manipulating the thousands of ceramic tablets, or in the case of Korea, metal tablets, required by the use of Chinese characters. Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg introduced what is generally regarded as an independent invention of movable type in Europe (see printing press), along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould. Gutenberg was the first to create his type pieces from an alloy of lead...
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