Book Printing As Art Form
For years, book printing was considered a true art form. Typesetting, or the placement of the characters on the page, including the use of ligatures, was passed down from master to apprentice. In Germany, the art of typesetting was termed the "black art," in allusion to the ink-covered printers. It has largely been replaced by computer typesetting programs, which make it easy to get similar results more quickly and with less physical labor. Some practitioners continue to print books the way Gutenberg did. For example, there is a yearly convention of traditional book printers in Mainz, Germany.
Some theorists, such as McLuhan, Eisenstein, Kittler, and Giesecke, see an "alphabetic monopoly" as having developed from printing, removing the role of the image from society. Other authors stress that printed works themselves are a visual medium. Certainly, modern developments in printing have revitalized the role of illustrations.
Read more about this topic: Printing Press
Famous quotes containing the words book, printing, art and/or form:
“A book is quite a beautiful thing, even more so learning. Together, however, all they amount to is called book-learning.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Andy passes through things, but so do we. He sat down and had a talk with me. “You gotta decide what you want to do. Do you want to keep just playing museums from now on and the art festivals? Or do you want to start moving into other areas? Lou, don’t you think you should think about it?” So I thought about it, and I fired him.”
—Lou Reed (b. 1944)
“The world is not looking for servants,—there are plenty of these,—but for masters, men who form their purposes and then carry them out, let the consequences be what they may.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)