Editing Movable type (section)

== Overview ==
The world's first movable type printing technology for paper [[books]] was made of [[porcelain]] materials and was invented around 1040&nbsp;AD in China during the [[Northern Song dynasty]] by the inventor [[Bi Sheng]] (990–1051).<ref name="needhamb">{{cite book |last = Needham |first = Joseph |title = The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 4 |year = 1994 |publisher = Cambridge University Press |page = 14 |isbn = 9780521329958 |quote = Bi Sheng... who first devised, about 1045, the art of printing with movable type}}</ref> The earliest printed [[paper money]] with movable metal type to print the identifying [[Banknote seal (China)|code of the money]] was made in 1161 during the Song dynasty.<ref>{{cite book |last = 吉星 |first = 潘 |title = 中國金屬活字印刷技術史 |pages = 41–54}}</ref> In 1193, a book in the Song dynasty documented how to use the copper movable type.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2012|p=911}} The oldest extant book printed with movable [[metal type]], [[Jikji]], was printed in [[Korea]] in 1377 during the [[Goryeo]] dynasty.

The spread of both movable-type systems was, to some degree, limited to primarily East Asia. The creation of the [[printing press]] in Europe may have been influenced by various sporadic reports of movable type technology brought back to Europe by returning business people and missionaries to China.<ref name="Frances&Joseph"/><ref name="Thomas Franklin Carter"/><ref name="meggs58-69"/> Some of these [[medieval European]] accounts are still preserved in the library archives of the [[Vatican Library|Vatican]] and [[Bodleian Library|Oxford University]] among many others.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = He | first1 = Zhou | year = 1994 | title = Diffusion of Movable Type in China and Europe: Why Were There Two Fates? | journal = International Communication Gazette | volume = 53 | issue = 3 | pages = 153–173 | doi = 10.1177/001654929405300301 | s2cid = 220900599 }}</ref>

Around 1450, German goldsmith [[Johannes Gutenberg]] invented the metal movable-type printing press, along with innovations in casting the type based on a [[matrix (printing)|matrix]] and [[hand mould]]. The small number of [[alphabet]]ic characters needed for European languages was an important factor.<ref>{{cite book |last=Beckwith |first=Christopher I. |title=Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-691-15034-5}}</ref> Gutenberg was the first to create his type pieces from an alloy of [[lead]], [[tin]], and [[antimony]]—and these materials remained standard for 550 years.<ref>{{Britannica|477017|Printing (publishing)}} Retrieved</ref>

For [[alphabetic script]]s, movable-type [[page setting]] was quicker than [[woodblock printing]]. The metal type pieces were more durable and the lettering was more uniform, leading to typography and [[font]]s. The high quality and relatively low price of the [[Gutenberg Bible]] (1455) established the superiority of movable type in Europe and the use of [[printing presses]] spread rapidly. The printing press may be regarded as one of the key factors fostering the [[Renaissance]]<ref>Eisenstein, Elizabeth L., ''The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe'', Cambridge University Press, 1983</ref> and, due to its effectiveness, its [[Global spread of the printing press|use spread around the globe]].

The 19th-century invention of [[hot metal typesetting]] and its successors caused movable type to decline in the 20th century.