the wooden block printing press was invented in the 7th century ad.
the wooden block printing press was invented in the 7th century ad.
when was the wooden block printing press invented?
7th century ad
Na
Na
the ming dynasty had seen considerable advancement in the process of colour printing in china. at his studio, hu zhengyan experimented with various forms of woodblock printing, creating processes for producing multi-coloured prints and embossed printed designs. as a result, he was able to produce some of china's first printed publications in colour, using a block printing technique known as "assorted block printing" ("douban yinshua", ). this system made use of multiple blocks, each carved with a different part of the final image and each bearing a different colour. it was a lengthy, painstaking process, requiring thirty to fifty engraved printing blocks and up to seventy inkings and impressions to create a single image. hu also employed a related form of multiple-block printing called "set-block printing" ("taoban yinshua", ), which had existed since the yuan period some 200 years earlier but had only recently come into fashion again. he refined these block printing techniques by developing a process for wiping some of the ink off the blocks before printing; this enabled him to achieve gradation and modulation of shades which were not previously possible.
hu zhengyan