(i) Paper from China : Paper reached Europe from China through the Silk route in the 11^th century. With this, the production of manuscripts written by scribes became a regular feature.
(ii) Role of travellers and explorers : Marco Polo, a great explorer reached Italy after several years of exploration in China in the year 1295. Marco Polo brought back with him the technology of woodblock printing. Now Italians started publishing books with woodblocks. The technology became popular in other parts of Europe, as well.
(iii) Woodblock printing : By the early fifteenth century, woodblocks started being widely used in Europe to print textiles, playing cards and religious pictures with simple, brief texts.
(iv) Johann Gutenberg and the printing press : A major revolution in the print technology was brought by Johann Gutenberg. He developed the first known printing press in the 1430's. The first book he printed was the Bible.
(v) Spread of printing presses : In the next hundred years i.e. between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe. 

Johann Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and inventor, credited with the inventing of the movable type printing in Europe. Gutenberg was the son of a merchant, and his childhood was spent on a large agricultural estate. From his childhood, he had seen wine and olive presses. By and by, he learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith, and also acquired the expertise to create lead moulds used for making trinkets. Using this knowledge, Gutenberg adapted the existing technology to design his innovation. The olive press became the base model for the printing press and moulds were used for casting the metal types for the letters of the alphabet. By 1448, Gutenberg perfected the system. In 1445, Gutenberg published his 42-lines Bible, commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible. About 180 copies were printed most on paper and some on vellum.

(i) Early printed books were technically printed but those were not very different from manuscripts.
(ii) There were many kinds of same features available in similar books which made printed books closely resembling with manuscripts.
(iii) Both printed books and manuscripts looked similar because metal letters imitated the ornamental handwritten style.
(iv) Like handwritten manuscripts, borders of printed books were also illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns and illustrations were painted.
(v) In the books printed for rich people, space for decoration was kept blank on the printed pages.
(vi) Each buyer could choose the design and decide on the painting school that would do the illustrations.

Invention which improved the printing technology after 17^th century are listed below:
(i) Metal Press: In the 19^th century, there were a series of innovations in the printing technology. Now the press was made out of metal.
(ii) Rotary Printing Press: Richard March Hoe, an American inventor designed and improved the printing press. He invented the Rotary Printing Press, a design much faster than the old flat-bed printing press. The new press could print about 8,000 sheets per hour. The new press was very useful for printing newspapers.
(iii) Offset Press: In the late nineteenth century, the offset press was developed which could print up to six colours at the same time.
(iv) Electrically Operated Presses: From the turn of the twentieth century, electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations. A series of many other developments followed. Methods of feeding paper improved, the quality of plates became better, automatic paper reels and photoelectric control of the colour register were introduced.
The accumulation of several individual mechanical improvements transformed the appearance of the printed texts.

Invention which improved the printing technology after 17^th century are listed below:
(i) Metal Press: In the 19^th century, there were a series of innovations in the printing technology. Now the press was made out of metal.
(ii) Rotary Printing Press: Richard March Hoe, an American inventor designed and improved the printing press. He invented the Rotary Printing Press, a design much faster than the old flat-bed printing press. The new press could print about 8,000 sheets per hour. The new press was very useful for printing newspapers.
(iii) Offset Press: In the late nineteenth century, the offset press was developed which could print up to six colours at the same time.
(iv) Electrically Operated Presses: From the turn of the twentieth century, electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations. A series of many other developments followed. Methods of feeding paper improved, the quality of plates became better, automatic paper reels and photoelectric control of the colour register were introduced.
The accumulation of several individual mechanical improvements transformed the appearance of the printed texts.

(i) Earlier, reading was restricted to the elites. Common people lived in a world of oral culture.
(ii) With the printing press, books could reach out wider sections of society. If earlier, there was a hearing public, now a reading public came into being.
(iii) Publishers had to keep in mind the wider reach of the printed books. Even those who did not read, could enjoy listening to the books being read out.
(iv) So, printers began publishing popular ballads and folk tales and sung and recited at gatherings in villages and in taverns in towns.

(i) Debate over social issues: Print initiated an intense controversies between social and religious reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry. In Bengal, as the debate developed, tracts and newspapers proliferated, circulating a variety of arguments. To reach a wider audience, the ideas were printed in the everyday, spoken language of ordinary people.
(ii) Ideas of Reformers: Print carried the ideas of social reformers to the common people. For example Sambad Kaumudl carried the ideas and philosophy of Raja Ram Mohan Roy
(iii) Reforms in Muslims: In north India, the ulama were deeply anxious about the collapse of Muslim dynasties. They feared that colonial rulers would encourage conversion, change the Muslim personal laws. To counter this, they used cheap lithographic presses, published Persian and Urdu translations of holy scriptures, and printed religious newspapers and tracts. The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867, published thousands upon thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in their everyday lives, and explaining the meanings of Islamic doctrines.
(iv) Reforms in Hindus: Among Hindus, too, print encouraged the reading of religious texts, especially in the vernacular languages. The first printed edition of the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, a sixteenth- century text, came out from Calcutta in 1810. 

(i) Debate on religious, social and economic issues : From the early nineteenth century, there were serious debates on religious, social and economic issues. Different people had different opinions regarding the colonial society. Reformers offered a variety of new interpretations of the beliefs of different religions. There were many who criticised the existing practices and campaigned for reforms while others countered.
(ii) Impact on debates : These debates were carried out openly in public and in print. Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread the new ideas, but they also shaped the nature of the debates.
(iii) New ideas and clashes : A wider range of people could now participate in these public discussions and express their views. New ideas emerged through these clashes of opinions.
(iv) Pan-Indian identities : Newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating pan-Indian identities. Newspapers reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities.
(v) Print and depressed classes : From the 19th century, issue of caste discrimination began to be written. Jyotiba Phule, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, E.V. Ramaswamy wrote extensively on the depressed classes and provided the depressed classes a common platform.