Woodblock printing

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text or images used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China sometime between the mid-6th and late 9th centuries. Japanese woodblock prints are known as ukiyo-e.

Spread and decline of woodblock printing

The spread of woodblock printing beyond China is illustrative of this technology's appeal. First, the technique spread through East and Central Asia, and by 1000 A.D. examples of woodblock printing appear in Islamic Egypt, and by the late Middle Ages woodblock printing has become an important force in Europe. While in Europe moveable metal type would soon replace woodblock printing for the reproduction of text, woodblock printing remained a major way to reproduce images in illustrated works of early modern European printing.

Related Topics:
1000 A.D. - Egypt - Middle Ages - Europe

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In East Asia, woodblock printing proved to be more enduring, continuing well into the 19th century as the major form of printing, especially in China, even after the introduction of the Gutenberg printing press. Jesuits stationed in China in the 16th and 17th centuries indeed preferred to use woodblocks for their own publishing projects, noting how inexpensive and convenient it was. Only with the introduction of more mechanized printing methods from the West in the 19th century did printing in East Asia move towards metal moveable type and the printing press.

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