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How did the printing press take over Europe in fifty years? (for a curious adult who has not studied history). Cover, in this order: How were books made before the printing press?; What exactly did Gutenberg invent?; Wasn't printing invented earlier in China and Korea?; Why did printing jump from city to city instead of spreading like a ripple?; Why did books become so much cheaper?; What changed once many people could read the same words? — page 3: Printing's Earlier Roots
First, China. By the Tang era, printers carved an entire page into one wooden block, inked it, and pressed paper down.
Then around 1040, Bi Sheng made separate clay characters you could arrange into a page, print, and rearrange for the next page.
Korea went further. By 1377 printers cast metal type for a Buddhist text, the Jikji, about sixty-five years before Gutenberg.
Europe's alphabet uses only a few dozen letters, so each one is cheap to cast. A press and oil-based ink made mass printing practical.
Gutenberg wasn't first to print. He built a system that fit Europe's alphabet and made printing cheap enough to change a continent.