Printing press  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to:
navigation, search  The printing press is a machine. It is used
to make many copies of identical pages. The printing press today
is used to print books and newspapers. It had a great influence
on society, especially western society. It was "one of the most
potent agents... of western civilisation in bringing together
the scattered ideas of thinkers".[1]  Woodcut printing has been
done for several centuries. But that was whole pages cut into
wood, words and pictures. In the 15th century when Johannes
Gutenberg improved the process. He used separate alloy letters
screwed into a frame. This way a large set of letters could make
almost any page for printing. This process was called
typesetting. Each letter was in a block of metal, that was fixed
in a frame. He could then move paper and ink over it, much like
a stamp. This method was called letterpress. The letters would
leave ink on the paper in the shape of the letters, creating
text or illustrations