Following the invention of the printing press in the German city of Mainz by Johannes Gutenberg ,Meggs, Philip B. (1998). A History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. 58–69. Western printing technology spread across the world, and was adopted worldwide by the end of the 19th century. The technology, which mechanized the process of printing with moveable type, displaced the manuscript and block printing.

In the Western world, the operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of publishing and lent its name to a new branch of media, the "press" (see List of the oldest newspapers).:

Spread of Gutenberg's press

Germany

Gutenberg's first major print work was the 42-line Bible in Latin, probably printed between 1452 and 1454 in the German city of Mainz. After Gutenberg lost a lawsuit against his investor, Johann Fust, Fust put Gutenberg's employee Peter Schöffer in charge of the print shop. Thereupon Gutenberg established a new one with the financial backing of another money lender. With Gutenberg's monopoly revoked, and the technology no longer secret, printing spread throughout Germany and beyond, diffused first by emigrating German printers, but soon also by foreign apprentices.

Europe In rapid succession, printing presses were set up in Central and Western Europe. Major towns, in particular, functioned as centers of diffusion (Cologne 1466, Rome 1467, Venice 1469, Paris 1470, Buda 1473, Kraków 1473, London 1477). In 1481, barely 30 years after the publication of the 42-line Bible, the small Netherlands already featured printing shops in 21 cities and towns, while Italy and Germany each had shops in about 40 towns at that time. According to one estimate, "by 1500, 220 printing presses were in operation throughout Western Europe and had produced 8 million books"Eisenstein, Elizabeth L.: "The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe", Cambridge, 1993, pp. 13–17, quoted in: Angus Maddison: "Growth and Interaction in the World Economy: The Roots of Modernity", Washington 2005, pp. 17f. and during the 1550s there were "three hundred or more" printers and booksellers in Geneva alone.Eisenstein (1979) — The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 410. The output was in the order of twenty million volumes and rose in the sixteenth century tenfold to between 150 and 200 million copies.Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean (1976): "The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800", London: New Left Books, quoted in: Anderson, Benedict: "Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo", Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico 1993, , pp. 58f. Germany and Italy were considered the two main centres of printing in terms of quantity and quality.

Rest of the world

The near-simultaneous discovery of sea routes to the West (Christopher Columbus, 1492) and East (Vasco da Gama, 1498) and the subsequent establishment of trade links greatly facilitated the global spread of Gutenberg-style printing. Traders, colonists, but perhaps most importantly, missionaries exported printing presses to the new European oversea domains, setting up new print shops and distributing printing material. In the Americas, the first extra-European print shop was founded in Mexico City in 1544 (or 1539), and soon after Jesuits started operating the first printing press in Asia (Goa, 1556).

According to Suraiya Faroqhi, lack of interest and religious reasons were among the reasons for the slow adoption of the printing press outside Europe: Thus, printing in the Arabic script, after encountering strong opposition by Muslim legal scholars and manuscript scribes, remained formally or informally prohibited in the Ottoman Empire between 1483 and 1729, according to some sources even on penalty of death,Suraiya Faroqhi, Subjects of the Sultan: culture and daily life in the Ottoman Empire, pp. 134–136, I. B. Tauris, 2005, , ;The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Fascicules 111–112 : Masrah Mawlid, Clifford Edmund Bosworth; while some movable Arabic type printing was done by Pope Julius II (1503−1512) for distribution among Middle Eastern Christians, and the oldest Quran printed with movable type was produced in Venice in 1537/1538 for the Ottoman market.

Hebrew texts and presses were imported across the Middle East – as early as 1493 – Constantinople, Fez (1516), Cairo (1557) and Safed (1577). Disquiet among Muslims regarding the publication of religious texts in this way may have dampened down their production. In 1831, Israel Bak brought a Hebrew printing press from his family business in Berdichev, Ukraine to Safed and Jerusalem, and began printing the first Hebrew texts in the land of Israel in more than 250 years.

In India, reports are that Jesuits "presented a polyglot Bible to the Emperor Akbar in 1580 but did not succeed in arousing much curiosity."Angus Maddison: Growth and Interaction in the World Economy: The Roots of Modernity, Washington 2005, p. 65 But also practical reasons seem to have played a role. The English East India Company, for example, brought a printer to Surat in 1675, but was not able to cast type in Indian scripts, so the venture failed.

North America saw the adoption by the Cherokee Indian Elias Boudinot who published the tribe's first newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, from 1828, partly in the Cherokee language, using the Cherokee script recently invented by his compatriot Sequoyah.

In the 19th century, the arrival of the Gutenberg-style press to the shores of Tahiti (1818), Hawaii (1821) and other Pacific islands, marked the end of a global diffusion process which had begun almost 400 years earlier. At the same time, the "old style" press (as the Gutenberg model came to be termed in the 19th century), was already in the process of being displaced by industrial machines like the steam powered press (1812) and the rotary press (1833), which radically departed from Gutenberg's design, but were still of the same development line.; ;

Dates by location The following represents a selection:The main source is Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4th edition, 1888–1890, entry "Buchdruckerkunst (Ausbreitung der Erfindung)"

Germany, Austria and German printers in Central Europe

Date City Printer Comment 1452–1453 Mainz Johannes Gutenberg, Peter Schöffer, Johann Fust (investor) Gutenberg Bible c. 1457 Bamberg Albrecht Pfister, Johann Sensenschmid (from 1480) Pfister: first woodcut book illustration c. 1461Fernand Braudel, "Civilization & Capitalism, 15–18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life", William Collins & Sons, London 1981 1460 Strassburg Johannes Mentelin, Johann Grüninger (1482) In 1605, Johann Carolus publishes the German Relation aller Fuernemmen und gedenckwuerdigen Historien (Collection of all distinguished and commemorable news), recognized by the World Association of Newspapers as the first newspaper.World Association of Newspapers: "Newspapers: 400 Years Young!" c. 1465 Cologne Ulrich Zell, Busaus, Gymnici, Mylij, Quentell 1468 Augsburg Günther Zainer Not later than 1469 Nuremberg Johann Sensenschmidt, Johannes Regiomontanus (1472–1475), Anton Koberger (1473–1513)Johann Endter (1625–1670) Nuremberg Chronicle c. 1471 Speyer c. 1472 Lauingen 1473 Esslingen am Neckar 1473 Merseburg 1473 Ulm c. 1473–1474 Erfurt c. 1474 Lübeck 1488, Missale Aboense and other versions, first books for the Scandinavian and Finnish markets, by Bartholomeus Ghotan 1475 Breslau (now Wrocław) Kasper Elyan of Glogau Joachim Köhler (ed.): Geschichte des christlichen Lebens im schlesischen Raum, LIT Verlag Münster, 2002, , p.  404 Kasper's print shop remained operational until 1483 with an overall output of 11 titles. 1475 Trento c. 1475 Blaubeuren c. 1475 Rostock 1476 Reutlingen c. 1478–1479 Memmingen 1479 Würzburg Georg Reyser 1479 Magdeburg 1480 Passau 1480 Leipzig , Andreas Friesner c. 1480 Eichstätt 1482 Vienna Johann Winterburger 1482 Munich Johann Schauer c. 1482 Heidelberg 1484 Ingolstadt 1485 Münster c. 1485 Regensburg 1486 Schleswig Stephan Arndes c. 1486 Stuttgart c. 1488 Hamburg 1489 Hagenau 1491 Freiburg 1492 Marienburg Jakob Karweyse Only two editions printed

Rest of Europe

Italy

Date City Printer Comment 1465 Subiaco Arnold Pannartz, Konrad Sweynheym 1467 Rome Ulrich Hahn, Arnold Pannartz, Konrad Sweynheym (from 1467) 1469 Venice Johann von Speyer, shortly afterwards Nikolaus Jenson from Tours, Aldus Manutius Johann was granted a privilege for 5 years for movable type printing by the Senate, but died soon after.Helmut Schippel: Die Anfänge des Erfinderschutzes in Venedig, in: Uta Lindgren (ed.): Europäische Technik im Mittelalter. 800 bis 1400. Tradition und Innovation, 4th ed., Berlin 2001, p.540f. In 1501, Ottaviano Petrucci produced the first book of sheet music printed from movable type. 1470 Milan Filippo de Lavagna, Antonio Zaroto, shortly afterwards Waldarfer von Regensburg 1470 Naples 1471 Florence Demetrius Damilas Earliest printing in Greek 1471 Genoa 1471 Ferrara 1471 Bologna Probably in 1477, claimed to have the first engraved illustrations,David Landau & Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print, Yale, p241, 1996, although the 1476 Boccaccio edition by Colard Mansion in Bruges already had copper engravings 1471 Padua 1471 Treviso 1472 Parma 1473 Pavia 1473 Brescia c. 1473–1474 Modena 1483 Soncino Israel Nathan ben Samuel and Soncino Family 1484 Siena

In the 15th century, printing presses were established in 77 Italian cities and towns. At the end of the following century, 151 locations in Italy had seen at one time printing activities, of which 130 (86%) were north of Rome. During these two centuries a total of 2894 printers were active in Italy, with only 216 of them located in southern Italy. Around 60% of the Italian printing shops were situated in six cities (Venice, Rome, Milan, Naples, Bologna and Florence), with the concentration of printers in Venice being particularly high (approximately 30%).

Switzerland Date City Printer Comment c. 1468 Basel Berthold Ruppel 1470 Beromünster c. 1474 Burgdorf 1478 Geneva Adam Steinschaber c. 1479 Zürich 1577 Schaffhausen 1577 St. Gallen 1585 Fribourg 1664 Einsiedeln

France

Date City Printer Comment 1470 Paris Ulrich Gering, Martin Crantz, Michael Friburger 1473 Lyon Guillaume Le Roy, Buyer c. 1475 Toulouse 1476–1477 Angers c. 1477–1478 Vienne 1478–1479 Chablis 1479 Poitiers 1480 Caen 1480–1482 Rouen 1483 Troyes 1484–1485 Rennes 1486 Abbeville c. 1486–1488 Besançon 1490–1491 Orléans 1491 Dijon 1491 Angoulême 1493 Nantes 1493–1494 Tours 1495–1496 Limoges 1497 Avignon 1500 Perpignan

Apart from the cities above, a small number of lesser towns also set up printing presses.

Spain

Date City Printer Comment 1471–1472 Segovia Johannes Parix c. 1472–1474 Seville c. 1472–1473 Barcelona Heinrich Botel, Georgius vom Holtz, Johannes Planck c. 1472–1473 Valencia Lambert Palmart, Jakob Vinzlant 1475 Zaragoza Matthias Flander, Paul Hurus c. 1480 Salamanca 1485 Burgos 1486 Toledo 1496 Granada Meinrad Ungut, Hans Pegnitzer 1499 Montserrat Oldest publishing house in the world still running 1500 Madrid

Belgium Date City Printer Comment 1473 Aalst Dirk Martens 1473–1474 Leuven Johann von Westphalen c. 1473–1474 Bruges Colard Mansion Worked with, and (?) trained William Caxton, printing the first books in English (Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye) and also French, as well as the first book to use engravings for illustrations. 1475–1476 Brussels 1480 Oudenaarde Arend De Keysere 1481 Antwerp Matt. Van der Goes 1483 Ghent Arend De Keysere

Netherlands

Date City Printer Comment 1473 Utrecht 1477 Gouda Gerard Leeu 1477 Deventer Richard Paffroad 1477 Zwolle 1477 Delft Jacob Jacobzoon 1483 Haarlem Jacob Bellaert

In 1481, printing was already being done in 21 towns and cities.

Hungary