Modern printing technology -- Opportunities and challenges

First, traditional printing technology - the past glory

Of the four Great inventions that China has made great contributions to the progress of mankind, two are related to printing, namely papermaking and printing. As far as its influence is concerned, the printing press should be the first.

1.1 Invention and spread of printing

1) The invention of printing

The source of printing -- Neolithic Age (printed pottery, painted pottery)

Engraving letterpress and missing plates. The Warring States period has been used for fabric printing, the Western Han Dynasty developed to multi-color plate printing, Sui and Tang Dynasties appeared block printing;

Movable type printing. During the reign of Emperor Renzong Qingli in the Northern Song Dynasty (1041-1048), Bi Sheng used movable type to print books. "Dream Stream Pen Talk" record.

2) Inventing the meaning of movable type

Breakthrough in the way of thinking - found the smallest unit of text printing (discretization), so that you can arbitrarily combine infinite changes in text content. This method has not changed for more than 1,000 years. Print images with dot, the principle is the same.

Greatly reduce the printing plate production process, reduce labor, improve production efficiency;

Great significance, far-reaching impact!

3) The communication vein of printing

Spread in the East - Korea was the first to adopt Chinese printing, followed by Japan. Later, it continued to spread to neighboring countries, first in Southeast Asia and later to South Asian countries.

Spread to the West - printing spread to Central Asia through Xinjiang very early. Two routes: First, the Silk Road from Central and West Asia to Europe spread to the West; Second, it was introduced into Europe through Russia.

1.2 Function and significance of the invention of printing

Marx: (Printing) was the greatest invention of the Renaissance.

Guo Yu (Master of Western literature) : Printing is "the embryo of all revolutions."

Jimmy Carter (United States) : "The inflow and dissemination of the four great inventions of the European Renaissance (namely, the four great inventions of China) played an important role in the formation of modern science." (Introduction to the Invention of Chinese Printing and Its Western Transmission)

Sun Yat-sen: "The Industrial Plan" pointed out that "according to modern civilization, there are five material elements of life, namely, clothing, food, housing, transportation and printing." "Printing is one of the needs of modern society, and there is no reason for human progress."

Personal understanding: The invention of printing, changed the way of human culture and information dissemination, is a pioneering contribution in the history of human culture inheritance and information dissemination, greatly promoted the development of human civilization, the progress of science and technology, its far-reaching significance can not be overevaluated. Printing is a historic contribution of the Chinese people to the cause of human civilization and progress, is the pride of the Chinese nation, and is a major invention worthy of the pride of every Chinese!

Second, the understanding of the essence and connotation of printing

The basic process of printing:

Form: 1 to multiple servings

Two types:

a. Print reproduction faithful to the original manuscript

b. Printing and publishing of creative manuscripts

The essence and connotation of printing can be understood from the following three aspects:

(1) Printing technology and graphic information processing

Basic point of view: The processing process from the original manuscript to the printed matter is a typical graphic information processing process. Including text information processing, graphic image processing, color information processing and so on.

(2) Printing technology and graphic information dissemination

Basic point of view: Human culture and art need to be recorded and disseminated in the way of information coding (graphic information), in order to be spread or carried forward. Printing brush is the basic means and effective way to record and disseminate graphic information.

Human beings have four great inventions in the communication of information: language, writing, pictures (maps), music (art), and printing is the most effective way to achieve the complete record and wide dissemination of these information.

Language: It can only be transmitted orally, depends on the ability of personal hearing and memory, and is prone to information loss (plot loss) and noise (embellishment), and can not ensure the integrity and accuracy of information. The extent of dissemination is also limited.

Text: It is the symbolization (visualization) of language. Things and phenomena can be accurately and completely recorded to avoid distortion of information transmission. However, the manual transcription method cannot achieve the wide dissemination of information.

Picture (map) : It is the symbolization (visualization) of spatial phenomena. It can express things and images that are difficult to describe in words and are related to spatial positions or have spatial shapes (such as records of sky observations, expressions of geographical phenomena, actual forms of animals and plants, records of dance shapes). Obviously, manual painting or transcription could not satisfy the wide dissemination of pictorial (map) information.