Paradigm shifts in publishing…
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011Much of human history took place after the invention of writing. The progress from Babylonian cuneiform to the gilded manuscripts of the Middle Ages represents a span of many centuries. Gutenberg instigated the first paradigm shift by inventing movable type and a printing press around 1439, inventions that made mass book production possible. Up to Gutenberg’s time, book production was generally done by monks and academics, for monks and academics. After Gutenberg, more people had access to the written word, a definite factor in the general increase in literacy over many centuries. But there were no real paradigm shifts again until digital printing became commonplace. Sure, color was added and multiple fonts (the medieval Book of Kells, found in Trinity College in Dublin, possesses rich colors, lavishly done by hand by Irish monks), but digital printing is now having a bigger effect than Gutenberg’s inventions.