Week three: The Print Revolution and the loss of script writing

It is a common misconception that Western civilisation is solely responsible for the print revolution. Whilst the West certainly contributed to the invention of printing technologies, without Chinas knowledge of paper and passing it on to the West, print may not have occurred for many more years (Costigan 2015, p. 2).

While the European civilisation was still primarily an oral culture, China had already pioneered the moveable type press (Crowley & Heyer 2011, p. 64). This movable type press consisted of carved wooden blocks used to print on the paper, resulting in many books being printed before Western society had even discovered paper (Costigan 2015, p. 2).

The invention of print technology was a great benefit to society; however, there was one downside in that many script writers were now unemployed (Costigan 2015, p. 2). Before the printing era, all books and scrolls were handwritten in script. This typography was not feasible to reproduce on a printing press where the letters were created by small wooden blocks (Costigan 2015, p. 2).

This aesthetic calligraphy was lost for many years until newer technology enabled for its comeback along with many different types of typography. The print revolution snuffed script writing for a long period of time; however, fortunately the 21^st Century computer has been able to bring back this ancient and beautiful style of writing.

Reference List:

Costigan, L 2015, 'Module 3: The Print Revolution' COMM12022: Technology, Communication and Culture, CQUniversity e-courses.

Crowley, D Heyer, P 2011, 'Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society 6th ed', Pearson Education, Boston.