Overview

While written language is unquestionably one of the most important of all human achievements, the ability to reproduce written materials quickly and efficiently ranks not far behind. Only when written works could be duplicated in quantities and speeds exceeding those achievable through laborious handwritten copies did writing become a medium for the widespread dissemination of knowledge—the more copies of material available, the more people who have access to them, the more likely the spread of literacy. The challenge, particularly in civilizations with large, complex systems of writing, was to develop a method for quickly and efficiently arranging those symbols, using the arrangement to create printed material, then re-arranging the symbols for further use. The Chinese, beginning about A.D. 700, introduced innovations to carved seals, which in...