Origins in Asia Woodblock printing

coloured woodcut buddha, 10th century, china

in china, alternative woodblock printing system of reprography since han dynasty using carved stone steles reproduce pages of text. 3 necessary components woodblock printing wood block, carries design cut in relief; dye or ink, had been used in ancient world; , either cloth or paper, first developed in china, around 3rd century bc or 2nd century bc. woodblock printing on papyrus seems never have been practised, although possible.

a few specimen of wood block printing, possibly called tarsh in arabic, have been excavated 10th-century context in arabic egypt. used prayers , amulets. technique may spread china or independent invention, had little impact , virtually disappeared @ end of 14th century. in india main importance of technique has been method of printing textiles, has been large industry since @ least 10th century. large quantities of printed indian silk , cotton exported europe throughout modern period.

because chinese has character set running thousands, woodblock printing suits better movable type extent characters need created occur in text. although chinese had invented form of movable type baked clay in 11th century, , metal movable type invented in korea in 13th century, woodblocks continued preferred owing formidable challenges of typesetting chinese text 40,000 or more characters. also, objective of printing in east may have been more focused on standardization of ritual text (such buddhist canon tripitaka, requiring 80,000 woodblocks), , purity of validated woodblocks maintained centuries. when there need reproduction of text, original block brought out again, while moveable type necessitated error-prone composition of distinct editions .

in china, korea, , japan, state involved in printing @ relatively stage; government had resources finance carving of blocks long works. difference between east asian woodblock printing , western printing press had major implications development of book culture , book markets in east asia , europe.