Five Hundred Years of Printing is essential reading for the book collector, the cultural historian, the professional publisher and book designer, and teachers and students of typography, graphic design and communications studies. It immediately became established as a standard work on its publication as a Pelican in 1955 and saw two new editions within twenty years.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

A full-scale historical treatment of the advent of printing and its importance as an agent of change, first published in 1980.

"This complete, definitive, and illustrated survey of small nineteenth-century printing presses, written by a former curator at the Smithsonian Institution, is the first history of these lovely, useful, and varied machines. For there were, in those days, small printing presses created for every purpose. And there were, as well, innumerable boys and countless men eager to make their fortunes by investing in one, buying a few fonts of type, printing for a local clientele, and, with luck, building a printing or publishing empire." "What the desktop computer is to today, these small iron workhorses were to the nineteenth century. This book catalogues, describes, and illustrates over a hundred, with their makers, giving machine specifications as well as patent information. It provides a mine of previously undocumented printing information. No one seriously interested in the history of printing technology can afford to be without it."--BOOK JACKET.

How the Printing Press Changed History examines the invention and development of the printing press, how it works, and how its role in speeding the dissemination of information revolutionized society. Features include essential facts, a glossary, selected bibliography, websites, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and maps, charts, and diagrams. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.