Paper

Woodblock print of paper-making
The discovery of the paper-making technique created huge changes as the quality of the product improved to be competitive with vellum. It had come from the Chinese via the Arab civilization to Europe by the 12th century. Paper was first made in Fabriano, Italy, then the process spread to other Italian cities and then across Europe. It was made from rags, hemp and flax.

The best quality was from Italy, but France became the best producer, and later, around 1700, Holland. The paper used for the Strasburg area (Gutenberg, Fust and Schofer etc.) incunabula (as the first moveable type books of pre-1500 are referred to) bear French watermarks. Paper mills grew in number as printing presses did. At one point there was a scarcity of rags, and laws prohibiting export to other countries were sometimes put in place to assure a supply for each country’s own paper mills.

Paper was much better suited to printing. By 1400 paper was a common commodity, and had taken over from vellum, but vellum and manuscript writing still prevailed for a while even after the invention of the printing press. Print was seen as a bit lower-class at first. The aesthetics and durability of manuscripts on vellum were still valued.

As an example, paper mills were set up in Britain, mainly by Huguenot refugees (protestants escaping persecution in Europe) and by the late 1600s Britain had one hundred. In Germany by the late 1700s there were 500 paper mills.

Printed books tried to look like manuscripts at first. The art of printing was constantly developed through the creation of beautiful fonts, illustrations, and the development of the art of bookbinding.

Woodblock printing, xylography, was already in use by the 13th century in Europe (from the influence of Asia), they were usually illustrations, pictures, and often of the saints or scenes from the Bible. With an illiterate population pictures were a means of passing on information, and the pictures were also used as amulets. The illustrations came to incorporate text to tell something of the subject, and after a while the text expanded.

The themes became more secular, eg the development of playing cards which started at this time. They were printed in black, then hand-painted, as were many block-prints. Satirical posters, business forms,and calendars began to appear.

Block prints were in the vernacular language, and began to be made into small books, which were still being produced after the printing press.

To beautify books, these woodblock prints were used, and this art developed into copper engravings which could give more subtle and detailed renderings, and was better suited for use in a printing press.

Interestingly, because of the travelling printers who spread out from Germany into other European countries, the art of xylography was distinctly German in style, which was influenced by the style of the various in which it was introduced.

Paper made of wood helped to accelerate paper production from the early 1800's. The sheer amount of industry involved in papermaking is a small piece of the Industrial Revolution that swept the world.

There was a backlash to all the mechanization on papermaking and printing, and craftsman such as William Morris brought back the art of handprinting on handmade paper as an artform.

My process
I wanted to find out about the development of paper at this time, as I had the feeling that there must have been dramatic changes in that industry as well. The book below had a lot of interesting information on this subject. Looking up the Encyclopedia Britannica Online was also helpful. I have used the public version of Britannica Online as it can be linked, whereas the subscription version of the Encyclopedia Britannica can't be linked as it is not available to the general public. This is also true of other subscription databases on the web.
I have realized that when dealing with historic subject matter, modern journals/online journals and articles may be of interest, but for my purposes of perceiving the overall trends of society due to the invention and development of the printing press, the development of paper, and of typefaces, my best resources have been books, encyclopedias, and some youtube videos on this history.

Resources
Febvre, L and Martin, HJ 1997, The Coming of the Book, Verso, London
Papermaking, Encyclopedia Britannica online, viewed 12 May 10