How a Gutenberg Printing Press Works

[@durwoodball4062]

A fantastic demonstration of a highly specialized skill. Those old master printers were real magicians in their time. The books, pamphlets, newspapers, broadsides, and other products from their presses were the fount of culture in their communities. As a research scholar, I'm grateful for the printing press and the men and women who operated them. I certainly miss the days of hot-lead type.

[@chrisruss9861]

The smell of melting lead in the old Linotype pots in the composing rooms of newspapers used to give me a slight high. Linotypes were an amazing invention and the compositors took pride in their work. Most of these machines would have been trashed with the advent of computers but there is an indented aesthetic about the old typefaces.

[@moondust2365]

True, tho one might argue that a person in the modern era reminiscing about older metal type printing is like a person at the time when metal type was prevalent reminiscing about writing books by hand or a person at the time when books were handwritten reminiscing about people having good memory and passing information orally lol.

[@grapeshott]

Were women employed in these press in 15th century?

[@u235u235u235]

it's not specialized skill at all that's why it was cheap to reproduce and quickly. making books with a scribe was high specialized.

[@dishadoshi2997]

Thank you so much. It's amazing how much effort they put into printing just one book. Makes me appreciate the technology we have today.

[@thewhitewolf58]

Yeah really just a good 4 minites to ink everything

[@thetruthstrangerthanfictio954]

As much effort as it looks like it takes just to print one page or one book with that printing press compared to today, it was nothing compared to how difficult it was before the printing press was invented. When first invented, the printing press was a groundbreaking invention because prior to the invention of the printing press, books had to be painstakingly copied word for word by hand by people called scribes. If a scribe made one mistake, they had to start over and do the whole page over again, and they had to go through the whole process every time they wanted to copy a book. After the invention of the printing press however, all one had to do was create one template for each page, but once templates were made for all pages, they could use those templates over and over again to make book after book.

[@funbegins2371]

@@thetruthstrangerthanfictio954 mah man

[@IA100KPDT]

​@@thetruthstrangerthanfictio954 this is just half the story, the bible clearly still had a lot of work to do since its coloured.

[@BJHhoho]

well, before this was invented the books were hand written....

[@chrisjensen1924]

I'm a professor and use this video in several of my classes about early print. Incredible resource! (But I always get a little bit sad when he fumbles for a second.)

[@Harrison.DuRant]

Yeah, I had to look away while he got flustered. Poor guy. Getting old sucks.

[@DaChoopaKabra]

What an amazing treat to get to hear about the Gutenburg press from someone who was around when it was invented.

[@007nadineL]

I thought it was part of his theatrical controlling nature....

[@someguy4003]

​@@007nadineL smh

[@thetherrannative]

What nowadays seems like such a simple and obvious invention absolutely _revolutionized_ the spread of information back in the day. Without the printing press, the world we live in today would simply not exist. It makes you wonder what wonderful new ideas lie ahead!

[@mrfluffybeehive]

Hi

[@colbyboucher6391]

Well, it was this, modern paper, the fairly limited Latin alphabet and a book as popular as the Bible all together. Really printing presses like this had been invented in China around 1000 A.D. and they were used sometimes, but the huge number of different characters, relative scarcity of material to print on and lack of a single written work as popular as the Bible meant that they never *really* took off until Gutenberg made his version. Plus making the "types" (the letters) was always a tough process, one of Gutenberg's big innovations was making them easier to produce.

[@thetherrannative]

@@colbyboucher6391 It was also the metal used to make the letters! They had to find an alloy that would stay even when it cooled so the letters would retain their form. There was a *lot* of hard work and technology that went into it.

[@PopescuSorin]

AI

[@theinsfrijonds]

So, this guy is basically doing the 14th century version of Control + P?

[@souljaboi2451]

no. the 16th century ctrl + P

[@Noone-rc9wf]

theinsfrijonds pfft. Millennials.

[@prestonescola6781]

If you want to get technical, the chineese first inveted the press, so the 10th century version of Control + P.

[@JeffHoltInspire]

I believe the printing press was made around 1450ish. So this would make it the 15 century.

[@silverturtlestudios460]

Pretty much but it is much more satisfying then just using a printer and computer to print cus its hand made

[@yosoypabliyo]

Oh my god, I though he was gonna have a heart attack when he went blank.... Damn...

[@SuperFinGuy]

I can't continue the video past that point! It got too cringy. Help!

[@rachelmarieLMT]

Me too! Im still not sure if it was a bit he was playing or a senior moment

[@AAARREUUUGHHHH]

Seriously... That was sad to see. Guy just completely lost where he was for 30 entire seconds

[@alexbenavidez4500]

I came down to the comment literally because of that moment. My heart jumped for a second, because it genuinely looked like his had just stopped

[@Abdullah-ln1jj]

😂🤣😂🤣🤣 oh my

[@vanshika8004]

here in India, in 10th grade we have to study about this gutenberg printing press...and this is ACTUALLY very helpful video and it was very interesting to know...💛thanks for showing us this

[@Jeaucques]

I am also in class 10

[@broby9204]

Right bro 2023 board

[@Prince._3899]

Me too

[@Frogge25]

Us

[@SandipPatel-uj4ky]

Yes... I came to see the working of Gutenberg printing press after reading about it in our history book

[@shourya06pisces]

Shared this video with my grade 10 students in India as they have a lesson on Print Culture in History.. So helpful as now they can see it for themselves. ❤❤

[@BlackElon1]

Lol. That guy pissed that old man off so much his mind went blank for a minute

[@nightmareseer3755]

😂

[@youthmade]

i'm a college student right now and this helped me understand the printing press for an assignment i'm on... 10 years later and ur video is still so relevant, thank you!!!!

[@poulomi__hari]

What blows my mind is that they first had to make the metal pads with a whole print of the book page by page, so they could imprint it on paper.

[@alangervasis]

But after that it is fast and easy to print thousands of copies within a short period of time which would take decades for a scribe to copy it letter by letter..

[@kevin__o]

BTW, Gutenberg was using movable type by now; meaning a page was made up of hundreds of little letter put together like legos. Once the run for that page was complete they would create another one.

[@omanjabbar200]

NOPE. The letters could be rearranged for another page, easily.

[@felipeyoutube04]

No they didn't. They just had to rearrange the letters after finishing printing hundreds of copies of the same page. Rearranging letters was actually easy and fast.

[@OR56]

and it had to be backwards so it would be the right way when it was printed

[@pollomunkydeath319]

One of the greatest inventions in the entire history.

[@Ignisan_66]

3:39 Printer.exe has stopped responding.

[@007DarthMan]

Underrated comment!!!

[@Mediaadoration]

When your history teacher sends you here but you aren’t upset

[@porcelavona]

This is honestly the most interesting thing I've ever saw in my history class

[@alistairmcelwee7467]

I had no idea that so much effort was needed to create one side of a printed sheet of paper. Time consuming plus physical. So glad to have seen this.

[@seandonaldson5084]

Love how he shuts down the guy who thinks he's some kind of comedian and talks over the explanation.

[@raipa111]

I actually find it rude how he just ignores questions and shushes grown ups as if they were little children. He could have just answered the question in the first place.

[@DirtJutter]

@@raipa111 Or those grown ups could patiently wait for such information to be given, because that is what the man is busy doing. As a museum employee/touring guide I'm sure that man has, over time, tailored and tweaked his routine to entertainingly provide all the relevant information in a structured fashion. Asking for information that is part of the routine anyway is an impatient disruption of that man's narative flow, and easily avoided by asking whatever question is left unanswered after the demonstration or tour. From experience I can tell you that most people seem to understand this.

[@karlnord1429]

@@raipa111 You wait till someone's done talking to ask questions.

[@raipa111]

@@karlnord1429 Well he never seemed to stop talking or take questions. And even though I agree with you, putting someone down like a schoolboy is weird and uncomfortable and at least equally as rude as talking over someone.

[@nashvillain171]

@Hanna Would you tell your children to act that way in the classroom?

[@nightsky05]

This is amazing, I learned about this in my history class and I wanted to see exactly how it functioned!

[@gowthamkrishnans8869]

Diana Hernandez same, wasn’t paying attention tho 😁

[@AndressAndress1]

This is so incredibly simple.Nowadays it's impossible to figure how a printer really works,not only using it.

[@xredb]

This was amazing video and the old man was really good at explaining the process, thanks for sharing!!!

[@mrfluffybeehive]

Yo

[@benkoldoff8662]

This guy is so adorably dorky. I could honestly listen to him all day.

[@ciaranheaney1103]

I work in a print museum in Ireland and we call the ink pads "Dabbers". Anyone who was good at applying the ink was known as a dab hand. Didn't know about the pins. Very interesting.

[@floodychild]

Interesting to learn where the term "dab hand" came from. I still use it to this day

[@kddo1455]

this is a really cool video, i would love to also be able to see some kind of reconstruction as to how these machines were used at peak performance by a team of skilled workers as i have to imagine they could crank it out pretty quickly

[@riyakakkar8805]

anyone find this so satisfying?

[@beabea_arts]

Sound like asmr

[@polishherowitoldpilecki5521]

It’s unintentional same.

[@Lindoodles]

Thank you so much for recording this and sharing it. We won't have people around like him much longer, people with this knowledge. This will help future generations!

[@joshm3484]

And this was a technological revolution for how _quickly_ and _easily_ is made book making.

[@Sodhi.jaspreet]

thanks for showing this amazing centuries old procedure of printing.

[@dynamicpillow2349]

I love history and this was actually so interesting, thank you!

[@DefeatedMelon]

I love this dude's joke. Especially the puller one. He brings everyone in and gets them all curious with the word 'exotic' just for it to be an ovious name. Wow. I am fascinated by that one simple joke.

[@FarahAFahmi]

Nice video, Gutenberg's printing press was quite interesting.

[@doburu4835]

Quite interesting!? It literally changed everything!

[@durwoodball4062]

Thank you for publishing this demonstration video. However quaint it appears today, this kind of printing was the beginning of the information revolution in Western society. Good work!

[@JukeboxTheGhoul]

Imagine hundreds upon thousands of pullers and beaters working in sync together

[@omw1727]

I was reading about Gutenberg and ended in the print-books history, this is amazing!

[@margaretali825]

I never really fathomed the meaning of "moveable parts" 🤔🤫🤔 so clearly as watching it demonstrated in the video!👌🏽 This makes it so much easier to capture the concept in practical terms and enhances the understanding of Guternberg's printing press. Thank you for this video!

[@Dav3]

My mom walked by when it was at 2:05....my door is closed...speakers on....Thanks. How did I get here anyway

[@Whatshappening2024]

ha dont worry mate, most of us have had similar stories.

[@totenkopfkatzen6904]

Dav3 i got here by My teacher

[@byggarenbob2897]

Kalle J hej Kalle

[@totenkopfkatzen6904]

Byggaren Bob fick clash royale reklam

[@byggarenbob2897]

Kalle J Haha 3:37

[@Dante-fk3ku]

As a former printer I loved this video. Thank you.

[@paterfamiliasgeminusiv4623]

are people who do printing jobs called printers ?

[@tugatitau8554]

Double Orts they were called like that

[@King-mj2bn]

@@paterfamiliasgeminusiv4623 No, he's literally a printer. Probably an HP.

[@puppetmaster9865]

*3:40** when the edibles kick in*

[@MukoroJr]

Puppet Master 🤣🤣

[@somewhiteguy1945]

hahahaha tru tho!!

[@wiii1729]

nice

[@naveensundar4765]

haha 2 yrs mate how ur doin?

[@infiniteviberz1595]

@@naveensundar4765 idk hope hes doing good

[@CassiePerry-e8b]

THANK YOU for posting this! I am just amazed at the working of the press, and you did a pretty good job pulling there! You definitely wouldn't need the gym if it was your job, huh? Thank you truly. I'm going to show this to my history students as we study world-changing inventions!

[@constantdarkfog49]

The man doing the demo was great, to the lady pulling the pring handle, how would you like doing that all day, LOL. Very first printing presses were a real labor of love.

[@pravinda333]

2:49 "Don't interrupt me, honey"

[@toyalewis3222]

Thank you soo much for sharing! This video was very useful in my Art history class! I shared it with my professor and she loved it!

[@sheriefelghandour2760]

Marvellous. It changes my built in image about Guttenberg's machine,which is inspired by illustrations and images.It is very realistic

[@RainAngel111]

Never realized it took so long even with a printing press. But in contrast to having a scribe copy it by hand this is definitely worlds faster. Only thing I wish you'd also included is: did the typeset have to be reinked between every press? I'm guessing it does. To get a quality and consistency in the prints you'd have to.

[@serenemounla612]

My prof showed us this video in Typography class and I lowkey got ASMR and here I am watching it again to fall asleep

[@peachlife5118]

An amazing and underrated invention... the reason we were ever able to make books! Wow...

[@tFighterPilot]

I wouldn't call it underrated. Every kid knows the name Guttenberg. He's certainly more famous than the dude who invented television.

[@peachlife5118]

You would think every kid would know it but especially with the poor education system in my country, the kids don't!

[@JiggleboneJones]

+Yasmine Xo that would just be your country then, or just you

[@ftw287]

printing was invented by the chinese bi sheng. guttenberg just added a few different touches to it

[@jasongothard5624]

Thanks for sharing! Homeschool mom and daughter watching!

[@navi2710]

The print is amazing and just show how this one invention catapulted humans ability to attain and share knowledge exponentionally compared to all the time before.

[@subhanjandas4179]

This was the best invention ever by a man for all mankind....

[@eclecticreader961]

The functioning of the printing press is wonderful.

[@Rafatifamilymedicine]

Great video! Thank you for bringing a part of the museum for us to learn from!

[@Lighthousenation]

🏜

[@manip7990]

Invention of printing Machine is a revolution. It has made knowledge secure on the books. Thanks for the contribution.

[@country_girl.W_G.L-87]

That is so cool. This is the first time I've seen this done. How amazing it is to learn stuff like this. Wow!!!

[@mikeouwen]

What does he say after 'covered her with guess what'? I'm not a native speaker and have some trouble making out that word. But I do want to figure it out.

[@sabrinahuyett]

I'm a native speaker, and I can't figure out what he says there either. Sorry!

[@mikeouwen]

Sabrina Huyett no worries! Thank you for the video! This Gutenberg machine is fascinating.

[@FredrikSixtensson]

He says Gänsefleisch, which means "Goose flesh" in German. He translates it as "goose skin".

[@rodolfogarcia587]

Me impresiona ver una imprenta Gutenberg siendo utilizada en estos días

[@vegancodingnovice9468]

this is in provo! wow! im about to start working as a pressman in springville- ill have to stop by this museum tomorrow!

[@m1lkt3e]

Watched this in class yesterday. Somehow satisfying

[@jawsfishing2645]

That’s the same reason I’m watching this

[@AgainstTheeWickedly]

If not for that invention, you wouldn't have this invention to watch it on either.

[@MIGHTYcbu]

0:51 is that a young Howard from the Sacremento History Museum? @SacrementoHistoryMuseum

[@Aggagster]

Hey this is awesome, I was reading the book How to Get Ideas by Jack Foster and I learned that actually Gutenberg mixed between the coin press and the wine press to invent this. I've even mentioned it in a book review that I am doing soon for my channel, certainly going to link to that amazing video too

[@tomasbeltran04050]

Thanks for sharing this. Unfortunately, some of the subtitles are wacky. At 0:06, "gensoflice" is not a word, or at least not one whose meaning I could find. At 3:31 it's dampening, not damanining. At 4:01 it's not timpin, rather timpan

[@IA100KPDT]

The first major printed book is Gutenberg Bible. How did those in 16th century print with such precision ornamental first character and coloured patterns as seen in the Gutenberg Bible?

[@theturteel]

being very careful

[@crusaderqk]

I give this man props for having a straight face when he said “beater” lol

[@michaelcerkez3895]

For those of us who love to read, and especially the Bible this was interesting to watch.

[@S-the-simple-engineer]

Really sad to see some of the disturbing comments below. Most of us would be on diapers lying on a bed by his age. He was sharing precious knowledge and show some damn RESPECT!

[@zentenotamaresdennisariel4737]

el desarrollo y ver como queda tan simetrico el trabajo realizado por gutenberg como revoluciono la forma de crear es algo asombroso como la creacion de la biblia de 42 lineas, el pensamiento que tenia era muy acertado de crear algo hermoso y perfecto mediante la imprenta en tiempo record

[@davidarango4679]

I saw this same demonstration in Colonial Williamsburg Virginia.

[@petarkandic3566]

those letters look beautiful

[@videodaniel8945]

That looks fine and all, looks slow to us cause he's explaining every step, but obviously a skilled worked would have done all of that in 30 seconds. The part I don't get is, how did they make the stamps for the pages? I suppose it was somebody's job to very slowly aling tiny letter after tiny letter to make the stamp for each page of the entire book - I can understand that with books -a painstaking job for sure, but atleast once it is done you could make millions of copies of it -but what about for newspapers where you have to make a brand new one each day? I just fail to grasp how that would be feasible.

[@DigitalAndInnovation]

3:37 Legit question- what is going on with him just before flipping the paper? Is he having an absence-seizure? Or was something happening off camera?

[@Dunkskins]

Does it use USB A to B or is it USB c? I can't see how he can connect it to a computer???

[@hrvojeborzic5637]

Wiki said that this is a full biography. I see nothing more than short intro. Cmon this guy was famous!

[@Rachy71]

My daughter is getting ready to learn about Gutenberg & his press for 7th grade history and I wanted her to see how this cool this looked.

[@Evanarchy]

seventh grade? shouldn't you learn this in the sixth grade

[@tweezerjam]

Dude might be the absolute best beater ever

[@ReemaFozdar]

this is reminding me off my ancestors............

[@专业的Ozoneguy]

Yes.

[@lisandrot01]

This is so cool, I was really curious about this.

[@user-pq4mo2yu2i]

「本好きの下剋上」で気になって見にきたけど、これ作るのすごいな

[@bandme8128]

「神に祈りを！」

[@Emmaniak]

Medieval Printers are at the top of my things that need to come back list

[@slevinchannel7589]

Can someone give ma a Base-Recipe or a Tutorial-in-Words or at least an Ingredient-List?

[@christinewild5935]

Looks like it. Hard work, those seem heavy!

[@IEatYouForBreakfast8]

what an adorable man

[@rodolfogarcia587]

Cuánto tiempo se tardaba hacer un libro?

[@BHFJohnny]

I wonder about how long did it take to put in the whole page of literals and how many "beatings" did those handle before they needed to be replaced. Also it kind of needs to be carefully thinked through. What pages to print on each side depening on binding. Mistake would cost a lot of time.

[@mayuridodiya1862]

I really appreciate you as you took some effort to record it and put on youtube...Studying it in book and seeing it being performed...The experience is different☺ ..Thank you so much 😃😄

[@andrewcarmichael8683]

I demonstrated printing in Bermuda, using a Gutenberg press from 1980 to 1984, taught myself how to set type as well.

[@jacobwells5924]

At 3:40 my man completely checks out and starts tripping 😂

[@rg6310]

Crazy how it took humans thousands of years to come up something as simple as just individual movable letters stamps

[@liambird2053]

They could’ve done it earlier, but the motivation wasn’t there. Why would a feudal lord want peasants to have access to privileged knowledge? Why would an illiterate peasant care about books at all? There’s no point in making a ton of books if there’s not a ton of people who want to buy them.

[@rclark777]

China already had a simplified version of the printing press centuries before Gutenberg but they rarely ever used it for practical and aesthetic reasons.

[@nene_san]

rather than that, it was that that it was not economically viable, or precision required was insufficient. Even type of ink and medium are factors.

[@Happytown7523]

@@rclark777 Gutenberg perfected it, though, because he developed typography, the ink, and metal cast letters

[@Ollymin]

@@rclark777 korea was the first using this type of printing process

[@moon-vs4ig]

Could anyone point me out to where I can understand how beatrix potter books were color printed in those times?

[@xxaxngie_yolo3951]

It would lower the what? Platen?

[@Motherhustler]

Where do they show this at? He’s my relative pretty awesome to see this in person.

[@sabrinahuyett]

This is in Provo, UT. There are other places with mock Gutenberg printing presses, but this is the only one that is the exact same style as Gutenberg 's. That's cool that you're related to him!

[@monstercolorfunco4391]

check out "print museum" on google maps. find one which does a guided tour. the american print museum recently added some major videos of themselves on here.

[@EduardoalvaradoX]

Dónde se consigue el papel y cómo lo encuentro?

[@TheXenomorphman]

So how is the text kept from being backwards when it's printed? I've only watched two of these videos but I just can't tell how the text wouldn't be backwards. And if the text is originally backwards before it's printed, surely that's even more difficult to do? How would you reverse the text and correctly etch it into a wooden block?

[@Harrlond]

+TheXenomorphman the text is formed of individual characters cast in metal. A master copy of the individual letter is made by a metal worker then many copies are taken from that by casting it in metal. Now you have a whole alphabet of metal letters that are backwards. Ofcourse you would need hundreds just to print a single page because each letter appears more than once. When you lay them down in the right order and print from them, they produce text in the correct orientation. The metal letters where small metal bars as thick as a pencil but maybe half the length of a pencil, and at the top was the letter ( cast backwards ). The person who had to assemble all the letters had to be able to read them the wrong way round so that it came out correctly after a print. The marvelous and revolutionary thing about Gutenberg's press is that all the letters are individual and separate from one-another, so if a mistake was spotted, only a few metal letters had to be re-arranged, instead of creating a whole new printing block.

[@suzz1776]

U would make everything backwards so when printed it was right

[@macroplexx]

Fue la generalización de la imprenta lo que consolidó el derrumbe de la era oscura, la divulgación de textos poco a poco fue extendiéndose hasta convertirse en casi algo sagrado, muy difícilmente una información que no estuviese impresa sería tomada en serio. Y la calidad de la presentación, los tipos de letras, el espaciado, la proporción, el tamaño fueron el paso que necesitaba el publico para enamorarse del contenido, y ese detalle lo agregaron los impresores artesanales, fue ahí donde se ve esa mano mágica hace que un texto se vea atractivo, interesante y legible.

[@venusshamim]

My fourth grade son needs to learn about the Gutenberg printing press. This video is helpful for him. But the question is how was the alphabet organized there ?

[@sacramentalist]

Mr Feeny judging anyone who would dare dislike this.

[@NextExiter]

My parents are bad with technology, and I'm thinking of getting them something for Xmas that will be easy to use and intuitive. Does anyone know the resolution on this device and if there's a model with a color GUI? Thnx in advance

[@eddebrock]

"Now listen quietly!" **Dude's tourettes intensifies!**

[@TerraWasileski]

HOW DO THEY MAKE THE 'TYPES"??? (The engraved metal thing that the ink goes onto originally)

[@theturteel]

carving and sculpting, i'd presume.

[@VelaiciaCreator]

@@theturteel That's just the step to make the mould. These have to make pieces of the exact same measurements after all.

[@InProgressMediaPro]

Thanks for posting. Where was this done? I'm doing a documentary on Luther and need a shot of a working Gutenberg press.

[@sabrinahuyett]

It is located in Provo, UT. www.crandallprintingmuseum.com/ Good luck with your documentary!

[@InProgressMediaPro]

Thank you!

[@cppdev2729]

but how they arranged the letters???

[@alfblack2]

love this presentation.

[@realandrewcinque22]

Amazing to see these stilll in use

[@Gichanasa]

The ink seems to be somewhat sticky... it wouldn't pull out the moveable types?