printing - Timeline

Cuneiform, one of the earliest known writing systems developed in Sumer (modern day Iraq). Wedge-shaped marks were made on clay tablets by a blunt stylus cut from a reed.

Papyrus plant, paper-like material used as a writing surface in Egypt. Ink from lamp-black made in China.

Amate, a beaten paper-like material, made in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

Parchment, a material made from processed animal skin, used as a writing surface in Pergamon (Anatolian Greece, Asia Minor, now Turkey).

Papermaking in Samarkand (modern day Uzbekistan).

Printing begins at Oxford University.

Paper mill established in England.

Paganino and Alessandro Paganini produced the first printed edition of the Qur'an in Arabic

The University Press at Cambridge begins operation, and has done so continuously since. It lays claim to being both the world's oldest university press in and the oldest printing & publishing house.

Papermaking in America

Declaration of Independence printed July 4 by John Dunlap.

First paperback books are published by Tauchnitz Verlag in Germany

The British Printer trade journal founded.

WorldCat founded, an online catalog describing the collections of libraries worldwide.

Facebook social network launched.

Kindle e-reader developed by Amazon.com.

Chinese printers adapt Wood-block printing to mass-produce classical books.

First papermill in Europe at Xàtiva (Spain).

Paper first used in England.

Marco Polo reported seeing the printing of paper money in China.

The oldest dated printed text known: The Diamond Sutra, a Chinese translation of a Buddhist text now preserved in the British Library.