Perhaps you have seen the recent video of flies zooming around a "German trade show" like little banner planes? That "German Trade Show" was the Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse)—the most important event in the book publishing world. It's international; all the major US publishers go, as do many agents, to meet their foreign counterparts and to buy and sell projects amid publishing's eternal and ever-present air of fatalism. This year's fair had some interesting subplots, the most visible of which was the complicated dance the organizers did with this year's guest of honor, China, as accusations of censorship (on the part of China) and of brown-nosing (on the part of the fair's organizers) flew. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Oct 30, 2009 - 16 comments

America on Stone: 19th Century American Lithographs is a browsable collection of lithographs on topics from advertising to uniforms. The viewer includes pan and zoom functions. (Harry T. Peters, who amassed this collection, was particularly interested in Currier & Ives.) Lithography became popular very quickly after its discovery at the end of the eighteenth century, rapidly finding its way into such commercial uses as sheet music covers. Needless to say, it also came in handy for far more exalted applications. (For previous MeFi adventures in lithography, try these posts.)
posted by thomas j wise on Oct 16, 2009 - 5 comments

From 1895 to 1982 the Penrose Annual showcased typography and graphic design.
posted by the cuban on May 14, 2009 - 5 comments

70,000 BC: The Earliest Known Examples of Paleolithic Art
668 BC: Ashurbanipal Attempts to Collect all Knowledge
150 BC: Earliest Analog Computer
593 AD: First Mention of Printing in China
1454 AD: The Gutenberg Bible
1964 AD: Creation of ARPANET
From Cave Paintings to the Internet, a timeline of the history of information technology. [more inside]
posted by Horace Rumpole on Oct 30, 2008 - 10 comments

The Atlas of Early Printing. A visualization of fifteenth-century printing presses in Europe. Click around, look at the book-learnin' blossom!
posted by Greg Nog on Sep 19, 2008 - 15 comments

We've seen a number of Rube Goldberg machines in advertising before, but here's the first one I've seen that actually uses the controlled chaos of one to describe what their product actually does. Or doesn't, really. If you've ever worked in a print shop, you've probably seen something like this happen. Usually once or twice a day.
posted by loquacious on Apr 29, 2008 - 45 comments

The BBC's Stephen Fry follows the trail of Johannes Gutenberg to France and Germany, and attempts to reconstruct a working replica of Gutenburg’s first press. (YouTube version)
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Apr 21, 2008 - 27 comments

Edward Samuel's Illustrated History of Copyright A fascinating illustrated historical tour, looking at how different technologies have shaped how we think about copyright and intellectual property.
posted by carter on Jan 31, 2008 - 4 comments

The Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae A collection of over 900 zoomable print engravings, organized around the work of Antonio Lafreri and other Italian publishers, whose documentation of Roman ruins and statues helped fuel the Renaissance. The itineraries are a good place to start for detailed discussion, or just browse away. [via the wonderful Bouphonia]
posted by mediareport on Dec 10, 2007 - 8 comments

The printing press lives on—in Akron, Alabama, at least, where computer programmer-turned-letterpress printer Amos Kennedy uses metal type to create lots and lots of posters. [Found here.]
posted by tepidmonkey on Nov 20, 2007 - 12 comments

You can print a line on a Epson Printer located in Brugg, Switzerland. There is a live video stream to see what you're printing as well as a light switch so you're not printing in the dark (snapshot).
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Oct 1, 2007 - 26 comments

Sweet! Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has made a 3D printer that forms objects out of sugar.
posted by exogenous on May 9, 2007 - 36 comments

CarveWright, a 3D wood carving machine made by former NASA robotics engineers. Demo video.
posted by stbalbach on Jan 8, 2007 - 26 comments

The Espresso Book Machine. A photocopier-size machine that can print and bind a paperback in a few minutes. This is the first fully-automatic book printer designed for retail locations, it is envisioned to be a kiosk. Current beta tests in DC and New York Public Library, also in talks with the Internet Archive and others to support the growing world of online scanned books. Further out, Kinkos, Starbucks, etc.. could become major book sellers and the practice of overstocking (and discounted books) could be reduced. Machine will probably be about $100,000.
posted by stbalbach on Sep 30, 2006 - 36 comments

Alciato's (or Alciati's) Book of Emblems, first published in 1531, began the craze for emblem books. You can see the international scope of the emblem book's popularity by visiting the Emblem Project Utrecht (Dutch love emblems), the English Emblem Books Project, Glasgow University Press Emblem Website (French emblem books), the Bavarian State Library Project (international collection; German-language site), German Emblem Books, and Literatura Emblemática Hispánica (Spanish; utterly bonkers search engine). Bryn Mawr and the University of Iowa have online exhibitions from their collections. See also this scholarly exploration of the emblem book's influence on William Blake. (A different work by Alciati was discussed in this thread.)
posted by thomas j wise on Sep 10, 2006 - 7 comments

Type, handwriting, and lettering
posted by persona non grata on Aug 20, 2006 - 17 comments

Need a patch of skin for that burn or perhaps some new brain cells? Print them. A team of British scientists have shown that cells could survive ink-jet printing. Ink-jet technology moves beyond paper.
posted by Termite on Jan 30, 2006 - 21 comments

The Briar Press is a fantastic resource for those interested in letterpress printing. It includes (amongst many other things) a museum, downloadable ornaments and a guide to buying your first handpress.
posted by johnny novak on Dec 8, 2005 - 13 comments

Lenticulars - fun 3-d art from Howard Hallis, the guy who did the the picture of everything. For the graphic designer, here's more info on the art of lenticulars.
posted by madamjujujive on Nov 25, 2005 - 6 comments

Custom Flickr photo books & posters.
posted by Vidiot on Sep 7, 2005 - 23 comments

Lenticular printing to the nth degree Urban Mapping has made a very cool multi-dimensional map for lower Manhattan with more cities to come. Depending on how you hold it, you see a different map. via Transportation Communications newsletter
posted by agatha_magatha on Mar 30, 2005 - 19 comments

Artocracy is aiming to use the net to democratize yet another expensive thing in the world: the sale and distribution of art works. While the first works offered aren't that impressive and having to use your own inkjet is a limiting factor, I like the direction this is going in. From their Gallery, you can purchase prints from a dozen or so artists, in the range of $20-50, and then print as many as you wish at home. The Seattle PI has a full story. Perhaps this will spark a "long tail" of small change art sales from folks used to getting several thousand per canvas sold, while at the same time allowing any Tom, Dick, or Harry to have some nice looking apartment walls at home.
posted by mathowie on Jan 11, 2005 - 16 comments

Help is needed to save the Imprimerie Nationale, one of the greatest repositories of typographic material in the world. (If you have ever used a Garamond revival, or a Didot or a Fournier, you are indebted to the Imprimerie.) Their collection, which spans four centuries, is scheduled to be dissolved in the next twelve months.
quoted from Jonathan Hoefler's email that posted by benson to the typophile forums
posted by sixtwenty3dc on Oct 21, 2004 - 5 comments

"Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark..." (qt video, via Signal versus Noise)
posted by emptybowl on Oct 6, 2004 - 44 comments

Rasterbator
posted by marvin on Mar 10, 2004 - 14 comments

The Chromolithographs of E.L. Trouvelot. "Etienne Leopold Trouvelot (1827-1895), a French-born artist and amateur astronomer, spent 15 years observing the heavens and making original drawings from his observations: 'While my aim in this work has been to combine scrupulous fidelity and accuracy in the details, I have also endeavored to preserve the natural elegance and the delicate outlines peculiar to the objects depicted.' To illustrate his observations of celestial objects and phenomena, Trouvelot selected fifteen of his drawings to be reproduced using chromolithography, an illustration process that was at the zenith of its development in the 1880's." Heavens Above is a NYPL exhibit that compares his art and science to contemporary photos by NASA of the same phenomena.
posted by eyebeam on Sep 16, 2003 - 8 comments

The Gutenberg Bible : the first book printed with movable type, is the one of the greatest treasures in the University of Texas's Ransom Center's collections. It was printed at Johann Gutenberg's shop in Mainz, Germany and completed in 1454 or 1455. The Center's Bible was acquired in 1978 and is one of only five complete examples in the United States. All 1,282 pages now available for viewing on the Ransom Center's Web site. Also check out the anatomy of a page.
posted by ColdChef on Jul 23, 2003 - 16 comments

5inch.com manufactures beautiful silkscreen-printed CDRs, custom CDR designs, and unconventional jewel cases for those who release their own music on a small budget, or for making the essential pre-relationship mix CD. When you're done, package it and mail it out.
posted by dhoyt on May 2, 2003 - 18 comments

Aspects of the Victorian Book is a Sunday morning kind of site, a relaxed but vivid tour of 19th century British publishing that explores production techniques such as lithography, binding and illustration, and looks at the printed works of the period (including forms such as the inexpensive "Yellowbacks" and their cousins, the usually lurid "Penny Dreadfuls").
posted by taz on Nov 17, 2002 - 6 comments

"When I first saw it, I knew it would be as important as Gutenberg." Hyperbole aside, PerfectBook -- a machine that spits out a complete book from a digital file within minutes -- sounds intriguing. What's more, "a distracted teenager could run it."
posted by mw on Jul 9, 2001 - 18 comments

What is a Print? is perhaps the coolest bit of informative interactive Flash work I have seen. Well explained, meaningful interaction (not just click and watch), clean, and the transitions aren't too slow. Nice. (Props to xplane for the link.)
posted by jplummer on Apr 24, 2001 - 15 comments

Do you use Photoshop and and Epson Inkjet printer? Here's a clear article about color management.
posted by grumblebee on Jun 15, 2000 - 0 comments