Printing press

A Printing press is a machine for producing text or images.

• It is a technological device.
• It is a form of communications equipment.

Description (Specifications)

A printing press is a mechanical device used to reproduce text or images.

• It is in common usage by TL-3.

Image Repository

An example of an early hand-operated printing press.

In its earliest common form, a printing press consists of a block or panel, carved with hollows and raised surfaces and covered in pigment, which is pressed against a flat sheet, typically paper or fabric. As pressure is applied, the pigment transfers from the raised surfaces onto the sheet but remains held within the hollows.

• The raised surfaces and hollows carved into the block generally form an image or text.
• More advanced printing presses may have blocks made up of moveable letters, able to be arranged into paragraphs of text.
• A printing press can produce multiple identical copies.

Early designs of printing press are hand-operated, but as the technology develops they become increasingly sophisticated and automated, able to cut pages to shape and bind them together into a finished book or journal.

• As electronics and miniaturization develop, the printing press is superseded by on-the-spot printing.
• Specialist forms of printing press, such as those used to produce very large images or special items such as bank notes, remain in use.

History & Background (Dossier)

Printing text or images allow multiple copies to be quickly made, allowing information, news, and knowledge to be shared rapidly and widely.

• The printing press encourages literacy among the population.
• It is used to disseminate news and information.

Governments or organizations may discourage private ownership of printing presses in an effort to control the flow of news and information.

• Printing presses may be seized or destroyed by the authorities if they are operated illegally.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS