Early printing begins more or less with Johannes Gutenberg’s development of type casting and the letter press printing process. This new invention spread like wildfire across Europe and helped spark the spread of knowledge, and the Renaissance.

A whole series of professions or trades grew up around the task of book making from paper making and casting type to book binding and illumination (painting and illustration of printed pages). Some of these trades predate the advent of the printing press, others are integrally connected with it.