The shop as a unit of communication
After Gutenberg’s demonstration in Mainz, printing spread not as a machine but as a trade. A print shop was a small business that combined several jobs under one roof, and the way it was organized helps explain how printing changed communication.
A typical shop employed a master printer, who owned the equipment and organized the work, and a small team. Compositors set type by hand, picking letters from cases and arranging them in lines. Pressmen inked the type and pulled the sheets. Correctors read proofs and marked mistakes. Many shops also dealt with paper suppliers, bookbinders and sellers. A press crew might print a few hundred sheets an hour at best, according to commonly cited estimates, so a book was slow, skilled work even after the introduction of the press.
Output depended on the expense of materials. Paper and type were costly, and presses had to run steadily to repay the investment. Printers were therefore businesspeople as much as craftspeople, and they chose what to print by what they expected to sell.
From Mainz across Europe
Printers moved to wherever there was demand. A conflict in Mainz in 1462 is commonly said to have scattered workers from the city and encouraged the spread of the trade. German printers set up in Italy in the 1460s, and Venice became a center because of its trade connections, capital and skilled workers. Presses opened in Paris in 1470, and William Caxton printed at Westminster in 1476. The Frankfurt book fair developed into a meeting place where printers traded stock and learned what others were publishing.
Printers who supplied universities, churches and courts could rely on regular customers. Others took more risk by printing editions of classical authors or new works. Trade in books went along the same roads and rivers as other goods, which helped ideas reach distant towns.
Short and cheap formats
Large books were costly, but shorter printed items were within reach of many more people. Three formats mattered especially.
Broadsides. These were single sheets printed on one side, used for official notices, proclamations, ballads, almanacs and advertisements. They could be posted on a wall or sold in the street.
Pamphlets. Short unbound works, typically a few sheets long, carried sermons, political arguments, travel accounts and reports of events. Because they were quick to set and print, they could respond to events within days or weeks.
News sheets. Printed accounts of battles, disasters, trials and strange occurrences circulated well before regular newspapers. In the early 1600s, periodical news publications appeared in German-speaking cities. A weekly publication from Strasbourg in 1605 is often cited as the first newspaper, though other candidates exist and the definition of a newspaper matters.
Earlier methods of long-distance messaging, such as letters carried by couriers, remained important, and the printed sheet worked alongside them. What was new was that the same message could be placed in many hands at once.
Faster news, with caveats
Printing allowed information to be copied in volume. A report from one city could be reprinted in another, with changes, and passed on. This also meant rumor and error could spread. Printers sometimes reused woodcut illustrations for events they did not show, and sensational stories were common. Readers in the period were used to weighing sources, but quality varied widely.
Dating the speed of news is difficult, and it is best not to exaggerate. Print did not make communication instant. A pamphlet still traveled at the pace of a cart or ship, and the population who could read, or hear it read aloud, was limited. In taverns and markets, printed material was often read to groups, which extended its reach beyond those who could read for themselves.
Control and risk
Governments and churches recognized the power of print and responded. Licensing systems required approval before publication in many places. The Catholic Church issued its first Index of Prohibited Books in 1559. Printers could be fined, imprisoned or driven out for printing banned material, and some moved to more tolerant cities or printed anonymously, giving false places of publication.
Business risks were equally serious. A printer who misjudged demand might be left with piles of unsold sheets. Competition and unauthorized reprints were common before modern copyright. Many early printers failed, and those who endured often relied on patrons, official contracts or a mixture of profitable standard works and riskier new ones.
Knowledge as a commodity
Printers also helped shape what circulated. They produced editions of ancient authors, medical and practical manuals, legal texts, almanacs, grammar books and works on alchemy history that appealed to different audiences. Title pages, page numbers, indexes and tables of contents became more common, helping readers find information. These features made books easier to consult, as well as easier to buy.
Comparisons are sometimes drawn between early printing and the history of the internet, since both lowered the cost of copying and spread information widely. The analogy has limits, though. Print was slower, more local and shaped by guilds, licenses and the physical cost of paper, and it is more helpful to see it as a gradual rise in the volume and reach of text than as an overnight leap.