In the early 1400s, the creation of the first printing press was created. 

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The first printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg.  Gutenberg’s invention became the boom of the printing revolution of the 1400s. 
“As you know, hand printed books had been in existence long before Gutenberg. The oldest surviving book is one from China produced in 868 A.D. when wooden blocks were engraved with characters and then inked.  Historically, eleventh century Chinese books show that printing was accomplished with some movable type.” (“Johann Gutenberg”). 

This early bookmaking process was called xylography.  Xylography existed as an early form of printmaking.  A relief print was carved out of a block of wood like a stamp, and used to apply ink to a surface.  If printing was to be done in more than one color, each color had to have its own carved block.  Gutenberg’s process took the painstaking carving out of Xylography. (“Xylography”).  

Gutenberg’s invention started out by creating what we know today as a letterpress, or a mold for each letter of the alphabet.  Each of these letters was created by casting metal alloy.  With the creation of these letters, lines of text could be created and covered with inks to be printed.  With the earlier creation of paper, Gutenberg’s invention created the ability to print multiple lines of text on multiple pages (“Johann Gutenberg”).  With this groundbreaking technology of its time, it was now possible to create books within a short period of time rather than taking years at a time much like illuminated manuscripts.  The moveable typefaces that were created were used in conjunction with the printing press.  One of Gutenberg’s first and most famous texts was a Bible made up of 42 lines on a page.  It was called the ‘Gutenberg Bible’ or ‘the Mainz Bible’.  For this text, he created a typeface with over 300 letters and flourishes.  For the ‘Gutenberg Bible’, Gutenberg ‘adapted’ the typeface called ‘Black Letter’ (“History of Printing”).