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Along with radio , television and motion pictures printing is one of our most important means of mass communication. The reproduction of words and images on paper and on any other material is called printing. It provides books and study materials for our educational system. Business, advertising, newspaper, magazines depends on printing for a wide variety of items.

Printing industry is a big business worldwide. It is one of the largest industries, in both the United States and Canada. In addition other items include candy bar wrappers, calendars, ruled writing tablets, textiles, post cards, playing cards, catalogs, comic books, and reproductions of works of art.

The printing industry is often confused with the publishing industry. The assembling of written information and graphics (illustrations) is the process of publishing, included as well, is the coordination of the production, distribution, and sale of the resulting product. Some publishers own their own printing equipment and do the actual printing of their products, as most daily newspapers do. However, most publishers do not own printing equipment. They deal with with a commercial printer to have their materials printed.

Printing started in Europe about 500 years ago. At first people had to copy everything by hand or materials had to be printed from wood. About 1440 ,Johannes Gutenberg and his associates in Germany developed a movable type with separate pieces of metal type for each character to be printed. Many copies of a book could be made very quickly With movable type. The same pieces of type are used over and over for different books.

The three processes of commercial printing are: (1) offset lithography, (2) relief printing . and (3) gravure printing .

As Printing became the first means of mass communication people gained knowledge more quickly and reading as well as writing started to be popular.