Johannes Gensfleisch Zur Laden zum Gutenberg (1398-1468 February 3), also translated as "Gutenberg" or "Gutenberg", was a German inventor. He was born around 1398 in Mainz, Germany and passed away on February 3, 1468. He was the inventor of Western movable type printing, and his invention led to a media revolution, rapidly advancing the development of Western science and society.

Johannes Gensfraehiyo was born in Mainz in 1398, named Gutenberg, and moved to Strasbourg with his father. He was not born into a prestigious family as rumored, but rather a citizen, a member of the Goldsmiths Guild, and the son of a jeweler. He started making mirrors, and when he used a press to fit the mirror into a frame, he had an idea of whether he could use the same press to hold the live type of words or sentences, and then use it to print.
Like many inventors, the reason that prompted him to strive for exploration was poverty. Gutenberg returned to his hometown and met a person surnamed Faust, who had no achievements in himself but was well-known in history. He belongs to a type of person who is insatiable, has a simple mind, but is very wealthy.
At that time, the situation was like this: at the beginning of creative innovation, the progress of work was not fast, while the inventor was already penniless and heavily indebted. The local tycoon sued him in court. Although the tycoon breached the contract and failed to pay on time, he still won the lawsuit. The judge ruled to give Gutenberg's typesetting machine to this local tycoon. If it was not for the mediation of Mainz's church, the inventor might also be destroyed.
Because at that time, it was impossible for any other organization or individual, and only the church was the first to discover the significance of this infinitely powerful new invention and its threat to the church. This inventor and his typesetting machine should be sent together to meet the King of Hell. Isn't it within these small lead letters, these wooden frames, and the black ink that lurks demonic power? But the church became one of the first users of this new invention. The first batch of documents personally printed by the inventor who brought new light was a redemption letter from the dark era, and the church agreed that believers would use money to redeem themselves from their sins.
Like a fairy tale, it is said that a distant legendary prince, the King of Cyprus, is gathering all believers against the pagans in Türkiye. Only in this way can he keep the island he inherited. In order to financially support the prince's war, the bishop requested the agent to distribute these redemption letters throughout the country. The German agent believes that printing is much faster than handwriting. With this method, hundreds of copies can be printed in just a few hours, and all guilty individuals can immediately be liberated from their souls as long as they are willing to pay.

John Gutenberg is often referred to as the inventor of printing. In fact, his contribution was the invention of a printing machine for movable type printing, which enabled the rapid and accurate printing of a variety of textual materials. No completely successful invention comes from a single person's wisdom, and printing is no exception. Since ancient times, people have used seals and seal rings that work on the same principle as stencil printing. For many centuries before Gutenberg, Chinese people had already learned about the art of woodblock printing, and books annotated with the year 868 were discovered in the country. Before Gutenberg, Westerners also understood the art of stencil printing, which could turn a book into many volumes. However, this method has a major drawback, which is that printing each new book requires a brand new set of woodcuts or printing boards, making it impractical to publish a wide variety of books.
Although movable type printing had already appeared in China hundreds of years ago, it was not popular, so modern movable type printing mainly came from Gutenberg's invention. Gutenberg lived in Strasbourg from 1434 to 1444, where he opened a company. In 1439, he made many metal mirrors for the pilgrimage to Aachen, but because of the outbreak of pestis in Aachen, the pilgrimage was postponed to 1440. His clients felt that they had been deceived by Gutenberg, so both sides fought in court.
There is very little known for sure about Gutenberg's life. The most important aspect of his invention of printing was the effective combination of many different techniques known at the time. In addition, his experience in casting mirrors in Strasbourg also provided good conditions for his invention. He developed special alloys and casting methods for letters. Using this method, he established a alphabet library and used it to print his famous Gutenberg Bible and other secretaries and documents.
Before establishing his printing factory, he had to work hard to prepare for the fund. He borrowed a high debt from a local businessman, Johannes Foster, to run this printing factory. Due to disagreements between the two on how to distribute profits and name their joint venture, they broke up in court. Gutenberg hired Peter Cerfa as the host of the printing factory, which made it the first commercially profitable printing factory. Approximately 180 copies of the Gutenberg Bible have been printed, of which 49 remain contemporary. According to contemporary research, he made a lot of money with this patent.

At around sixty years old, Gutenberg was still a bachelor because he spent all his time creating and inventing. He was summoned to meet with the Archbishop of Nassau, and he was agreed to complete the work he had already begun: publishing the German Bible.
Those who have seen the first 42 line Bible of 1455 (one of the few surviving original editions still displayed in New York, it is too heavy to hold in hand and must be read on a reading stand) are all surprised because they imagine it will be as bulky as the first steam engine or car, but what contemporary readers see is already quite a beautiful work. For centuries, the woodblock has been handmade by temples, but it is beautifully printed on loose leaf paper in contemporary times. At that time, the problem faced by letter carvers and casters was how to bind these loose leaf papers more beautifully and conveniently.

People often say that Gutenberg's main contribution was the invention of movable type. In fact, movable type was invented in China as early as the mid-19th century, and the inventor's name was Bi Sheng. The movable type he invented was made of ceramics and had poor durability, but some Chinese and Korean people made a series of improvements to it. Even before Gutenberg, the Koreans used metal movable type. In the early 15th century, the Korean government sponsored a foundry to undertake the production of movable type printing.
Modern printing has four main components. The first is movable type and its positioning method; The second is the printing machine itself; The third is suitable ink; The fourth is suitable materials, such as printed paper. The paper invented by Cai Lun in China was introduced to the West before Gutenberg invented movable type printing. For Gutenberg, paper is a readily available component in printing, while the other three components, although some work has been done by predecessors, still require him to make many important improvements.
In the 15th century, different classes in Germany began to voice a thirst for knowledge, demanding to break the monopoly of knowledge by the Catholic Church. Urban citizens and rural farmers demand to learn more knowledge and understand God and the world, not just limited to what the Catholic Church gives them. Prior to this, all books were handcrafted by monks and the quantity was extremely limited. Nowadays, in the municipal hall under the solemn tower and in the solemn university classroom, the fantasy of democracy permeates every corner. Therefore, Gutenberg began to devote himself to the invention and research of movable type printing.

For example, he invented a metal alloy suitable for making movable type, a mold that can accurately pour out movable type molds, an oil printing ink, and a printing machine.
But Gutenberg's entire contribution far exceeded any of his specific inventions or innovations. He became an important figure mainly because he combined all these printing components into an effective production system, because printing is different from all previous inventions and is basically a large-scale production process. A rifle is naturally a more lethal weapon than a pair of bows and arrows, but a printed copy is no different from a handwritten copy in terms of effectiveness. Therefore, the superiority of printing lies in large-scale production. What Gutenberg created was not a small accessory, small instrument, or even a series of technological innovations, but a complete production process.
Gutenberg used metal letters to arrange them into printed pages, and the novelty of this method is that these letters can be reused. The old woodcut base cannot be reused, and they can only be printed on the page they were engraved on, and cannot be used to print other pages. Until modern times, Gutenberg's Bible has been considered a treasure in the art of printing. Gutenberg's invention quickly became popular in Europe. In 50 years, this new method has been used to print 30000 types of printed materials, totaling over 12 million copies. The letters used by Gutenberg are composed of alloys of lead, zinc, and other metals. They cool very quickly and can withstand the pressure during printing. Printing itself uses the rotary printing method, which prints paper and parchment.

The development of printing technology
By comparing the subsequent development of China and Europe, one can to some extent understand the impact of Gutenberg on world history. When Gutenberg was born, the technological development in these two regions was roughly equal. However, after Gutenberg invented modern printing, Europe developed very rapidly, while China continued to use plate printing for a long period of time, and its progress was relatively slow. The only factor that causes this difference may be the development of printing technology, which may be a bit excessive, but it is indeed an important factor.
It is also worth noting that only 32 people on the list of 100 people who have influenced the progress of human history lived before Gutenberg, while 67 people lived in the 500 years after his death. This indicates that Gutenberg's invention was an important factor in stimulating revolutionary development - and may even be a decisive factor.
It seems entirely certain that even without Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone would have been invented around the same period, and this is also true for many other inventions. But without Gutenberg, the invention of modern printing could potentially delay many generations. From the overwhelming influence of printing on later history, it can be seen that Gutenberg should certainly be at the top of the list of 100 people who have influenced the course of human history.

Printing and Gunpowder
The fog gradually dissipated. On the day when the dark clouds dissipated, people saw a glimmer of light through the mist. Is this the dawn of the new century? This is a morning star that drives the arrival of the new century as soon as possible.
In the 15th century, different classes in Germany began to voice a thirst for knowledge, demanding to break the monopoly of knowledge by the special class of the church. Mysticists demand enhanced intuition and speculation, rather than understanding; Pagans demand knowledge and understanding, not just prayer. German is widely used in laws and various documents. Citizens and farmers demand to learn more knowledge, to understand God and the world, not just limited to what the church gives them. In the municipal hall below the solemn tower and in the solemn university classroom, the fantasy of democracy permeates every corner. Prior to this, all books were handcrafted by monks and the quantity was extremely limited. The time for reform is ripe. At first, someone carved 1400 paintings on wood and metal, and then used them for printing. People deeply feel that it would be great if these wood and metal could be made into movable type! This can be printed quickly and at an affordable price. Just then, a young man in Strasbourg was ready to answer this question.
Gutenberg only printed about 200 copies of the Bible, of which 48 have been preserved to the present day, including 20 complete books, each of which is different because the craftsmen at that time decorated the pages in different ways. This book from the Ransom Center is adorned with gold leaves and consists of two volumes, totaling 1268 pages. Olam estimates it to be worth $20 million.
Until the 1860s, this Bible was still used by a monastery in southern Germany, and some passages were extracted by monks and replaced with corrected text. Some paragraphs indicate which parts should be read aloud during religious ceremonies.
The Gutenberg Bible is one of the eight major digitization projects completed by Octavo in collaboration with the Library of Congress. The company also collaborates with more than ten other libraries, including the famous Folger Shake speech Library and the New York Public Library.
Technicians spent four months using high-resolution cameras to take page by page photos of the Gutenberg Bible in the Library of Congress. The resolution of a regular digital camera is generally between 2 to 4 million pixels, but the camera used to capture the Bible reaches 1.3 million pixels! To keep the pages level, they used a specially designed bracket and a cold metal halide lamp for illumination, which ensures that the surface temperature of the parchment paper in the Bible does not rise more than one Fahrenheit, and each exposure takes 15 minutes.

Promoting world civilization
Gutenberg passed away in Mainz, Germany in 1468, but his printing skills were spread abroad with his printing workers. His invention laid the foundation for the development of modern European civilization and was the precursor to the European Renaissance and religious reform; We can even say that the invention of printing was a key technology that triggered the industrial revolution. Although printing originated in China, modern printing was introduced from the West to China, so Gutenberg had an important influence on the dissemination of world knowledge and the evolution of civilization. If it weren't for Gutenberg, modern printing would have been delayed for hundreds of years, and the spread of knowledge would have been delayed even longer, and the world wouldn't be in this prosperous contemporary situation. Gutenberg's printing technique made printed materials very cheap, and the printing speed also increased significantly, resulting in an increase in printing volume. It has led to a significant reduction in illiteracy in Europe.