List of typographic inventions

The history of technology can't be told by ignoring the most revolutionary invention of all times which was the powerhouse for realizing all other ideas. It's called book printing and the most remarkable fact is, that it has changed rapidly over the times. What we today perceive as information society is a very young development which will change rapidly within the next ten years.

But let us start with the early beginnings. In the 15th century, Gutenberg invented the first printing machine which was superior to manual writing. In the 18th century his machine was upgraded with a steam engine. Later the fotography was invented which established in the 19th the ability to create high quality books. The technology didn't stopped, but the next improvement in printing technology was the computer controlled printer which is also called digital printing. At the same time in the 1980s the Postscript document format was invented which is building together with the HTML standard the backbone for distributing academic knowledge over the internet. This technology was improved by the first search engines and the access of private households to internet flatrates.

The latest improvement in book printing technology is the Academic social network “Academia.edu” which puts the normal user in the role of a scientists. That means, anybody can create his own fake science with the help of LaTeX and MS-Word and with a bit luck he will find his readers / students somewhere in the internet who are downloading his manuscripts.

What the future will bring can be imagined today. If not the human, but deeplearning algorithm are creating the manuscript the amount of information will grow rapidly. It will result into an information explosion in which former boundaries are no longer available. Any human in the world can become an academic journal, and even robots can write their own newspaper.

The interesting feature around the printing technology is, that on top of this innovation all other disciplines can accumulate knowledge. No matter if the subject is literature, biology or economy, all disciplines are depended on books and they are profit from a faster Gutenberg galaxy. Another interesting feature is, that newer technology doesn't replace older technology, but all of them are used at the same time. In the year 2019 it makes totally sense to buy a printed hardcover book in a book store for 100 US$, but it make also sense to upload a postscript document to the internet.