In reference to the renaissance era, what is movable type?

Question: In reference to the renaissance era, what is movable type!?
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Movable type is what is used to set the letters for a printing press!. In the Renaissance era, each letter was set individually, by hand, on what was called a page form!. So the letters were cast in lead but backwards, so when they were inked and printed on paper, they would come out the right way round!. With movable type, you had bins of individual letters, they could be arranged to make whatever words you wanted, newspapers, flyers, books or whatever were all set with movable type on the page form, which was then locked in place - that meant they hammered wooden shims around the edges, so the type would stay firmly in place while the form was run through the press!. After the printing was completed, the apprentices would unlock the form, remove the individual letters and put them back in their own separate bins so they could be used again!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Gutenberg's movable type

1454 - Invention of movable typeWww@QuestionHome@Com

Prior to the invention of movable type, any printing had to be done by creating a large block that included all of the text and images that would be printed on the page!. So, for example, to print a page of a book you had to have a block that had all of the text from that page laid out in the proper place!. To create a whole book, you would need many blocks, none of which could be re-used for any other purpose than to print the individual pages of that book!.

Movable type is an improvement on this type of printing, in which pieces of the text (such as words or even individual letters) are created separately!. They are designed so that they can be placed into a frame to form words and sentences, then later removed and re-arranged to form a different sentence!. With this technique, you could use one set of movable type to create each of the pages of your book (one at a time), and when you were done and no longer wanted to print the book, you could take it all apart and use it for another printing job!.

EDIT: Gutenberg invented the first printing press utilizing movable type in Europe in the mid-1400s, but movable type was actually in use in Asia well before that, and even the Romans utilized movable type for purposes other than printing!. See http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Movable_typ!.!.!. for more info!.Www@QuestionHome@Com