Author: Vincent Wong

As newspaper printing peters out with news-providers switching to digital platforms altogether, aluminum press plates are symbols of the traditional offset printing process. Offset printing is yet another notable improvement in the mass production of written work, allowing for not just hundreds or thousands, but hundreds of thousands of copies to be made and distributed.

A giant leap from the first printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg, offset printing was the use of lithography which uses limestone instead of metal plates to reproduce artworks, for printing written works at a low cost. The first rotary offset printing press, made by Robert Barclay in England in 1875, used treated cardboard wrapped around its offset cylinder instead of the rubber used today. As photography developed in the late 19th century C.E., offset printing began to utilise photoengraving (the use of light to carve images onto metal surfaces) in the lithograph process, which leads us to the offset printing process of today.

Offset printing is based on the concept that water and grease do not mix. Grease-based ink is deposited on grease-treated areas of the printing plate while non-printing areas are coated with water which will reject the ink.

As a development of lithography, the offset plate is made with zinc or aluminum and coated with a photosensitive material onto which the negative of the page to be printed is placed and exposed to light, causing the photosensitive coating to harden on the areas to be printed. Modern offset printing requires four printing plates to be made of each page in each of four colours: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK).

Offset printing machines are composed of three rotating cylinders and multiple rollers. The first cylinder is known as the plate cylinder, onto which the printing plates are fastened. This cylinder is followed by moist rollers that wet the non-printing areas of the plate and ink rollers which cause ink to adhere to the greasy sections of the plate. The second offset cylinder, covered in rubber, accepts the inked impression of the page and passes it onto the paper which travels around the final impression cylinder. Newspapers are printed in batches (print runs) on large rolls of newspaper which are then cut and folded by machine into individual newspapers.

Offset printing traditionally dominates commercial printing because of its ability to produce rich, accurate, coloured images and photographs as well as sharp typefaces and fine details for a price that drops with every copy that is printed—since the cost lies in the elaborate setup of printing plates and cylinders. The digital printer we know of today uses dry toner electrophotography to print which becomes expensive if it has to print more than 500 copies of the same page. Traditional offset printing, on the other hand, is designed to print thousands of copies of the same page, making it still the cost-efficient choice for newspaper printing today.

Bibliography

Bear, Jacci Howard. “How Does a Sheet-Fed Press Work?”. Lifewire, 2019, https://www.lifewire.com/sheet-fed-press-1074620.

Bear, Jacci Howard. “The Role Printing Plates Play in the Printing Process”. Lifewire, 2020, https://www.lifewire.com/printing-plates-information-1073825.

“Differences Between Digital and Traditional Newspaper Printing Explained – Newspaper Club”. Newspaperclub.Com, https://www.newspaperclub.com/choose/paper-types/digital-or-traditional.

“How Offset Printing Plates are Produced at Agfa”. Printing, https://www.agfa.com/printing/paper/printing-plate-production/.

“Offset Printing | Printing Technique”. Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/technology/offset-printing.

Image Source

Yrithinnd, Offset Printing Process Diagram, 2009 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offset_printing#/media/File:Offset.svg Accessed 9 March 2021.

 

Prepared by Carol

While it is common knowledge that materials derived from animals may be used in the manufacture of everyday items such as clothing and bags, it may be surprising to some that the skin of cows, sheep and goats were in fact the primary ingredients for books created throughout antiquity. The term parchment refers to the skin of an animal specifically prepared to make a suitable writing support. The word is said to have been derived from the ancient Greek city of Pergamon (or Pergamum) in modern day Turkey. It is there where parchment was said to have been invented by its ruler, Eumenes II, in the 2nd century B.C.E., when Egypt unleashed a trade embargo on papyrus. However, substantial evidence shows that the use of animal skin as a writing support predates Eumenes II and Pergamon, with the earliest documents written on animal skin dating up to the 24th century B.C.E. in ancient Egypt.

Fig. 1., ‘Scudding’ process

By the 4th century C.E., parchment had largely replaced papyrus as the preferred writing support across the known world, a trend which persisted up till the introduction of paper in the West via Arab traders, and the invention of the printing press. However, even with the organised production and popularisation of paper in 15th century Europe, parchment continued to be used widely, especially in the production of manuscripts commissioned for the wealthy elite. Books made from parchment were seen as luxury items. This may be attributed to the extraordinarily durable nature of the material, which, under the right conditions, is able to last for over a millennium, as well as its intensely laborious manufacturing process. The preparation of parchment is a time-consuming and complicated process, one that involves numerous, carefully executed steps:

Fig. 2., Skin specimen on a herse

1. Skin the animal.
2. Thoroughly clean the skin specimen in water.
3. Soak the skin specimen in a lime solution to loosen the hair.
4. De-hair the skin specimen. This is achieved by manually pulling out the hair, and later through a process known as ‘scudding’, wherein the parchment-maker would work the skin with a gently curved, two-handle blade (see fig. 1.).
5. Wash the skin again to prepare it for the next step. 
6. Dry the skin specimen under tension. This is achieved through a process of stretching the skin on a frame called a ‘herse’ (see fig. 2.). This is an especially crucial step in the preparation as the skin tends to shrink while it dries. 
7. Scrape the skin specimen. While the drying skin specimen is stretched on the frame, the parchment-maker would work on it with a crescent-shaped blade known as a ‘lunarium’ or ‘lunellum’ (‘little moon’ in English, with reference to the shape of the tool) (see fig. 3.). The skin specimen is to be worked on both sides: The ‘hair-side’ is worked to remove any remaining hair from the outer layer of the skin specimen, while the ‘flesh-side’ is worked to remove any remaining fat and flesh from the inner surface of the skin specimen.
8. When the skin specimen has completely dried, it is ready to be cut into sheets of parchment.

Fig. 3., Parchment maker working with a lunellum

While the mass manufacturing and use of parchment has effectively ended, with paper being the universal medium of writing today, it has seen a revival in the contemporary age especially among artists and scholars who seek to recreate and study medieval traditions.

Bibliography 

Clanchy, M.T. “Parchment And Paper: Manuscript Culture 1100-1500”. A Companion To The History Of The Book, Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose, Blackwell Publishing, 2007, pp. 194-207, Accessed 20 Mar 2021.

Clemens, Raymond, and Timothy Graham. Introduction To Manuscript Studies. Cornell University Press, 2007, pp. 9-12.

Diringer, David. The Book Before Printing: Ancient, Medieval And Oriental. Dover Publications, Inc., 1982, p. 172.

Goldman, David. A Is For Ox. Silver Moon Press, 1994, p. 26.

Johnson, Richard R. “Ancient And Medieval Accounts Of The “Invention” Of Parchment”. California Studies In Classical Antiquity, vol 3, 1970, pp. 115-122. University Of California Press, doi:10.2307/25010602.

Kwakkel, Erik. “Parchment (The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly)”. Khan Academy. 

Image Sources 

Fritz (Fritz) Pyrmetter (Pyrmetter; Permeter; Pergamenter) , Pyrmetter (Pergamentmacher). 1425, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13131505. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.

Huculak, J. Matthew. Goat Skin On Drying Rack For Parchment Paper. 2016, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49349226. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.

van der Sluijs, Peter. Making Parchment. 2012, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18256693. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.

 

Prepared by Muhammad Khaizuran Bin Rashid

Modern reproduction of papyrus scroll.

Made using Cyperus papyrus, papyrus as an early writing support for the Ancient Egyptians would come to represent ancient life. Viewed from its cross-section, the stem of the plant had a triangular shape that reflected the shape of the pyramids, a symbol of eternal life, while its flowers symbolised the rays of the sun.

The process of creating papyrus began with the removal of the stalk and flowers of the plant. The green exterior of the stem was then stripped away, to be used to weave into sandals or baskets. What remained was the white interior, which would be sliced into long, thin strips. Without treatment, these strips were brittle and easily broken. To ready them for use, these strips were soaked in water for about 3 days, and then laid out, each strip overlapping the edge of the next strip, with a second strip laid over the first but at a right-angle, creating a criss-cross pattern. This rectangular sheet was eventually placed between cloth to absorb water and pressed down with a heavy weight for 3 days, usually heavy stones or rocks, although modern reproductions employ the use of a mechanical press. Once the sheet had been pressed and dried under the sun for an additional day, its maker would be left with a sturdy, yet flexible sheet of papyrus. These sheets could be easily resized, rolled into a scroll, or folded into smaller shapes. Held up against a light, one can easily identify a genuine papyrus sheet by the criss-cross pattern of the strips, something that is absent from modern imitations made using materials like banana leaves.

Papyrus sheet held against light.

Certain sheets could also appear brown compared to others. To achieve this, the strips had to be soaked and pressed for 6 days each, 3 more than if one desired a whiter sheet. Craftsmen could thus create sheets of varying colours based on what was needed, and the extended process itself had little to no effect on the actual quality of the papyrus sheets produced.

Used since 3000 B.C.E. in Ancient Egypt, papyrus as a writing support was be adopted as the main form of paper by the Greeks as early as the 6^th century B.C.E, and remained an important export of Egypt up till the 11th century C.E. Papyrus was often written on using pens made out of blunted reeds, with black ink made from carbon or red ink made from red ochre. Black ink was used mainly in the writing of hieroglyphs or hieratic text, while red ink was utilised in the writing of titles and headings in order to separate them from the rest of the main text. Papyrus existed as a common writing support for personal use such as letters, all the way to the inscribing of religious texts such as the Final Judgement of Osiris, and some of the earliest surviving versions of the New Testament. Although no longer popular in the 21^st century, this material still bears great importance as one of the earliest forms of manuscript writing supports.

Reverse side of Papyrus 37, a New Testament manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew, 3rd – 4th century. Housed in the Ann Arbor Library, University of Michigan.

Bibliography

Ryan, Donald P. “Papyrus.” The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 51, no. 3, 1988. Pp. 132–140.

Capua, Rebecca. “Papyrus-Making in Egypt.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pyma/hd_pyma.htm. Accessed 22 March 2021.

Image Sources

Personal photos of items from NTU Library Collection.

Verso of papyrus 37. Unknown author.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Papyrus_37_-_verso.jpg#/media/File:Papyrus_37_-_verso.jpg. Accessed 22 March 2021.

 

Prepared by Joseph Leong Jie Sheng

The wax tablet is a writing instrument consisting of wax and typically, boxwood, and is used by carving onto its hardened wax surface. The earliest record of its use dates back to the 7th century B.C.E. in Italy, with the earliest specimens coming from Nimrud in Assyria. Wax tablets were widely used among the Greeks, who had an abundance of beeswax at their disposal, and subsequently gained popularity amongst the ancient Egyptians. During Greco-Roman Antiquity (8th century B.C.E. – 6th century C.E.), the tablets entered into common use as they were cheap and reusable compared to the other writing surfaces available. They continued to be used sporadically up till the nineteenth century.

To construct a wax tablet, a flat, rectangular block would be hollowed out and filled with a mixture of beeswax tempered with resin, turpentine or linseed oil, and coloured with the same agents used in the embellishments of illuminated manuscripts. Black was the most common colour, followed by green, whereas red and yellow were rarely seen. Darker colours were favoured so that the text carved on the wax could be seen. These wooden blocks were then bound together with leather, parchment or linen thongs. Though wood was usually the preferred choice, wax tablets were also occasionally made of bone, ivory and metalwork.

A stylus of metal, bone, or wood would be used like a pencil with an eraser end, the sharp end for writing onto the wax, and the wide, flattened end working like an eraser. A metal stylus could be heated and its blunt end used to smooth the wax for reuse or to erase mistakes. To erase an entire tablet of characters, however, the wax would need to be held close to a flame till it melted. The tablet would be turned over and a stylus used to gently smooth over the surface, or the tablet rocked, to even out the melted wax. When not in use, the stylus could sometimes be embedded in the wax or placed in the owner’s pen case, which in some cases were incorporated within the tablet.

Wax tablets served as learning aids in the classroom (especially throughout Antiquity), as a means for drafting texts, and for compiling things such as library inventories. They were also used for keeping administrative records–especially financial transactions (from royal accounts to gaming tallies), but stopped being used for legal records during the Middle Ages. They were even used as decorative objects or love tokens, and used in religious contexts. The Etruscans of ancient Italy, for example, used them as amulets. Tablets took on different forms– as a single block, as diptychs (consisting of two blocks of wood), polyptychs (more than three blocks), the occasional concertina (which could open or close in multiple folds) and, during Antiquity, larger notice-boards or posters. Small sets of wax tablets were used as notebooks, and were dubbed ‘girdle books’ when suspended from the belt. Larger versions of the girdle book formed a portable writing desk and were held in the same manner as our modern day laptops. Artists would also use similar forms of the notebooks for sketches.

The practical character of the wax tablet and the organic materials of which it was made mean that very few examples from the past still exist today.

Open wax tablet

Closed wax tablet triptych with iron stylus. Collection of NTU Library Collection

Bibliography

Brown, Michelle P. “THE ROLE OF THE WAX TABLET IN MEDIEVAL LITERACY: A RECONSIDERATION IN LIGHT OF A RECENT FIND FROM YORK.” The British Library Journal, vol. 20, no. 1, 1994, pp. 1–16.

“Greek Handwriting.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/calligraphy/Greek-handwriting#ref512888.

Toth, Peter, and Alan E. Cole. “Keep Taking the (Wax) Tablets.” Medieval Manuscripts Blog, British Library, 8 May 2019, blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2019/05/keep-taking-the-wax-tablets.html#:~:text=The%20earliest%20documented%20use%20of,of%20beeswax%20at%20their%20disposal.

Urry, William G.. “Paleography”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Aug. 2013,

https://www.britannica.com/topic/paleography. Accessed 21 March 2021.

Prepared by Sophia Ng Sok Huei