c.1451 – Gutenberg applies the principal of replica casting to create movable type and develops a printing press using a huge wood screw to apply pressure. This makes it possible to produce a large number of identical copies at a time.

c.1800 – Iron presses are introduced, with levers substituted for the screws. Iron presses allow many more pages to be produced at each impression.

1803 – In London, Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier install their first papermaking machine, which produces a continuous roll of paper.

1811 – Friedrich Koenig of Germany invents a steam-powered cylinder press, which uses a revolving cylinder that presses the paper against a flat bed of type. It prints 1,100 sheets per hour.

1819 – Napier builds the rotary printing press.

1829 – U.S. patent for the typewriter is issued.

1834 – Babbage conceives the analytical engine, forerunner of the computer.

1839 – Electricity first runs a printing press.

1846 – American Richard Hoe invents the double rotary press by attaching type to a revolving cylinder and using another cylinder to make the impression. It produces 8,000 sheets per hour.

1865 – American William Bullock finds a way to print from a continuous roll of paper and invents the high-speed web-fed rotary press.

1871– Halftone process allows news printing of pictures.

1871 – Richard Hoe perfects the continuous roll press, which produces up to 18,000 newspapers per hour.

1886 – The Linotype machine is patented by Ottmar Mergenthaler. It makes typesetting more efficient by casting a full line of type in one piece of metal.

1887 – American Tolbert Lanston invents the Monotype, which casts and sets separate pieces of type.

1895 – In England Friese-Greene invents phototypesetting.

1896 – Monotype sets type by machine in single characters.

1917 – Photocomposition begins.

1928 – The Teletype machine debuts.

1946 – ENIAC is the first electronic computer.

1964 – Nearly every daily in the nation switches to phototypesetting machines, which produce photographic images of type instead of casting it in metal.

1980 – Phototypesetting can be done by laser.

1795 – The first typographical society is formed in New York.

1850 – San Francisco printers form the Pacific Typographical Society, the first union on the Pacific Coast

1852 – A national typographical union is formed, the International Typographical Union.

1869 – The ITU opens its membership to women.

1870 – Augusta Lewis is elected corresponding secretary of the ITU and becomes the first woman officer of a national or international union.

1886 – The ITU adopts the union label, a trademark that identifies printed material as union-created.

1892 – Union printers home is founded in Colorado.

1807 – The ITU establishes a training school.

1908 – The ITU champions legislation that establishes the eight-hour day.

1908 – The ITU¹s pension plan is established and becomes a model for state and social security benefits.

1938 – The ITU wins in negotiations that establish the five-day work week.

1976 – The nation's leading dailies sign the Supplemental Agreement on Automation, which establishes a framework for phasing out printers.

1986 – The ITU merges with the Printing, Publishing, Media Sector of theCommunication Workers of America.

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