Section 100 Traditional Printing (Science and Technology)
Section 100 Traditional Printing (Scientific and Technical Articles)
The accompanying shopkeeper enthusiastically gave instructions on the entire printing process. In a hall, printers were printing. The carved book boards were numbered according to the thousand-character script and placed on the shelf one by one. The apprentices followed the master's instructions.
After issuing the serial number, the blocks of books were moved to a special large desk. In the center of the hall, there were several large water tanks filled with ink. The apprentices used wooden barrels to draw ink and brought them up next to each printing master.
, scoop it into the ink tray.
When printing, the printing master dips a special cylindrical flat-bottomed brush into ink and brushes it evenly on the board. Then he carefully covers the paper on the board and gently brushes the paper with the brush, and the words or pictures are printed on the paper.
Just like, lift the paper from the printing plate, spread it on the shelf to dry, and the printing process is completed. The shopkeeper told Zhou Dongtian: A skilled printer can print 1,500 to 2,000 sheets a day. A good printing plate can
Printed thousands of times in a row.
In Zhou Dongtian's opinion, the engraving process of block printing is a bit like the process of engraving a seal, except that there are more characters. The sealing process is opposite to that of a seal. The seal is printed on top and the paper is on the bottom. The process of block printing is more similar.
Rubbing. However, the characters on the engraving are in reverse Yang characters, while the characters on general stone tablets are in positive Yin characters. In addition, the ink of rubbing is applied on the paper, and the ink of engraving printing is applied on the plate. Engraving printing not only inherits the seal,
It is not an accident that technologies such as rubbing, printing and dyeing were invented in China.
If the printed books are easy to sell, then the bookstore's investment in printing the books is a one-time investment, and the subsequent investment after excluding the cost of paper, ink and labor will be a net profit. If it is not easy to sell, the money invested in engraving is equivalent to a loss.
Good editions are either bulldozed and reused, or they can only be stored in warehouses and slept. Once the current situation is turbulent or the bookshop closes down, a large number of stereotypes will be reduced to firewood. Bookshop owners are very cautious about engraving a book.
, to ensure that every book can be sold.
Therefore, the number of plates owned becomes an important capital of a bookstore - especially those plates that are guaranteed to be able to sell books as soon as they are printed. The shopkeeper told Zhou Dongtian quite proudly that he had more than 10,000 plates in his bookstore.
The plates that are “printable all year round” are second to none among the bookshops in Nanjing.
Zhou Dongtian disagreed with this - it was said that there were more than 200,000 engraved tablets stored in the Imperial College during the Southern Song Dynasty. In terms of physical objects, it was a very impressive number. Stacking more than 200,000 engraved tablets would require a lot of space.
Astonishing. Not to mention the manpower and material resources spent to carve it into shape. But in terms of the amount of information contained, two hundred thousand pieces are only two hundred thousand pages of a book. Calculated based on a book of two hundred to three hundred pages, but
1,000 books. Considering that the number of words on each page of stereotyped books is generally less than that of modern printed matter, and the amount of information is even smaller. It is only the size of a unit library. In the official bookstore in Hangzhou in the late Qing Dynasty, only ten plates were stored.
Only 60,000 pieces.
A Sikuquanshu contains 4,000 types of books, which is barely enough for a street library in a small or medium-sized city. Zhou Dongtian knew that the scale of anything in the handicraft era was very small. Even with the technology of the 19th century, this book
The printing industry of time and space is also doomed.
Zhou Dongtian looked at the mountains of plates piled up in the yard and felt very emotional in his heart. China's large-scale printing technology has always been based on expensive engraving printing. It is difficult to publish works, and books are rare and expensive. Many works have not been obtained because of
The opportunity for publication or reprinting was lost and lost. This cannot but be said to be one of the reasons why it gradually lagged behind the West.
He strolled and walked to the second hall, where he suddenly became interested - it turned out that the plates carved here were images. The shopkeeper said that the plates now carved were "embroidered images" used in novels. Bookstore
Currently working on a new version of "Water Margin".
"This is the 'complex version' that the young man has painstakingly collected, not the 'simple version' from outside." The shopkeeper's face showed a proud look, "It has the 'Three Signs'!"
Zhou Dongtian didn't know much about the edition of Water Margin, and couldn't figure out what "simplified version" and "traditional version" were, so he just agreed with a few words. Mei Lin suddenly asked: "You are printing "Jin Ping Mei" here?
"What?" He regretted asking this question - wouldn't this affect his image?
"Yes, yes," the shopkeeper didn't think it was strange, "Xiao Lao, I have a copy of "New Engraved Embroidered Portraits Criticizing the Plum in the Jin Ping" printed by a fellow trader for sale on consignment. Not only is it well-engraved, but there are also 200 embroidered images in the book. It is a rare thing."
When asked about the price, this book cost one tael of silver. The price was quite expensive. Merlin decided to buy it.
"This book is in traditional Chinese and doesn't even have a single sentence to read. Do you really want to buy it?" Zhou Dongtian asked as the shopkeeper walked away for a moment.
"Of course I can't understand it, but after collecting one, it will become a precious information, a rare book!"
After a while, the shopkeeper fetched the book with a bang. The book was packed in four letters. It was heavy and heavy. Zhou Dongtian casually took out a book and flipped through a few pages, feeling a rush of ink.
The fragrance fills your nostrils, and the paper is of exquisite quality. The engraving and printing work is of average to above average. Because it uses water-based ink and the pages are not printed on both sides, there are a lot of bound books, thirty-six in total.
Each chapter is accompanied by two embroidered portraits. The carving work is much better than the New Year paintings that Zhou Dongtian saw outside. There are inevitably some scenes of lewdness and robbery, which are carefully crafted and extremely explicit. It has the feel of an H-novel.
If we were to come up with it, it would definitely be a hundred times better than its painter. Not to mention, the human body alone is better than this. Zhou Dongtian thought, there should be a big market for an H-comic of "Jin Ping Mei"? If it is just original.
It's too troublesome. I don't know if *** has published comics on this theme or if anyone has brought them.
He suddenly thought of a question and asked: "Who is the author of this book?" I wonder if this historical mystery can be clarified in this time and space not long after the publication of the work?
"The book is signed Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng, but everyone says it is Mr. Fengzhou's handwriting."
Mr. Fengzhou was Wang Shizhen. Not long after the book came out, someone said this. Until modern times, this statement was the most popular. This was not news to Zhou Dongtian - he was slightly disappointed.
"Some people also say that it was the work of a certain husband." The shopkeeper lowered his voice and said, "It's hard to say."
Zhou Dongtian nodded, obviously he could not get a clear answer in this time and space.
The atmosphere in the late Ming Dynasty can be called open, and sensual affairs between men and women are not considered a "shame". Seeing that the two gentlemen were very interested in it, the shopkeeper immediately brought a bunch of such novels for them to choose from, including the famous ""
***", to the not-so-famous "The Biography of the Madam", there are as many as twenty or thirty kinds of miscellaneous books. Some of them have been lost in the old time and space. I heard from the shopkeeper that these books are not bad in sales.
It is a variety that can be sold all year round. Zhou Dongtian flipped through a few books and felt that this business opportunity was also very good. He immediately spent ten taels of silver and bought all these books.
The shopkeeper of the bookstore made another good deal and became more and more attentive to them. He asked and answered ten questions. Zhou Dongtian turned his interest to the engraving workshop and saw that the workers carving the embroidery statues were different from the ones just now. They seemed to be carving something incomplete.
After thinking for a moment, he suddenly realized that this was a drawing board for engraving overprinting.
Walking into the next hall confirmed his idea. This was "registration color printing."
Engraving printing generally only uses monochrome printing. Since the fifth generation, some people have tried to carry out color printing. The process is to apply several different color materials to different parts of a board at the same time. Then print on the paper at once to print a colored sheet. This kind of
The method is called "single-plate multiple-color printing method". The famous Tianjin Yangliuqing prints were produced using this method.
This method is low-cost and fast, but printing colors are easy to mix and penetrate, and the color blocks are clearly defined, making the pattern look dull.
Since the Yuan Dynasty, there has been the so-called "multiple-color printing", which is also the so-called "overprint printing". Basically, as many plates as you want to use, you can engrave as many plates as you want, and each printing plate is painted with a different color.
Materials are printed in batches on the same piece of paper. The process of overlay color printing has lasted for a long time. In addition to printing factories, it was also used in printing and dyeing factories until the 20th century.
Nanjing had become the center of color overprinting in the Ming Dynasty, and most bookshops had the ability to do color overprinting.
Because the cost of overprinting is much higher—as many colors as there are, you have to prepare as many identical carving boards. Therefore, the color overprinting of books in the Ming and Qing Dynasties generally only used red and ink, and only New Year paintings used more colors.
The embroidery being printed in the bookshop at the moment only uses three colors. However, the shopkeeper is already very proud, saying that this time he is "regardless of the cost and only pursues perfection."
During the entire visit, Zhou Dongtian learned from the shopkeeper that there were about a thousand kinds of books that could be printed in Nanjing. They were divided into nine categories. There were tens of thousands of craftsmen, clerks, and traders who relied on this for business.
It is very prosperous. Books are not only sold to various provinces, but also exported in large quantities-especially to Japan and North Korea.
However, the best seller was the "Collection of Current Works", which is also the "Civil Service Examination Guidebook". Although new books were compiled and published every year, these books were still popular. Zhou and Mei couldn't help but sigh again.
Cai Yibang figured out that these two chiefs were so interested in bookshops that they would most likely want to open one. He was a local aboriginal in Nanjing and had quite a few poor relatives who could afford to live there. He quickly seized the opportunity to ask Zhou Dongtian for help.
recommend.
Zhou Dongtian felt that this was okay. After all, there was still a need for engraving masters - he originally came to Nanjing with the intention of recruiting a group of skilled engraving workers for the Lingao printing factory, and the Hangzhou printing factory also had a need. He could do it now.
He agreed wholeheartedly and asked him to recruit as many printing workers as possible.