Decided Difference: It's all about production!

The First Printed Book in Europe

It is believed that the first ever printed book that came from Europe was made by Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg who has worked as a blacksmith, goldsmith, printer and publisher in Mainz, Germany. Although the first movable type system was invented in China, Gutenberg developed his own movable type system in Europe. He started the Printing Revolution with his contributions to the subject. Among his inventions was the process of mass-producing movable type, the use of oil-based ink and the use of a wooden printing press.

He also invented the printing press which is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. With this invention and the movable type system he could produce prints in a relatively short time. The printing press was in operation by 1450. He started with printing shorter texts probably documents for the church but we can’t be sure what were the first printed items as they didn’t have the printer’s name or the date on them.

What we know for sure though that the first book he printed with his techniques was the Bible, in 1455. The book as we know today as the Gutenberg Bible, the first printed book in Europe using the movable type printing press. On every page there is 42 lines of text (to increase the line number they lessened the space between sequential lines of text) and a completed copy has 1272 pages. There were probably 180 copies produced of the Bible; 135 on paper and 45 on vellum, which is basically mammal skin on what you can write and print on. However only 21 completed copies survived through the centuries and they are considered to be the most valuable books in the world.

Gutenberg Bible of the New York Public Library

From novice to expert

The task was to rate yourself on this scale. Where do I think I belong? Well, it is hard and I don’t want to underrate or overrate myself. I guess I’m a beginner on this scale but I think.. I hope that by the end of this year I will be on a good level of competent. If someone asked me this about 2 years ago I would’ve said I’m even less than a novice. See, I’ve had problems with self-evaluation for ages, I always underrated myself.

I started taking photos for fun but I really liked some of them and because at that time I had no idea what to do with my future, I started to get more and more interested in photography and film making as well. I do think that the standard of my work is getting a lot better nowadays as I’m expanding my technical knowledge. Before I was just playing around mainly in Photoshop but I didn’t know the different techniques or tricks. I know I have to work harder than most people in the course as I don’t have a sufficient knowledge of the subject. I still need someone to look at my work and give advice. I have had lots of positive feedbacks from friends and strangers too which helped me estimate my photos more realistic than before.

Some of my older and newer photos: