Below is the full Quizmo quiz devoted to the theme "The Printing Press": each question, its four options, the correct answer highlighted and, where available, its source. A chance to brush up on your general knowledge and then test what you know.
▶ Play today's quizWho is credited with inventing the printing press in Europe?
Source: Gutenberg got the credit, but Benjamin Franklin's fame as a printer fools many guessers centuries later.
What was the most famous book Gutenberg printed?
Source: The Gutenberg Bible was his masterpiece, and surviving copies are among the most valuable books on Earth.
In which century did Gutenberg build his famous printing press?
Source: The press roared to life in the 1450s, kicking off the print revolution a full 40 years before Columbus sailed.
Before printing presses, European books were mostly produced by?
Source: A single hand-copied book could take a monk months, which is why one volume could cost as much as a house.
What sticky substance was pressed onto the type to mark the paper?
Source: Gutenberg invented an oil-based ink thick enough to cling to metal, unlike the runny water inks scribes used.
The printing press is credited with helping spread which religious upheaval?
Source: Luther's pamphlets went viral on the press, making the Reformation arguably history's first media revolution.
What do we call the reusable individual letters used in early printing?
Source: Rearranging tiny reusable letters was the genius leap, letting one set of pieces print an endless variety of pages.
Cheaper printed books are credited with boosting what among ordinary people?
Source: As books got affordable, reading spread beyond the elite, and literacy across Europe climbed for the first time.
What material were Gutenberg's reusable letters made from?
Source: He cast letters from a lead-tin-antimony alloy that melted easily yet held razor-sharp edges for thousands of prints.
Roughly how many original Gutenberg Bibles still survive today?
Source: Only around 49 survive of the 180 printed, and a complete copy can fetch tens of millions at auction.
What 19th-century power source let presses print thousands of pages per hour?
Source: Steam-driven presses made cheap mass newspapers possible, turning the daily paper into everyone's morning ritual.
Movable type was actually invented centuries earlier in which country?
Source: Bi Sheng made clay movable type in China around 1040, roughly 400 years before Gutenberg's metal version.
Long before movable type, which method carved each entire page as one piece?
Source: Whole pages were carved into single wooden blocks, the technique behind the world's oldest dated printed book.
In printing, what does a 'proof' refer to?
Source: A proof is a test print pulled to catch mistakes, which is exactly where the word 'proofreading' comes from.
Why are small letters in printing called 'lowercase'?
Source: Printers kept capitals in an upper drawer and small letters in a lower one, and the names stuck for good.
In a print shop, what was the 'compositor' responsible for?
Source: The compositor assembled each line letter by letter by hand, a painstaking job demanding speed and flawless accuracy.
The words 'stereotype' and 'cliché' both began as printers' terms for what?
Source: Both once meant a solid metal plate cast to reprint the same text, before the words drifted into everyday speech.
Gutenberg adapted his press design from machines used for what task?
Source: He borrowed the screw mechanism from wine and olive presses, repurposing a farm tool to print the written word.
Which printer introduced the printing press to England in 1476?
Source: Caxton set up England's first press at Westminster and helped standardize the English language as he printed it.
European books printed before the year 1501 are known by what collective name?
Source: Incunabula means 'cradle' in Latin, marking these earliest printed books as the infancy of the print age.