One of the earliest books printed by using movable type printer is Bible. This Bible known as Gutenberg Bible after its printer, Johannes Gutenberg, and was printed in 42 lines columns at Mainz, Germany somewhere in the year 1455.

By inventing movable metal type printing Gutenberg unknowingly contributed to human progress so immensely that now we cannot imagine a world without books.

The Ink

“if you look [at the pages of The Gutenberg Bible] closely you will see this is a very shiny surface. When you write you use a water-based ink, you put your pen into it and it runs off. Now if you print that’s exactly what you don’t want. One of Gutenberg’s inventions was an ink which wasn’t ink, it’s a varnish. So what we call printer’s ink is actually a varnish, and that means it sticks to its surface.”

Dr Kristian Jensen Head of collections at the British Library BBC Radio 4 programme “Gutenberg: In the Beginning Was the Printer”

In transport regulations printing inks which are flammable is classified under Class 3 Flammable liquid, UN 1210, PRINTING INK flammable or PRINTING INK RELATED MATERIAL (including printing ink thinning or reducing compound), flammable.