Gutenberg and his associates developed oil-based inks ideally suited to printing with a press on paper, and the first Latin typefaces. His method of casting type may have differed from the hand-mould used in subsequent decades. Detailed analysis of the type used in his 42-line Bible has revealed irregularities in some of the characters that cannot be attributed to ink spread or type wear under the pressure of the press. Scholars conjecture that the type pieces may have been cast from a series of matrices made with a series of individual stroke punches, producing many different versions of the same glyph.thumb|Editing with movable metal – c. 1920 It has also been suggested that the method used by Gutenberg involved using a single punch to make a mould, but the mould was such that the process of taking the type out disturbed the casting, causing variants and anomalies, and that the punch-matrix system came into use possibly around the 1470s. This raises the possibility that the development of movable type in the West may have been progressive rather than a single innovation.
Gutenberg and his associates developed oil-based inks ideally suited to printing with a press on paper and the first Latin typefaces His method of casting type may have differed from the hand-mould used in subsequent decades Detailed analysis of the type used in his 42-line Bible has revealed irregularities in some of the characters that cannot be attributed to ink spread or type wear under the pressure of the press Scholars conjecture that the type pieces may have been cast from a series of matrices made with a series of individual stroke punches producing many different versions of the same glyphthumb|Editing with movable metal – c 1920 It has also been suggested that the method used by Gutenberg involved using a single punch to make a mould but the mould was such that the process of taking the type out disturbed the casting causing variants and anomalies and that the punch-matrix system came into use possibly around the 1470s This raises the possibility that the development of movable type in the West may have been progressive rather than a single innovation