Creation of the first Typography in Brazil

Today they complete 215 years of the arrival of the first Typography in Brazil. It was only in 1808, after 400 years of its creation by the German Johannes Gutenberg that Brazil began to publish its own books and periodicals. There was no intellectual production in the country due to Portugal’s ban. The only productions were illegal and very rustic.

When the Portuguese Crown came to Brazil fleeing from Napoleon’s troops, it was necessary to bring the official press for publication of decrees and of course to ensure the comfort of the royal family, who came to Cologne that would be their new home.

But the official press did not publish everything that was produced in the country. Most of the printings were the royal decrees, bibles and books permitted by the Crown. All production was evaluated by a censorship. With typography being established in the country, periodicals were emerging and even with censorship, they were able to transmit their ideas and help the Brazilians with clarifications. One such example is Hipólito da Costa, founder of the first newspaper in Brazil, Correio Brasiliense, but which was produced in England, the country that inhabited the writer and journalist. At this time, there were no journalists in Brazil, so those who took risks in the periodicals were writers, doctors, lawyers and anyone who wanted to venture into the pages of the newspapers, which by the conditions of the time, were produced in small quantities.

Today, thanks to technology and access to information, large industries such as Servcamp can produce millions of prints in a short time, with quality and very low costs compared to our beginnings.

Cusiosity:

Speaking of typography, have you ever heard of High Box and Low Box? We refer to it this way when we talk about capital letters and lowercase letters. This term arose, because at the time of printing, the letters that were made of metal, were stored in wooden boxes, separated the capital letters from the lower case. The uppercase letters were on the top and the lowercase letters on the bottom. When the writer was going to ask for some letter, he asked to take it from the upper box (upper/ upper) or lower box (lower/ lower).

How did the printing press work?

• letter by letter

Each page was assembled with hundreds of characters, arranged manually.

• Manual Work

Composers organized the letters to form the words into a line of text. Then, in a form, they joined the rows - which turned into columns and finally into a whole page.

• Movable Type

They were manufactured in hard metal plates, the so-called matrices. They served as molds to cast as many characters as needed to compose a page.

• Ink on the letter

At the time, the pigment was water-based and did not offer good adhesion when pressing. For his press, Gutenberg used an ink composed of linseed oil and carbon black, which marked the paper and did not smudge. It was applied to mobile types with a cloth backpack.

• Printing

The shape was on a marble stone and the press was moved by a bar, which moved the thread and press. The paper or parchment was on top of the characters, under which they were pressed by a platinum plate, gaining the appearance of a page.

• Pressing

Because the platinum plate was small, the columns on the same page were printed separately - which required the press to be fired twice. A sheet of felt was placed between the page and the platinum to improve the print result.

• Final Product

The first page was reviewed and, with approval, other copies were made. Later, the characters were removed from the form and rearranged for printing the other pages.

• Paper

The paper was essential for printing to work. Before it, only parchment and Velino provided good absorption of the ink. They, however, were expensive. The paper had already come from China through Arabia for 200 years, but it was only in the fifteenth century that its use became widespread.

So, did you like to know more about the history on this date so important to the current printing industry? Tell us in the comments and always keep an eye on, our blog always brings relevant information about a little bit of everything.