Printing history on a calendar

PROFILE/ Kamal Chopra

If the story of printing is the story of civilization itself, then you have it all told in succinct, illustrated form on a 13-page table-top calendar "" Printers Calendar 2006-07.

It is the brainchild of Kamal Chopra for whom printing is not a livelihood but life itself, a passion unparalleled. He has his print shop, Foil Printers, in Ludhiana - the city where the one of the oldest printing press was set up way back in 1809.

After three and half years of meticulous research, Chopra has come out with the complete history of printing, which dates back to more than 100,000 years.

He travelled across the globe from the Printing Museum and Institute of Graphics Communication in Beijing (China) to the Library of the Congress in Washington and from the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz to the British Library, London, tracing the history of printing.

His documentation from journals and archives has resulted in this beautiful calendar, perhaps, the first of its kind anywhere.

Speaking to Business Standard, Chopra says, "What I have put in a capsule form in the desktop calendar is not a complete end product. However, it does present almost the complete story of the evolution of printing. Yet, I would welcome suggestions for improvement. It is, I believe, a collector's item, which may inspire future generations of students and professionals to explore the world of printing or communication in greater depth.''

The calendar carries unique photographs to depict the story of printing, which is believed to be the mother of all revolutions.

It is also a humble tribute to all the known and unknown heroes, who toiled over the centuries to develop printing and printing technology as a means of expression of human feelings. Chopra believes the printed word is still looked upon with great trust, value and authenticity and that no one goes back on the written word.

Beginning with the cave painting at Lascaux, France, Circa 20,000 BC, each page carries a small description on how printing evolved over a period of time. One learns about "our own" history of civilization as also printing through recorded drawings, signs and words from the ancient caves of the Neanderthals (120,000 "" 35,000 BC) to the present day innovations in printing technology.

The calendar shows Sumerian clay tablets, surviving Papyrus and Parchment scrolls, Egyptian "book of the dead", the original Dharni sutra in Sanskrit and Chinese, a model of an ancient Chinese print shop, movable types of clay-1040 AD, portrait of Johannes Gutenberg, a facsimile of the 42-line Bible printed by Gutenberg in 1452 and his press and then there is a map of India showing some of the country's oldest printing presses, which existed between 1556-1809 AD.

Chopra says printing came into India "accidentally". Elaborating on this, he says the Bishop-designate of Abyssinia stopped at Goa in 1550 AD during a journey and subsequently died there of some illness. He left behind a wooden printing press he was carrying. It was his associate Joao-de-Bestowment, who eventually set up this press there in 1556 AD.

Bombay Courier, the first Indian newspaper, started in 1792. It was printed in English, Marathi and Gujarati, while Bhimji Parakh was the first Indian to adopt printing as a career in 1647 AD.