500 Years of Printing in Scotland 1508 - 2008

The Popular Press in Scotland - An Introduction

In April 1508 Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar printed their first book at their printing press in the Cowgate, Edinburgh, under royal licence. This was the beginning of the printing trade in Scotland.

Edinburgh was the first town to establish a printer’s business, and other Scottish towns would soon follow.  Initially printers’ workshops were small affairs manned by one or two people, but by the nineteenth century they had become large commercial businesses. 

Printers working in the sixteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries produced mainly legal, historical, literary, and religious texts.  At that time every household in Edinburgh had to own its own copy of the Bible and be able to produce it for inspection or risk a fine. 

The style of printing during this period reflected Continental and English influences and was a laborious, painstaking art as every letter had to be cast individually.

Steam power in the early nineteenth century and the invention of Linotype in the late nineteenth century significantly advanced the printing process.  The beginning of the twentieth century saw the commercial introduction of Monotype, which enabled compositors to work faster and correct mistakes more easily.

Printing mechanisation has continued to deliver developments which have allowed ever increasing volume in reduced time. In the 1970s Scotland became a leader in high volume paperback production when Collins installed two Cameron belt presses to their Glasgow operation, although such operations are now carried out abroad.

Yet even the pursuit of the mass market has not meant that quality has been overlooked.  Artists’ books are a particularly good example of readily available quality items, some produced by letterpress using traditional handcrafted techniques, others are computer generated.

Part I Almanacs,directories, pamphlets, rebel printers and chapbooks.
Part II Cheap novels, school textbooks, children's books and newspapers.