<P> The printing press was invented in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 , based on existing screw presses . Gutenberg , a goldsmith by profession , developed a printing system , by adapting existing technologies to printing purposes , as well as making inventions of his own . His newly devised hand mould made possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities . Movable type had been hitherto unknown in Europe . In East Asia , where it was invented , the usefulness of movable type was limited by the complexity of the writing system and , without the hand mould , the production of sorts ( individual letters of type ) was slow . In Europe , the two inventions , the hand mould and the printing press , together drastically reduced the cost of printing books and other documents , particularly in short print runs . </P>
who invented the printing press and in what year
the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440