2. The printing industry and printing house employees

The art of printing was invented by the German inventor Johannes Gutenberg, who started printing books with movable type in 1440 together with goldsmith Johan Fust. Printing spread rapidly, and by the early 16th century, the invention had already spread to sixteen countries. The first printing house in Finland was established in the early 17th century in Turku. By 1884, Finland had 37 print and lithography shops, employing a total 756 workers. At the end of 1938, the printing industry already had 7266 workers.

Up until the early 19th century, all books around the world were made almost entirely using Gutenberg's early methods. The printing press and movable type formed the core of Gutenberg's invention. Printing presses were developed in the early 19th century, improving the speed of the printing process. Typesetting, on the other hand, remained a manual process for a long time, and the text was typeset letter by letter. The first hot metal typesetters were developed in the 1880s. In bookbinding, the first machines came into use in the mid-19th century.

By the 1920s, technology was already well-developed in larger printing houses, and large companies were constantly modernising their machinery. Small print shops, on the other hand, often had to settle for more modest machinery and acquire used printing and typing machines. Offset printers were introduced in 1911. In 1918–1939, the printing industry mainly produced books, newspapers and journals. In addition to these, labels, forms, and some paper products were also produced.

In the early days, printers had to act as both the typesetter and the printer, making the types and ink themselves. However, these tasks soon became more specialised. In large printing houses, work was coordinated by the printing house foreman. There were also typesetters and printers, and printing was largely based on the equal contribution of these two professional groups. Typesetters and printers were both called typographers. Later, the term “typographer” was used as a common term for all printing industry professionals. Typesetters were further divided into manual typesetters and typesetting machine operators. Manual typesetters had to train long and hard to achieve the speed needed for the work.

Typesetters and printers were usually required to complete 4–5 years of apprenticeship training. In addition to typesetters and printers, photographers, printing plate chemigraphers, etchers, correctors, stereotype-makers, installers, paper cutters and bookbinders also worked in the printing industry. Printing press assistants were platen printers who operated smaller machines and feeders who were in charge of feeding the sheets into the printer.

A real revolution took place in the printing industry in the 1960s. The letterpress printing and hot metal typesetting methods used until then were fairly slow, and produced poor print quality in terms of images. The quality requirements for images in journals increased, and this led to the adoption of the offset technique soon after. The technique enabled the printing of higher quality images, but required a switch from hot metal to phototypesetting. Phototypesetting machines no longer cast metal types, and instead projected characters onto film. Computers and other word-processing systems were also used from the 1970s.

For the printing industry, the aforementioned transition meant a major upgrade in printing equipment and machinery, and therefore major investments. For the workers, it meant learning new things and a change in work processes. The transition also brought with it new professional titles, including phototypesetter operator, compositor and text creator.

People working in the printing industry have always exhibited exceptional professional pride, and they have also stood out from the rest of the working population. Printing was considered a valuable skill that required both intellectual and artistic talent. Printing industry workers have also been pioneers in professional organisation.