Class 10 Social Science — Chapter 5: Print Culture and the Modern World

What you'll learn

• ▸Early Print Technology in East Asia
• ▸Diversification of Print Culture
• ▸The Arrival of Print in Europe
• ▸Limitations of Manuscripts and Growing Demand for Books
• ▸Johann Gutenberg and the Printing Press

Chapter Summary

--- PAGE 1 --- SECTION III EVERYDAY LIFE, CULTURE AND POLITICS © NCERT not to be republished Reprint 2025-26 --- PAGE 2 --- © NCERT not to be republished Reprint 2025-26 --- PAGE 3 --- Print Culture and the Modern World 1066CH05 It is difficult for us to imagine a world without printed matter. We find evidence of print everywhere around us – in books, journals, newspapers, prints of famous paintings, and also in everyday things like theatre programmes, official circulars, calendars, diaries, advertisements, cinema posters at street corners. We read printed literature, see printed images, follow the news through newspapers, and track public debates that appear in print. We take for granted this world of print and often forget that there was a time before print. We may not realise that print itself has a history which has, in fact, shaped our contemporary world. What is this history…

Practice Questions from this Chapter

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1. Explain woodblock printing simply. Get Solution →
2. Describe ancient Chinese paper making. Get Solution →
3. Compare reading culture then and now. Get Solution →
4. In which countries was the earliest kind of print technology developed? Get Solution →
5. Who developed the first-known printing press in Europe? Get Solution →
6. What was the first book printed by Gutenberg on his new press? Get Solution →
7. According to the text, who introduced hand-printing technology into Japan? Get Solution →
8. What is the name of the oldest Japanese book mentioned in the text, printed in AD 868? Get Solution →

Did you know?

• 💡 Ancient Egyptians wrote on papyrus, a plant that grew only in the Nile River.
• 💡 Before books, ancient texts were often written on long scrolls of animal skin.
• 💡 The Chinese invented paper from tree bark and old fishing nets over 2,000 years ago.
• 💡 Medieval libraries often chained their valuable books to shelves to stop them from being stolen.
• 💡 Early printing presses could produce more books in one day than a scribe could in a year.

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