The Han emperor in China has the six main Confucian classics engraved in stone, so that scholars may take rubbings - a first step towards printing

The empress of Japan, in a remarkable start to the story of printing, commissions a million copies of a Buddhist charm

The world's first known printed book, a Diamond Sutra, is commissioned by a Buddhist monk in honour of his parents

The Diamand Sutra has as a frontispiece a printed woodcut depicting an enthroned Buddha

The concept of movable type for printing is pioneered in China, using fired clay, but it proves impractical

Koreans establish the first type foundry, casting movable type in bronze

Packs of tarot playing cards are among the most popular products of Europe's first printing presses

Master ES becomes the first artist to produce engravings

A copy of Europe's first book printed from movable type, the Gutenberg Bible, is completed in Mainz

Albrecht Pfister publishes the first book with printed illustrations - Der Ackermann aus Böhmen ('The farmer of Bohemia')

The first Italian printing press is set up in Venice, which soon rivals Germany for the quality of its printing

Caxton establishes the first English printing press in London, after working in the new trade in Bruges

Ptolemy's concept of the world, with the Atlantic stretching to China and India, is printed in Bologna – fifteen years before Columbus sails west

The world's first globe is published by Martin Behaim without showing America, in the very year of Columbus' voyage

The Nuremberg Chronicle integrates text and pictures in an ambitious history of the world

Dürer, the first great artist to tackle the complexities of printing, becomes a master of woodcut and engraving

The type faces known as roman and italic are created in Venice by the printers Nicolas Jenson and Aldus Manutius

The first etchings are printed in Augsburg, from iron plates

Europe's new printing presses make possible the first pamphlet war, spreading instant arguments for and against the Reformation

German botanist Otto Brunfels publishes Living images of plants, the first serious work of natural history with printed illustrations

A book to teach good handwriting is published by Gianfrancesco Cresci, with examples engraved on copper plates

Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator publishes a map of the world, using the projection now known by his name

A year after Mercator's death, his son publishes a bound collection of his maps with the title Atlas, or Cosmographic Meditations

The first book published in England's American colonies is Bay Psalm Book, a revised translation of the psalms

Rembrandt creates an etching so desirable that it becomes known as the Hundred Guilder Print