Which best explains why the printing press changed printing so dramatically in the 1440s?
(1 point)
Responses
Multiple copies of the same text could be made simultaneously.
Multiple copies of the same text could be made simultaneously.
As soon as it was created, it became possible to replicate images.
As soon as it was created, it became possible to replicate images.
Printing had been banned in previous eras, but now it was permitted.
Printing had been banned in previous eras, but now it was permitted.
There was no way to copy texts prior to the invention of the printing press.
The best explanation for why the printing press changed printing so dramatically in the 1440s is that "Multiple copies of the same text could be made simultaneously." The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg allowed for the mass production of books and other texts, which was not achievable with the same efficiency before its creation. The key innovation was the use of movable type, which allowed individual letters to be arranged and rearranged quickly to print different pages and texts. This drastically reduced the time and cost of producing books and enabled the wide dissemination of knowledge, contributing to the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution.
The second option listed repeats the first and is also correct, but since they are the same, it's likely just a clerical error in the listing of the options.
The third option, "As soon as it was created, it became possible to replicate images," is also true to an extent—the printing press did allow for the replication of images through woodcuts and engravings. However, this was not the primary revolutionary aspect of the printing press, which was focused more on text reproduction.
The fourth option, "Printing had been banned in previous eras, but now it was permitted," is inaccurate. Printing was not widely banned before the invention of the printing press; rather, it was a labor-intensive process that involved hand-copying texts, which greatly limited the production and distribution of books.
The last option, "There was no way to copy texts prior to the invention of the printing press," is also incorrect. Before the printing press, scribes would manually copy texts, which was a very time-consuming and expensive process. The printing press made it possible to copy texts much more quickly and in much greater quantities.