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Preface to the Diamond Sutra woodblock handscroll, British Library, London.

The oldest printed book in existance is a copy of the Diamond Sutra dated 868. the text was carved on several wooden blocks, the picture on one. It was the Chinese Buddhists wwho took the momentus step of using wooden type-blocks to duplicate sacred texts.  Originally invented to reproduce pictures or short texts, they were already being used to print whole books by the 9th century.  The image of Buddha preaching most likely is a reproduction of an original drawing in brush and ink executed in the slender even-width lines that the Chinese likened to iron wire.  Although only one copy survives the edition of the sutra must have been quite large, for postscripts at the end of the 18 ft long scroll tells us that the project was undertaken at the expense of one Wang Jie, “for universal free distribution.”