Leonardo da Vinci designed a printing press concept using movable metal letters.
His notes and drawings show interest in improving the efficiency and regularity of printing. A press with movable type could arrange individual letters into lines, apply ink, and transfer text to paper under pressure.
The invention of the movable-type printing press is credited to Johannes Gutenberg in Europe during the fifteenth century, before Leonardo’s mature engineering work. Leonardo’s design therefore represents a proposed improvement or variation, not the original invention of printing with movable type.
This distinction prevents a common mix-up: Leonardo was an inventive designer of printing machinery, but Gutenberg is the name associated with the transformative European printing breakthrough.