Activities | Art and Heritage | Graphic arts

Visit to IPT's printing facilities and library

This activity includes the execution of simple experiments with printing equipment designed to bring children into contact with this material, practising some activities such as to compose their names with movable type similar to the work done from the sixteenth century onwards after the invention of the printing press, and its manual printing on a printing press from that era.

The main aim of this activity is to:

• get to know some of the history of the printing press, a Gutenberg's invention, and its importance in mass production of books;
• allow physical contact with lead-based printing materials and hand-operated printing devices;
• make children understand that they were born in the digital era and now everything is within a click’s reach, but things have evolved a lot since the invention of the press;
• encourage them to preserve old documents deposited in libraries and archives as historical legacy that has remained to the present day.

To carry out this activity the kids should bring a gown or plastic apron and sleeve protectors.

Activity instructor: Paula Pinto Pereira (UDADC)