The first printed books looked very much like the manuscript books of earlier times. The printers modeled their type on handwriting, and even
added decorations by hand.The Diamond Sutra, which is a Buddhist prayer on a scroll, made in China, is thought to be the oldest complete printed book. It was printed with woodblocks, and looks very much like a Chinese manuscript scroll. The world’s first printed Bible is the Gutenberg Bible, which has 42 lines of text on a page. Gutenberg wanted his printed Bible to look just like a manuscript Bible, and modelled his type on German script. The decorations around the margins and the headings at the top of the page were done by hand after the book was printed and before it was bound.
