感謝您， 以跑步支持保育！ Thank you for funding us as you run!

由全城街馬主辦的太陽國際金融集團香港街馬@中環2015 ，於9月6日舉行， 超過8000多人為公益而跑。長春社文化古蹟資源中心為活動受惠機構之一，特意聯同傳統印刷店光華印務，以傳統活字印刷術結合電板製作，印製別具意義的感謝卡。CACHe 誠邀你欣賞短片，了解背後的製作過程，並再次多謝跑手與善長的支持！

SUNIFG HONG KONG STREETATHON@central 2015 was held by RunOurCity on 6 September 2015. Over 8,000 participants of different backgrounds ran for charity. CACHe, as one of the beneficiaries, has prepared a special souvenirs to acknowledge the support by our donors. The CACHe x Kwong Wah Printing Co. Thank You Card is a creative combination of letterpress printing technique and the use of metal type pieces. See how it works in this video, and again, thank you for your generosity in supporting the work for cultural heritage conservation!

活字印刷

活字印刷為北宋慶曆年間（1041-1048)畢昇所發明，當時以泥為活字原料。四百年後，德國人古騰堡發明以鉛製的字粒活字印刷，這種技術沿用了幾百年。

活字印刷機器由倫敦傳道會傳教士理雅各博士傳入香港，香港首份中文報紙《遐邇貫珍》亦是以這些機器印製的。往後香港多份報紙在中上環一帶成立，其他與活字印刷行業有關的鑄字廠、油墨商店、紙店及電版廠等亦紛紛成立。

雖然活字印刷在當時來說比雕版印刷方便，但實際上每篇文章或報版的印製均需要排字工（執字員）將不同字粒從字模架拿出來排版，如一篇短短五百字的文章，便需｢執」出五百顆字粒來排版，可謂「粒粒皆辛苦」！故在報章發現錯字並不出奇，甚至有時整個字倒轉的情況也有。因排字工不斷接觸油墨及鋁字粒的關係，這行業更打趣地有「黑手黨」的別稱。

至上世紀五十年代，因製造業及出口貿易不斷增長，形形式式的印刷品（紙盒、包裝用紙、說明書)需求也因而大增。二戰結束後，不少具經驗的上海廠商遷港，推動本港印刷業的發展。七十年代中後期，隨著柯式印刷技術的普及，活字印刷在香港步入黃昏期。1990年，«華僑日報»的排字部亦宣告結束，鑄字廠亦相繼結業。

今天香港，只得寥寥數間印刷廠仍有活字印刷的設備，主要印製一些單據及簡單的單張，未來數年間，活字印刷相信會成為歷史陳跡。

Letterpress Printing

The history of letterpress printing traced as early as the Northern Song Dynasty when the early movable type, made of clay, was invented by Bi Sheng between 1041 and 1048. Four hundred years later, German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg developed the first metal movable type system, which would be in use for the following centuries.

The movable type printing press was brought to Hong Kong by Dr James Legge of the London Missionary Society. Chinese Serial, the city’s first Chinese newspaper, was also printed by those machines. Since then, a number of newspaper companies were set up around Central and Sheung Wan. Businesses related to the printing industry – type foundries, ink and paper shops, and electrotype factories – also emerged in the city.

Although letterpress printing was more convenient to use than woodblock printing, it still required the typesetter to select and arrange individual types manually. For a 500-word article, for instance, the typesetter had to pick up 500 types one by one, making every single type “the result of toil”. Therefore, it was not uncommon to spot misspellings – and even backward spellings – in the newspaper. Since typesetters had to use ink and aluminium types all the time, they gained a facetious nickname of “black-hand mafia”.

As Hong Kong’s manufacturing industry and export trade began to expand in the 1950s, the demand for various printed materials (such as cartons, packages and user’s manuals) increased. In addition, a number of experienced industrialists relocated from Shanghai to Hong Kong after the Second World War, enhancing the development of the city’s printing sector. In the second half of the 1970s, however, the prevalence of offset printing turned letterpress printing into a sunset industry. In 1990, the typesetting department of Overseas Chinese Daily News shut down; local type foundries also started to fold one after another.