Another planned church publication, the Book of Commandments — the precursor to the Doctrine and Covenants — drew early persecution. In 1833, a mob broke into William W. Phelps' log home in Independence, Mo., and destroyed the press and most of the printed pages.

Once in Salt Lake City, Mormon pioneers used a preliminary press designed by Salt Lake Temple architect Truman O. Angell to print currency. Later, a Ramage printing press purchased by Phelps and delivered by wagon from Philadelphia was used on June 15, 1850, to print all 220 inaugural copies of the Deseret News, since billed as "The Mountain West's First Newspaper."

Presses remained essentially the same until a rapid-fire succession of improvements in the 1800s — iron frames; rotary, web offset and four-color presses; and type and linotype composing machinery. By 1899, top presses printed and folded 90,000 four-page papers in an hour.

In the 1900s came offset lithography, phototypesetting, teletypesetting, digital production and eventually computerized laser printing.

Now, anyone with a computer, printer and desktop-publishing skills can create a myriad of print and electronic publication possibilities.

Print has helped spawn the next culture: computers.

Chances are the next time you change a font face, size or style or print a document with a mouse click, you won't think of Gutenberg.

But what you're doing in mere seconds is a — pardon the pun — type of his revolutionary work.

E-mail: taylor@desnews.com