The printing press was a major invention created during the Italian Renaissance. The printing press was created in 1440 CE by Johannes Gutenberg. It made it much faster to print books because before the printing press was invented they had to be written by hand by scribes, which were people who wrote books by hand. The printing press also made it so books could be mass produced. 

The printing press highly impacted the world in that it greatly increased literacy rates. It increased literacy rates because the printing press made it so books were more affordable for the low and middle class. Writing books by hand was an extremely long process which is why books became less expensive when the printing press was created. In parts of Europe the percentage of people who were able to read rose from below twenty percent to above fifty percent. Public libraries were created due to the printing press. Civilization became stronger because of the rapid spread of information.   The printing press also highly impacted the world in that it greatly increased the spread of information. The main types of information that the printing press spread are scientific and religious information. Scientists could communicate much more easily about their discoveries due to the printing press. It also made it so scholars could authenticate ancient historical texts. Overall, the impacts of the printing press were very important.