There are different views on whether printing in the West is influenced by Chinese printing or not. If there is a connection between Chinese printing and European printing, the Mongol conquests played a key role in the spread of the printing to the west. Between the 13th century and 14th century, with the military expansion of Mongolian, the diplomatic relationship was established between Europe and Mongol. Popes from Europe appointed the missionaries to China. They devoted to missionary work such as translating the Bible and providing hand-copied religious pictures in China. The printing of Buddhist images was already common in China before the time. It is believed that printing was probably spread to Europe by the missionaries, as they may have reproduced related materials by this convenient method in China before. This may explain why some religious prints and block books emerged in Europe in the early 14th century.

Before the 15th century, there were different kinds of woodblock-printed matter such as card games and religious prints, while card games were one of the earliest prints emerged in Europe. This could be caused by the influence on the popularization of the card games in China since the 9th century and then Mongol armies, merchants and travellers probably brought the playing cards to Europe in the early 14th century.