Prints Facts 11: The world’s smallest printed book is a 22 page Japanese book containing pictures of flowers of the four seasons and it holds a Guinness World Book of Records entry. The book, titled “Shiki no Kusabana” (flowers of seasons) was printed in 2013 and it’s on display at its Printing Museum in Tokyo. It may be a fast read, but we don’t advise you doing so without a magnifying glass–unless you want to strain your eyes–because this is no ordinary book; its pages are only 0.74 x 0.75 mm (0.0291 x 0.0295 in). The Japan Printer, Toppan is one of Japan’s largest printers and has been printing micro-books since the 1960s but this is the smallest book so far.
Prints Facts 12: The largest initial print run for a fiction book is J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Books. When J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books were published, they became more than just fiction–the franchise’s influence stretched beyond the literary realm and quickly became a pop-culture phenomenon. Its popularity is also evidenced by the number of print copies for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in July 2007. The book had an initial print run of 12 million copies, making it the largest initial print run ever.
Prints Facts 13: If you think most publishing houses like Random House and Penguin Group, have only been around for a couple of hundred years, think again. Cambridge University Press, is the oldest printing and publishing house. It has been around since 1537 and it was started with the money from a royal charter granted by the infamous Henry VIII in 1534. It’s been operating non-stop since the first Press book was printed in 1584, publishing over 2,000 books and 150 journals a year across 200 countries around the globe.
Prints Facts 14: Unfortunately, printers don’t just create information that helps us in our everyday lives; they create environmental waste as well known as the World’s most waste. For example, did you know if the world’s discarded printer cartridges were stacked end-to-end in one year’s time, they would circle the earth over three times?
Prints Facts 15: The retail cost of black printer ink is one of the most expensive liquids on the planet, far exceeding oil and even space shuttle fuel (on a per gallon basis). No matter the price of your printer itself, the printer’s ink always costs far more, and the manufacturer for each printer and its corresponding ink is the same. It costs over $2,700 per gallon.