Education and Printing: Textbooks, Booklets and the Literacy Revolution

A textbook is, in production terms, exactly the same object as a booklet we print for a business or a school event: pages, bound together, printed in a run sized to the people who'll use it. Education is one of the oldest reasons that format has existed at all.

Before Mass Schooling

Early educational print was minimal by necessity: hornbooks (a single printed sheet of letters, numbers and prayers) and simple primers were often a child's only printed material. Structured educational publishing began properly with figures like Comenius, whose 1658 Orbis Sensualium Pictus is credited as the first picture textbook, and expanded through the 18th century as booksellers like John Newbery realised there was a commercial market in books made for learning rather than just for adults.

The Victorian Literacy Revolution

England's Forster Education Act of 1870 helped drive one of the fastest literacy shifts in British history: male literacy rose from around 69% in 1851 to over 97% by 1900, with female literacy following a near-identical curve. Mass schooling needed mass printed material to match — textbooks, workbooks and exam papers at a scale nothing before it had required, and new book titles published in Britain rose roughly sixtyfold between 1750 and the end of the 19th century.

What Hasn't Changed: The Format

Strip away the subject matter and a textbook, a workbook and an exam paper are booklets — the same wiro-bound, perfect-bound or stapled formats used for manuals, brochures and reports today. What's changed since the 19th century is who's printing them and in what quantity: mass national print runs have given way to short, specific runs for a single school, club or course.

Where This Shows Up in What We Print

We print booklets in exactly these formats for businesses, clubs and community groups — see our booklet printing range for wiro-bound, perfect-bound and stapled options. If it's for a school or university group specifically, our school & university printing hub covers clothing and event material for the same audience.

Frequently asked questions

What was the first textbook designed for children?

Comenius's Orbis Sensualium Pictus, published in 1658, is credited as the first illustrated textbook made specifically for children's learning.

How much did literacy improve after the Forster Education Act?

Male literacy rose from around 69% in 1851 to over 97% by 1900, with female literacy rising at a near-identical rate over the same period.

Is a textbook printed the same way as a business booklet?

In physical format, yes — both are typically wiro-bound, perfect-bound or stapled booklets, differing only in content and print run size.

The Hornbook: A Lesson You Could Carry

The hornbook is worth a closer look because it was a clever piece of print engineering. A paddle of wood (other materials were used too) carried a lesson sheet, first on vellum and later on paper, protected by a thin sheet of translucent horn held down with narrow brass strips. A hole in the handle let a child hang it from a cord. The sheet typically showed a cross, the alphabet, a table of simple syllables and a prayer. Hornbooks were common in England from the mid-15th century and gave way, over the following centuries, to battledore books and eventually cardboard ABC books. The design problem was the one printers still face: how do you make a small piece of printed material survive handling by many sticky hands?

How the Law Pulled Children Into Classrooms

Print supplied the lessons, but legislation supplied the pupils. In England and Wales the Elementary Education Act 1870 created local school boards in areas where there were not enough school places, and let them make attendance compulsory by by-law. Compulsion became general in 1880, when attendance was required up to the age of 10. In 1891 elementary schooling became free. The school leaving age then rose in steps: to 12 in 1899, 14 in 1918, 15 in 1947 and 16 in 1972.

Each step meant a larger captive audience for printed material, and each step lengthened the time a young person spent in school-issued clothing and kit.

The Oldest Printed Uniform Story: Blue Coats

Uniforms and print grew up in the same classrooms. Christ's Hospital is believed to have been the first English school to use a uniform, in 1552, with a long blue coat and yellow socks that the school still recognises today. Uniform spread through charity schools, partly so that pupils from poor families were clothed alike. The modern descendant of that idea is a set of printed items: school sweatshirts, PE tops, house-colour shirts, leavers' hoodies and trip T-shirts.

A useful point from the current rules: in England and Wales a state school may not permanently exclude a pupil purely for breaking its uniform policy. Pupils are asked to go home and change instead. That matters to anyone designing printed school clothing, because a design that clashes with a school's policy simply will not be worn.

Printed Clothing and Stationery in Education Today

Schools, colleges and student societies still run on printed material. The practical list looks like this:

• Leavers' hoodies and T-shirts, usually with a printed list of names or a year group slogan on the back.
• Sports day, house and trip shirts that make a group easy to spot in a crowd.
• Course booklets, programmes, order-of-play sheets and event tickets for plays and concerts.
• Posters and banners for open days, fairs and fundraisers.
• Clubs and societies wanting a matching top, with a shared logo and individual names.

If you are organising a year group or club, the printing guidance in our school T-shirt printing guide goes into the practical detail, and the group order guide covers collecting names and sizes without chaos.

Planning a Leavers' or Class Order

Most problems with group clothing come from planning, not printing. A sensible sequence:

1. Agree one design with whoever is in charge, and get that sign-off in writing before anyone pays.

2. Decide who is collecting names, sizes and any back-print wording, and set a single cut-off date.

3. Check spellings of names twice. A misspelt name is the most common and most upsetting error on a leavers' garment.

4. Remember that adults and children are measured differently. Children's sizes do not map neatly onto adult small, so check each size chart carefully rather than guessing.

5. Ask for a proof and show it to the group before approving. Proofs are shown before printing, so use that step properly.

6. Give your deadline when you request a quote, and order early. Leavers' events and end-of-term dates do not move, and printing queues tend to be busier around them.

Because there is no minimum order, a small class or a single club committee can order exactly what it needs. If a discount applies to your order, it applies on 5 or more items, so the exact number of garments is worth deciding before you ask for a quote.

What Makes a Good Educational Booklet

The format has not changed since the Victorian schoolroom, but the choices still matter. For a school, club or training course:

• Stapled suits short booklets of a few pages, such as a concert programme or a revision guide.
• Wiro-bound lies flat, which is why it suits workbooks, lab notes and anything a pupil writes in.
• Perfect-bound gives a spine you can print a title on and suits longer reference material.
• Leave a generous margin on the binding edge. Text pushed into a stapled or glued spine is hard to read.
• Use a clear type size for younger readers. The wider question of readable print is covered in our history of disability and printing.

Our business stationery and publications page describes the booklet and stationery formats on offer.

Questions People Ask About School Print

Does a school or club need to order all sizes at once?

It is far easier if you do. Collect every size in one list, then request one quote covering the whole group, rather than topping up piece by piece.

Can we print a different name on each shirt?

Names and numbers are common on sports and leavers' clothing. Send the list in a spreadsheet or clear message, spelt exactly as it should appear, and check the proof carefully.

Is a hornbook really a type of book?

It is a printed lesson mounted on a protective board, so it sits halfway between a book and a sign. Historians treat it as an early educational print product.