Odisha Printing Museum

The heritage and history of printing in Odisha is very old. Starting from hand-composing (letter press printing), the printing industry has kept pace with developement in technologies and has now been completely computerised. The role and effort of Odisha Government Press for development of printing technology in Odisha is remarkable. The Odisha Government Press has taken steps to preserve the heritage of printing for the next generation with an intention to create awareness on evolution and development of printing technology among general public. Keeping this aspect in view, Government Press has established the “Odisha Printing Museum” with important collections of old and ancient printing and allied machineries used in different points of time in the State of Odisha. About 50 old and ancient machineries have been preserved and displayed in 09 galleries in an area of 10,000 Sq.ft. depicting the chronoligical development of Printing Technology. The Museum was inaugurated by Hon’ble Chief Minister, Odisha on 21st August, 2014.

The Printing Museum is located within the premises of Odisha Govt. Press at Cuttack. Almost all kinds of printing and allied machineries including some machines used by ex-rullers of pre-independence period are displayed in the museum. The printing machines used by the then King of Bolangir, Shri Dalaganjan Dev during 1913 and the King of Keonjhar, Shri Dhananjaya Narayan Bhanja during 1934 are the centre of attraction. The said Museum remains open on all govt. working days from 10.30 A.M. to 4.00 P.M.

The collection:

The Museum displays printing machineries and equipments in different galleries with brief information/citation as under:

Composing Gallery:

The composing gallery display the collection of both Odia and English metal types/type cases and the process of hand composing. Besides, one Mono-type metal casting machine and one hand proof pulling machcine have been displayed. Other small allied items used for hand composing are also in display.

Letter Press Printing Gallery:

A variety of Letter Press printing machineries collected from different Branches of Odisha Government Press including machineries used by ex-rullers prior to independence have been displayed here. The mechineries include hand press proof pulling machine to automatic rotary cylinder-type letter press printing machines of different makes and models.

Pre-Press Gallery:

The Pre-Press gallery displays machines which were being used prior to printing (preparation of image carriers like, letter press blocks, negatives, positives, offset plates, etc.) starting from process camera to Offset Plate Making machines. The gallery is again divided into three sections on the basis of their uses i.e. ‘Camera Section’, Block Making Section’ and ‘Offset Plate Making’ Sections.

Offset Printing Gallery:

Offset printing technology is one of the most developing printing technique used for paper printing and is in use at present. Some first edition sheet-fed offset printing machine and allied items used in offset printing are displayed to project a basic idea about offset printing technique.

Binding Gallery:

A variety of post printing and binding machineries are displayed in this gallery.

Workshop Gallery:

A variety of machines of mechanical workshop are displayed here which are used for sharpening the cutting knives preparation and repairing of different spares of printing and allied machineries.

Office Machineries & Equipment Gallery:

The Office Machineries & Equipment gallery displays different make and model of Typewriting Machines (manual to electronic),Duplicator Machines etc.

Modern Development Gallery:

This gallery displays one model of mult-colour sheet-fed offset printing machine of Heidelberg make which high-lights the concept of modern printing system. A multi colour (4 -colour) sheet can be printed in one pass. Similarly, one film Image Setter is also displayed where in the scanned individual film copies of yellow, magenta, cyan & black can be brought out for printing of multi-colour jobs. Some posters of high-speed modern sophisticated web-offset printing machines have been displayed showing different unit-wise configurations.