Inventing the printing press was more difficult than it seems at first. In addition to the idea of unsing movable type significant development of the correct alloys for the types was necessary. The alloy needs to be able to be cast easily and at the same time be durable to be reused for a large enough number of print runs.
In addition the proper ink needs to be developed...
Fun fact: printing rates increased from about 120 sheets/hour to over 1 million over the course of the 19th century. Those began with wooden screw presses that differed little from Gutenberg's to cast iron, rotary, steam and later electric powered, and web (continuous paper feed) presses, and from matrix plates (with individual type set in blocks) to offset Linotype (in which the entire print block was cast as a single sheet through multiple stages from the original matrix characters).
Thought just occurs: the falling characters of the iconic Matrix screen somewhat resemble the individual type elements flowing and falling through a Linotype machine. I don't know if that is a deliberate or incidental reference, but it's an interesting one.
Right, let me amend my statement: I understand how the printing press with movable type works and I would be able to explain it to King Arthur, but I probably wouldn't be able to actually craft the types, inks, etc, and so the annoyed King would have me beheaded.
