Printing before the invention of the Gutenberg printing press was a long, expensive process.
Before the printing press was invented, writings were produced by hand. Generally, the ones in charge of producing these texts were the scribes, the professional copyists who lived in monasteries. Moreover, it used to take the scribes several months to complete their jobs.
Different expensive materials, such as papyrus, clay, wax, and parchment, were used to transcribe law books, tragedies, and works related to philosophy. For that reason, books were sold at a very high price; therefore, few people had access to them. Gutenberg's invention allowed more people to access knowledge since the printing press became a less costly and faster method to reproduce texts.