I've taken most of this information from various articles on Wikipedia so it's not an accademicly referenced essay, merely a quick whistlestop tour for my own benefit.
The rolling of cylinder seals onto clay tablets began in Mesopotania c3000BC but woodblock printing with a strong buddhist connection, on cloth and paper, appears to have come from China in the 3rd or 2nd centuries BC. The earliest woodblock printed fragments of silk, depicting images of flowers, date from before AD220.
In Europe woodblock printing developed several centiries later than Asia. It is unclear if Egyptian printing of cloth was learned from China or elsewhere or developed separately but by the 9th and 10th centuries Arabic Egypt was printing muslim prayers. Europe adopted woodblock printing from the Muslim world initially for printing decorative designs on fabric.
It seems that the development of moveable type in China in the 11th century, initially using type baked in clay and metal moveable type invented in Korea in the 13th century, led to woodblock printing of text being discontinued in Islamic Central Asia.In India woodblock was always mainly used for printing decorative textiles.
In Japan woodblock printing of Buddhist texts dates from 764AD to 770AD and moveable type was only introduced from Korea in the 1500's so there is a body of work and a strong tradition of woodblock printing in Japan.
As a method of reproducing text, wood block printing was overtaken by moveable type and printing presses, although in 15th century Europe illustrated woodblock books were printed as a cheaper alternative to moveable type.
The greatest artist of the northern Renaissance, Albrecht Durer (1471 to 1528) revolutionised the potential of the medium with his wood cuts such as The Four Horsemen (shown).
It is also worth mentioning that woodblock printing of French wall paper became famous at the end of the 18th century.
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