Before many years passed, Greek books—mostly classical editions, grammars, and religious publications—began to be printed throughout Western Europe in Paris, the University of Alcala in Spain (1514), Basel in Switzerland (1516), England (1543) and elsewhere. Some of these publications came from the hands of alienated Greeks. Nikolaos Glykys, Nikolaos Saros and Dimitrios Theodosiou were also alienated Greeks, who printed Greek books in Venice for two centuries (1650–1850).

In Turkish-occupied Greece, the first Greek printing press operated in 1627 in Constantinople under the care of Patriarch Kirillos Lukari, who tried in this way to deal with the influx of papal propaganda publications. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Greek books were printed all over the Balkans (Moldavia, Iasi, Moschopolis, Kydonias, etc.), as well as in German-speaking places (Vienna, Leipzig, etc.). Thus printing played a very important role in spreading the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment among the Greeks and a little later in spreading the Revolution of 1821.

During the Revolution of 1821, some printing presses were set up by Greek revolutionaries with the help of Philhellenes. One of these Philhellenes was the French student of Korai, Ambroise-Firmin Didot (French, 1790–1876), who donated to revolutionary Greece a complete printing press. The family of Greek elements designed by Fermin Didot (French, 1764–1836), father of Ambrose-Firmin, was used for two centuries and is still known as the simples.

Before the independent Greek state was even created, the revolutionary Greeks created the "Administrative Printing Press", a printing press for the needs of the administration. After several moves and name changes, in 1862 this printing house was named "National Printing House". The Government Gazette and other state publications are still printed at the National Printing Office.

Immediately after the declaration of independence of Greece, the first privately owned printing houses appeared in Greece. Quickly the Greek printing houses, and especially the Athenian ones, began to develop greatly. Some of them, such as the "O Kadmos" Printing Office of Constantinos Tombras and Constantinos Ioannidis in Nafplion (1829–1879), the printing office of Andreas Koromilas in Aegina and Athens (1834–1884) and the printing office of Konstantinos Garbolas in Athens ( 1838–1844) left an era. During the 20th century, large printing and publishing houses were created in Athens, some of which developed into industrial units with numerous staff (such as, for example, the printing house of the Lambrakis Group).

In the 1980s, the manual as well as mechanical typography began to be abandoned in Greece. The beginning was made in 1980 by daily newspapers that left linotype for photosynthesis. Within a few years, hand typesetting and monotype were also abandoned, to be replaced by desktop typography. The rapid invasion of electronic printing resulted in the disappearance of the centuries-old tradition of the aesthetics of the Greek book.