Introduction:

this article makes a sociohistorical approach to the contributions of the printing press of the National Library of Colombia to the literacy processes in the first half of the 20th century in the country.

Objective:

the role played by the Printing Office of the National Library of Colombia in the national Campaign against illiteracy led by the Ministry of National Education during 19301960 is examined.

Materials and methods:

methodologically, a typographic, iconographic and material analysis was carried out on a collection of publications that were found from the collection of 28 printing cliches, found in the basement of the Library in 2015.

Results:

the cliches were a tool of reproducibility and repetition, becoming a prototype and archetype of Modernity and mechanization. Likewise, the understanding of printing plates, as complex sociomaterial phenomena, implies a perspective that transcends the fixation for the technical objectuality of the printing trade and broadens its interpretation as a result of human and institutional efforts.

Conclusions:

the printing techniques and the transformation and innovation procedures had an impact on the printed culture, configuring a technical system that privileged literacy. In this way, the contributions of graphic arts to the development of literacy publishing projects led by the State-instructor throughout the study period should be thought in a relational way.

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