Movable type is the scheme of printing and typography using movable pieces of metal sort, made by casting from matrices struck by letter punches.

Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg introduced what is regarded as an independent invention of changeable type in Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a environment along with hand mould. Gutenberg was the foremost to create his type pieces from an alloy of go in front, tin and antimony – the same apparatus still worn today.

Compared to slice printing, movable kind page setting was faster and more hard-wearing. The metal kind pieces were more durable and the writing was more uniform, leading to font and fonts. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the advantage of changeable type, and printing presses rapidly spread across Europe, most vital up to the Renaissance, and later on all around the earth. Today, nearly all changeable type printing ultimately derives from Gutenberg's changeable type printing, which is often regarded as the most central device of the second millennium.