Introduction: Rethinking Colonial Print through Practices.

This article examines how colonialism shaped diverse print cultures by analyzing the social and material dimensions of print—its production practices, communities, networks, and technologies—across various geographic and temporal contexts. Challenging Eurocentric and teleological narratives, it highlights the agency of colonial and postcolonial actors, the coexistence of precolonial communication forms with printing technologies, and the uneven temporal and regional trajectories of print development. The contributors emphasize the importance of materiality and everyday practices in understanding print's political, economic, and cultural roles, revealing transimperial connections and the complex interplay between colonial control and local negotiation. By situating print histories within comparative social analysis rather than solely intellectual or cultural history, the collection broadens perspectives on how print functioned as a contested medium in colonial and postcolonial worlds.