Printer's Devil
<h2>Derivation</h2>
<p>The origin of <i>printer's devil</i> is not definitively known. Various competing theories of the phrase's origin follow.
<i>Printer's devil</i> has been ascribed to parts of printer's apprentices' skin inevitably being stained black by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink" title="Ink">ink</a> used in printing. <b>As black was associated with the "black arts"</b>, the apprentice came to be called a devil.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" >[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a></i>]</sup>
Another origin is linked to the fanciful belief among printers that a special devil (see the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Typographical_personification&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Typographical personification (page does not exist)">typographical personification</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titivillus" title="Titivillus">Titivillus</a>) haunted every print shop, performing mischief such as inverting type, misspelling words and removing entire lines of completed type.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" >[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a></i>]</sup> The apprentice became a substitute source of blame and came to be called a <i>printer's devil</i> by association.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" >[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a></i>]</sup>
A third source involves a business partner of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gutenberg" class="mw-redirect" title="Johann Gutenberg">Johann Gutenberg</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Fust" title="Johann Fust">Johann Fust</a>, who sold several of Gutenberg's bibles to King <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XI_of_France" title="Louis XI of France">Louis XI of France</a> and his court officials, representing the bibles as hand-copied manuscripts.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" >[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a></i>]</sup> When it was discovered that individual letters were identical in appearance, Fust was accused of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft" title="Witchcraft">witchcraft</a> – the red ink text was said to have been written in blood, and Fust was imprisoned.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" >[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a></i>]</sup> Though Fust was later freed after the bibles' origins were revealed, many still believed he was in league with Satan, thus the phrase.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" >[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a></i>]</sup></p>