The history of the Government of India Presses dates way back to the year 1862
when the Government had established a Central Printing Office at Calcutta and later
added one more Unit at Shimla (1872) and also at Rashtrapati Bhawan in 1872 (originally
established at Calcutta as Press to the Private Secretary to the  Viceroy). The
Directorate of Printing had six printing Presses in pre-independence period. With
the manifold increase in Government activities, since it became difficult to cope with
the printing needs of the Government of India, the number of printing presses
 were increased all over the country.

Today, the Directorate of Printing has 16 Government of India Presses including
three Text Book Presses set up with the gifted machinery / equipment of the then
Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). It is basically a service Department running
on “No Profit No Loss” basis and is dependent largely on jobs from various
Ministries / Departments of the Government.