In 1769, the factor (master) of the Darmstädter Hof- und Kanzleibuchdruckerei, Johannes Schirmer, and his stepson Johann Gerhard were granted the privilege of setting up an office in Wiesbaden. On three presses, Schirmer and around ten men printed religious and school books such as Bibles, Gospels, Psalters, catechisms, hymn and prayer books, edification pamphlets and tracts, ABC and reading books as well as court and government publications. They were also allowed to print and distribute the "Teutscher Michel" calendar, which was once widely distributed throughout Germany. In addition, from 1770, the weekly paper was the first periodical publication in the country. In 1790, Schirmer and Gerhard were forced to downsize the business. Schirmer's main business was the increasingly popular occasional printed matter for engagements, weddings, christenings, deaths and similar occasions. In 1781, Schirmer's print shop was transferred with all its privileges to Johann Heinrich Frey from Igstadt.

At the time of the foundation of the Duchy of Nassau (1806), there were four other printers besides Frey in the entire state. The bureaucracy also grew with the expansion of the country, which as a duchy now had around 270,000 inhabitants in an area of approx. 5,520 km2. The decrees and instructions to the 49 offices and 1,150 municipalities could no longer be managed with the quill pen and the capacity of the Frey book printing works. The court bookseller Ludwig Schellenberg was granted the privilege of setting up Wiesbaden's second printing works. Frey was awarded the prestigious title of "court book printer".

Schellenberg's print shop, which moved into a town house in Langgasse, where the Pressehaus is located today, was Nassau's largest print shop from the very beginning, with three and soon four presses. Numerous forms had to be printed for the public authorities, which were needed by the bailiffs and Schultheiss to deal with the bureaucracy. For the compulsory military service introduced in 1808 alone, lists had to be printed for the registration of conscripts in the municipalities, the office-by-office summary, the muster rolls, the master rolls and finally the registration forms for deserters. The tax reform introduced in 1809 caused a huge consumption of forms. In 1819, the widow Frey sold the print shop to Ernst Enders, and Schellenberg successfully claimed the title of Hofbuchdruckerei for himself on this occasion.

New start-ups now followed in quick succession. The introduction of freedom of trade (1819) made it much easier to get started. Another printer, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Frank, established himself in Wiesbaden as early as 1819, but his business died out just one year later. From 1826, L. Riedel's print shop can be found in Wiesbaden and in 1833 the innkeeper Andreas Stein opened another one. This was followed in 1839 by the paper wholesaler Anton Scholz and in 1844 by P. J. Knefeli, who moved his print shop from Biebrich to Wiesbaden. In 1847, Carl Ritter, the son of the bookseller Heinrich Ritter, founded a print shop. Also in 1847, Wilhelm Friedrich moved his print shop from Siegen to Wiesbaden. By 1863, there were six print shops.

From the 1830s, more powerful iron presses replaced the wooden ones in Wiesbaden too. However, it was not until 1843 that modern times arrived in the Wiesbaden printing works with the acquisition of printing presses, also known as high-speed presses. High-speed presses had already been invented in 1814. What had been state of the art in Great Britain for half a century had its premiere in the Duchy of Nassau with the installation of a steam locomotive to operate printing presses in Wiesbaden in 1864/65. The Schellenberg'sche Hofbuchdruckerei was the pioneer in the introduction of all printing innovations in Wiesbaden.

The invention of the picture postcard around 1875 opened up new profit opportunities for printers. One of the companies that profited from the production of local views using the lithographic printing process was that of Rudolf Bechtold from Cologne, which existed until 1976. The Petmecky brothers' book and lithographic printing business was also an important printing company. The business was located on Luisenplatz until its closure in 1964. The Petmecky brothers produced advertisements, business books of all kinds, address and business cards, wine labels, etc. and were awarded the title of purveyors to the court in the mid-1870s. Until the outbreak of the First World War, Carl Schnegelberger's main source of income was the printing of the Wiesbaden address book. The later Wiesbaden spa director Hermann Rauch also ran a print shop.

Today, the address book lists over 30 printing companies, although only a few of these are still traditional businesses.