His father, a cook at the Zwettl monastery, destined him for the clerical career, and with this view Anton received a collegiate education at the Abbey.

With the help of his brother-in-law, the master baker M. Wagner, he succeeded in getting his enterprise off the ground, but when he applied for a privilege, the Viennese book printers tried to prevent the granting of a new right and Schmid was rejected.

[3] In 1800, the government prohibited the import of Hebrew books,[1] to the great advantage of Schmid, who without hindrance reprinted the works issued by Wolf Heidenheim in Rödelheim.

[3][4] By 1816, he had presented to the Imperial Library eighty-six works comprising 200 volumes; and his great merit was acknowledged by a gold medal from the emperor on 12 December 1816.

[3][5] He then enlarged his establishment, printing Arabic, Persian, and Syriac books also, and upon the donation of 17 new Oriental works in 44 volumes to the court library he received the noble title Edler von.

[1] He published a large number of Maskilic literature,[4] including the Hebrew Bible with German translation and the commentary of the Biurists, the Hebrew periodical Bikkure ha-'Ittim, and the works of Maskilim Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev, Meïr Obernik, Samuel Detmold [Wikidata], Hermann Engländer [Wikidata], and Meïr Letteris.