An International Typographical Congress was held in Paris in July 1889, and this led to a determination to form a permanent organisation.

This was established in Bern in 1892, as the International Printers' Secretariat.

It held further congresses in Geneva in 1896, Lucerne in 1901, Paris in 1907, and Stuttgart in 1912.

[1] In 1939, the federation agreed to merge with the Lithographers' International and the International Federation of Bookbinders and Kindred Trades.

[2] However, due to World War II, no progress was made until 1946, when the British Printing and Kindred Trades Federation established a committee which drafted a constitution for a merged organisation.