This paper traces the evolution of the meanings that the Egyptian khedivate ascribed to their 19th century written output. At the start of the 19th century, the khedivate largely prized manuscripts for their intellectual content. By the century’s end, manuscripts came to represent artistic vestiges of Egyptian traditionalism. With regard to printing, the khedivate first considered printed texts as mere alternatives to manuscripts. But printing’s valence evolved to represent Egypt’s belonging to western modernity and civilization. European ideas about texts inspired the changes in official thinking about manuscripts and printings. The French invasion of 1798 and the education of handfuls of Egyptian students in Europe exposed Egyptians to the western understanding that printing advanced society. So too did Egyptian encounters with European antiquarians in Egypt, who purchased precious manuscripts for European library and museum collections. I chart how these European attitudes towards texts developed within the Egyptian khedivial milieu. In particular, I investigate the khedivate’s establishment of places to produce and store texts, like Meḥmed ‘Alī’s storerooms to Ismā‘īl’s public library, portraits in which the khedivial family posed with texts, the Egyptian government’s exhibitions of texts in Europe, and the very appearance and content of the texts they produced. I also examine official statements that the khedivate made concerning manuscripts, printings, and how they ought to be arranged, accessed, and appreciated. The late 19th century marked the codification of Egyptian written output. Print became the dominant mode for official writings, and Egyptian governmental printings began to consistently take the aesthetic form of European printings. This phenomenon coincided with the government’s effort to print the Egyptian canon. Because the khedivate’s late 19th century valences for texts accommodated longstanding western valences, this transformation remains overlooked by Egyptian and western historians of 19th century Egypt. Addressing this transformation is important because it impacts all subsequent text based research on 19th century Egypt. What the khedivate chose to print, save, and store, and why they did so, shaped the source base of scholarship on khedivial Egypt.