Letterpress FAQ

Letterpress is a form of relief printing that transfers images and type using a raised surface on paper, leaving an impression you can see and feel. It was introduced in the West in the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg and movable type - printing from individually cast letters. Letterpress was the primary way of printing until the 19th century when digital type and computers were developed.

Today, there is still a significant movement of letterpress printers, like ourselves, keeping the art of letterpress alive. Digital technology has given us the ability to produce our own designs onto photopolymer plates and the ability to share our work all over the world. But the process of printing is still very much analog and manually powered.

We use letterpress printing to produce our own line of stationery, candles and bath soap labels. We also offer custom letterpress printing for projects that fit our capability.

• Press runs under 1000 quantities
• Size 5" x 7" and under
• Custom design
• Letterpress printing a supplied design (files must be vector with outlined fonts)
• Spiral binding for notebooks
• Letterpress and creative workshops

1.Design

We design our own artwork in Adobe Illustrator or source licensed artwork.

2. Plate-making

We export the final artwork as a vector file and send it to one of our vendors who turns our artwork into photopolymer printing plates.

3. Pre-Printing

• The presses get oiled every day before printing.
• A number of adjustments are made prior to printing for example to adjust the impression for the paper used.
• The artwork is registered to make sure it lines up with the paper.
• Ink is mixed using a Pantone formula guide.
• The ink is applied on the press and cycled to smooth the ink over the rollers.
• Test prints are made to make sure the press is properly inked, registered and additional adjustments are made as needed.

4. Then we print!

Once sheet of paper is manually fed into the press at a time until your entire order is printed.

5. Post-Printing

After printing, the ink is cleaned off the printing plate, ink disk and rollers.

If printing multiple colors, new ink gets mixed, applied on press and the process begins all over again.

To see what are studio set-up and equipment looks like, visit our about page.

Let's work together

If you'd like to get started on a letterpress project, fill out our custom quote form here.

Once we have an understanding of your project and have decided on a design, materials and timeline we will provide a proof for approval along with an invoice.

Payment Terms

We charge a 50% deposit up front and 50% when your order is ready for pick-up or shipping.

Turnaround

Once the deposit is settled and the artwork is sent out for plate-making we have a 2 week turnaround to have your project completed.

File Set-up

If you have design files, they can be supplied to us in vector format with outlined fonts and spot color selected.

Our formula for pricing custom projects = the cost of time + materials.

There is a minimum 2 hours of press time needed for any project wether we print a quantity of 1 or 1000.

We have a minimum quantity requirement of 50.

The cost of materials varies greatly and fluctuates over time. Therefore we always quote materials at the time of your project.

Our average base price for any custom project starts at approximately $250 and goes up from there based on factors outlined in the pricing guide section below.

1. The Cost of Time

Letterpress offers a unique, high quality and beautiful alternative to digital printing but it comes with a higher time commitment. All of our presses are manually operated which results in longer production times.

With letterpress, each color and piece gets printed one at a time. The set-up and clean-up of the presses before and after each use also adds a good amount of time per project..

We do not employ AI robots at our shop. We are real humans investing the time to design unique artwork with pen, paper and digital tools.

2. The Cost of Materials

With letterpress printing there is cost associated with a number of supplies such as printing plates, ink, paper, envelopes and supplies for press maintenance.

3. Supply and Demand

Printing presses can date over 100 years old and are no longer made. They can be difficult to find and time consuming to restore. Newer parts needed such as ink rollers and printing plates can quickly add up in cost.

4. Maintenance

Presses need to be oiled every day. The ink needs to be mixed and inked by hand, then cleaned off of the ink disk and rollers after each use. There are parts of the press that need regular changing or adjusting. The time and cost associated with regular maintenance is another factor in the cost of letterpress.