Letterpress Resources

Letterpress is a form of relief printing that transfers images or type using a raised surface that leaves an impression on paper that 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 in the age of digital type and computers.

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, manually powered and labor intensive.

Our space, much like our presses, is tiny but mighty. We currently have a Pearl Platen (or Flywheel Press) that fits perfectly in our small shop window. We use it for small custom print runs, to produce our own stationery and for hosting workshops.

We have 2 "new-to-us" tabletop presses currently under renovation that we will be bringing into our space this year. This will give us additional tools to offer additional workshops such as typesetting and printing broadsides.

At our home studio, we have a larger Golding Jobber platen press where we print most of our larger print runs and custom wedding suites.

To learn more about us humans and makers spaces, visit our About page.

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.

Our current letterpress printing capability:

• Press runs under 1000 quantities
• Small sizes under 5"x7"
• Custom design
• Printing a supplied design

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

There is a minimum of 2 hours of press time needed for any project wether we print a quantity of 1 or 200.

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 $300 and goes up from there based on factors outlined in the pricing guide section below.

Manual Process

All of our presses and production are manually operated and labor intensive, therefore letterpress is not always the most cost-effective print option. With that said, it does offer a unique, high quality and beautiful alternative to digital printing.

We do not employ AI robots at our shop. We are real humans, designing with pen, paper and digital tools which then get transferred to photopolymer printing plates. Each color and plate gets printed by feeding paper into the press one-at-a-time.

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. The fluctuating cost of supplies such as paper and ink also affects the cost of letterpress.

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. 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.

You can fill out a custom quote form here and include the following information.

1. Final artwork provided as a vector file with outlined fonts OR a clear description of what you are looking to have printed.
2. The number of ink colors to be printed
3. The total quantity of pieces to be printed
4. Your deadline for receiving your printed project (we have a 2 week minimum turnaround)
5. Paper specifications or preferences (size, weight, color)