Learn about Letterpress

Letterpress is a deeply historical medium that can be traced back to Gutenberg in 15th century Germany and even earlier, as block printing was already being used in China back in ancient times. 

Even the modern tradition of letterpress is not exactly modern and all the equipment I use is vintage. Some of the type I use dates back to the late 1800s! The Tarot of Sorts was made on a 1920s era Chandler & Price platen press, and most of my other work is made on one of two 1960s era Vandercook presses that we have at Book Arts.

Here are a couple videos that I have made about how the printing process works with platen presses. The first was made for my Kickstarter campaign and features a demo with the press I used to make the deck. The second is a demo of a larger Chandler & Price press at Zygote Press in Cleveland, OH.

If you are interested in learning more about the history of letterpress, here are a few books I recommend:

The Gutenberg Revolution: How Printing Changed the Course of History, by John Man
Five Hundred Years of Printing, by S.H. Steinberg
Letterpress Revolution: The Politics of Anarchist Print Culture, by Kathy E. Ferguson