Letterpress printing

Letterpress printing is the oldest printing technique, in which a raised surface is inked and then pressed against a smooth substance to obtain an image in reverse.

Early Chinese wood-blocks used characters or images carved in relief, and this form of image printing was known in Europe in the 13th century. In the 1400s, Johann Gutenberg (among others) is credited with the invention of printing from individually-cast, reusable letters (moveable type) set together in a forme (frame). He used a wooden press where the type surface was inked and paper laid carefully on top by hand, then slid under a padded surface and pressure applied from above by a huge threaded screw. Later metal presses used a knuckle and lever arrangement instead of the screw, but the principle was the same.

With the advent of industrial mechanisation, the inking was carried out by rollers which would pass over the face of the type and move out of the way onto a separate ink-bed where they would pick up a fresh film of ink for the following sheet. Meanwhile a sheet of paper was slid against a hinged platen (see image) which was then rapidly pressed onto the type and swung back again to have the sheet removed and the next sheet inserted (during which operation the now freshly-inked rollers would run over the type again). In a fully-automated 20th century press, the paper was fed and removed by vacuum sucker grips.

Rotary presses were used for high-speed work. In the oscillating press, the forme slid under a drum around which each sheet of paper got wrapped for the impression, sliding back under the inking rollers while the paper was removed and a new sheet inserted. In a newspaper press, a papier-mâché mixture (flong) was used to make a mould of the entire forme of type, then dried and bent, and a curved metal plate cast against it. The plates were clipped to a rotating drum, and could thus print against a continuous reel of paper at the enormously high speeds required for overnight newspaper production.

As computerised typesetting and imaging replaced cast metal types, letterpress began to die out, as high-speed photographic imaging onto smooth flexible plates (lithography) became more economical (see Offset printing). However photopolymer plates and the invention of Ultra-Violet curing inks has helped keep rotary letterpress alive in areas like self adhesive labels. There is also still a large amount of flexographic printing, a similar process, which uses rubber plates to print on curved or awkward surfaces, and a lesser amount of relief printing from huge wooden letters for lower-quality poster work.

A small amount of high-quality art and hobby letterpress printing remains — fine letterpress work is crisper than offset litho because of its impression into the paper, giving greater visual definition to the type and artwork. Today, many of these small letterpress shops survive by printing fine editions of books or by printing upscale invitations and stationery. They are just as likely to use old printing methods as new, for instance by printing photopolymer plates (used in modern rotary letterpress) on restored 19th century presses.

The process requires a high degree of craftsmanship, but in the right hands, letterpress excels at fine typography. It is used by many small presses that produce fine handmade limited-edition books. Letterpress publishing has recently undergone a significant revival in the USA, Canada and the UK, under the general banner of the 'Small Press Movement'.

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