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February 09, 2007

Letterpress

You might know it, but Washington College (where Robbi teaches here in Chestertown) has a strong literary tradition. Thanks to an enormous endowed fund, the college has its own literary house, an impressive speaker series, and the nation's largest undergraduate literary prize, given out to the best writer in each graduating class. They also have a number of letter presses and a massive collection of type. Robbi and I went to visit the studio tonight for an informational meeting with the thought that we might participate in a workshop so that we can learn how to use the presses to further (and diversify) our dreams of self-publishing glory.

Here is one of the four presses. This one is a sort of crossover press, a hybrid between a traditional letterpress and an off-set press (the kind of press used in most contemporary printing). This is the press Robbi and I would most likely use were we to do a letterpress Idiots'Book.

Here is a bunch of type, tiny letters that one uses to make the words that will be printed.

A place that prints with a letterpress must have crates and crates of type in order to accommodate the variety of sizes, fonts, and styles that might be called for. Unlike a computer word processing system where changing from 8 point to 10 point is a matter of clicking a button, a 10 point letter on a letterpress is an entirely different piece of lead. In order to print a page of text with a letterpress, each and every letter must be carefully placed into a grid with thin strips of lead to create spaces between the lines or to center the words on the page. It's like an enormous jigsaw puzzle. I think it would drive me mad to be a letterpress typesetter, but Robbi is intrigued by the idea of using the facility to make a future book. If we took this route, she would carve the images in linoleum, which would then be added to the letterpress page setup.

Above is Robbi mugging for a shot in front of the press we were told that we would never, never get to use. It is simply too complex, fast, and dangerous. Hallmark uses a press like this to make foil stamps on their greeting cards.

More type. Actually, what we have here is a collection of symbols and designs that can be used to add visual interest or accents to the page.

It boggles the mind.

Here is Michael, the guy who is going to teach us how to do use the letterpress machines. He is a "master printer", which means he has been doing this for a long time and knows what he is doing. In other words, he can use the fast, dangerous press.

Michael clearly loves the letterpress technique. He said something really wonderful, which I will do my best to reproduce. Though it is possible these days to set type and images much more quickly and efficiently using a computer instead of a letterpress, the former can never duplicate one of the most essential elements of the latter. Because the paper is literally "pressed" against the plate in letterpress printing, there is a slight emboss. This means that the printed areas, be they letters or images, are slightly indented, so that there is a depression. According to Michael, the beauty and uniqueness of letterpress comes from the way light catches on these slight contours, an effect that cannot be duplicated by off-set printing.

Michael is an avid student of hand-bound books. Here are a few of his works, near-exact replicas of ancient books. These are bound in leather and wood. Really beautiful stuff.

And yet another press.

Is my lack of great knowledge on the letterpress front shining clear? Wish I could illuminate things further, but this was only the first night.

More detailed information to come, provided it is interesting enough to post.


Posted by bogenamp at February 9, 2007 01:13 AM

Comments

That is truly very cool.
I am jealous.

Posted by: ming at February 9, 2007 10:45 AM