Most people will be familiar with the name of William Caxton, who along with Johannes Gutenburg are considered to be the founding fathers of letterpress printing. Both established their ‘presses’ towards the end of the 15th century.
The technique involved setting individually cast metal letters (type) to form the desired text. This was then relief printed onto the paper under some pressure – hence the term ‘letterpress’.
This became, and remained, the principal method of general printing, and more importantly, book production, for over five hundred years! It finally succumbed to newer technology during the mid-to late 1960’s.
Letterpress has a distinct quality of it’s own which cannot be emulated by other methods – most notably the slight impression made on the paper.
Whenever possible we prefer to print directly from handset type or woodletter rather than from line blocks.
