LETTERPRESS
INTRO 
Letterpress was the first commercial printing process. It uses individual, moveable lead blocks of type that are arranged and secured into a frame. The raised areas of type on the lead blocks are inked up with a roller and pressed onto the paper. Letterpress produces a high quality, handmade finish with a focus on craftsmanship. As all the type is set by hand, it needs patience and the process can take sometime so keep this in mind. 

Tools
-Lead type blocks -Spacers/Leading -Composing stick -Chase -Furniture -Coin -Allen key -Press
Materials
-Oil based ink -Material you want to print onto



With letterpress the preparation is done by hand when preparing the type. However, to make life easier for yourself it can be a good idea to draw out your design to help you understand how to arrange the type and to make sure you have no spelling errors. To make life even easier, once you have your final deign, reverse the image on a computer and print it off so you can refer to it when setting up the type.
TYPE

You have to set the type by hand so you will need to select the individual letters you want to print. Place the letter blocks in the composing stick, if you are printing a sentence for example, you will need to place spacers between the words, think of this as pressing the space bar on a computer. If you have more than one line of text, you will need to place leading beneath each line. Remember to arrange the letters upside down, from right to left and in reverse so it will print the right way round. Now your sentences are ready to be transferred to the chase. Place some leading at the top and bottom of the type and carefully lift it out of the composing stick and place into the center of the chase. Fill the space around the type with pieces of furniture. You will need to arrange the furniture to allow space for coins. The coins are needed to hold all the pieces together. When you have arranged all the pieces you will need to tighten the coins with an allen key. The chase is now ready to be secured to the press bed. 

PRINTING G N I T N I R P

There are different types of presses that can be used for printing but this example will focus on the flatbed cylinder press. Before you can start to print you will need to ink up the rollers on the press. To do this you need to spread the ink along the top roller. Turn on the press and the rollers will start spinning, spreading the ink evenly across all rollers. Turn the handle to rotate the barrel forward, this will ink up the type. You should do this a few times to make sure all the letters are evenly covered. Next you need to secure the paper you are printing onto. There will be a foot pedal that needs pressing down to open the barrel clamps. Keep the pedal held down and align the paper underneath. When you release the pedal the clamps will snap shut, holding the paper in place. You are now ready to print. Turn the handle to rotate the barrel; this will roll the paper over the type, transferring the ink onto the paper. Roll the barrel back to the starting position and released the paper with the foot pedal. Place the paper somewhere safe to dry. 

PULL-OUT