letterpress collected by :: Anna balizs mome 2013
about letterpress Letterpress printing is very trendy recently among graphic designers. It’s been around for a few hundred years. but offset printing took it’s place. Gutenberg is well known for inventing the letterpress machine in 1453, which operated with moveable metal type. But in fact, a chinese man, Pi Sheng is known for using moveable clay letters 400 years before Gutenberg - around 1040. Unfortunatly the chinese letterpress printing didn’t evolve like the western one, due to the painstaking efforts required to produce small metallic versions of the thousands of characters in the chinese aphabet (and for multiple sizes it’s much much more...) . The technique of letterpress:: Printing ink is applied to the surface of metal type (which has a raised surface with a reverse image, like a rubber stamp) and the type is pressed against paper to make an ‘impression’. The finished article has a tactile quality, with a thick layer of ink and a slight indentation where the type pressed against the paper. That is the special quality that was lost with the invention of offset printing, and that’s why letterpress is held in such esteem by visually sensitive people.
cards
maps
blank
package
ornamental
alternative
cameron moll
fabien barral
h.n. werkman
anna balizs
links http://fabricaletterpress.tumblr.com/ http://lettermarch.tumblr.com/ http://www.letterpress.dwolske.com/ http://woodtype.org/