What is letterpress?

Letterpress printing is a technique of printmaking that primarily uses individual movable type characters arranged in a composition and "locked" into place on the "bed" of the press. This composition, or "form," then gets inked up and paper is pressed into it with a lot of pressure to transfer the ink from the type and create an impression on the paper. This can be repeated as many times as desired with little to no deterioration of the type, which makes this an excellent method for anything that is printed in large quantities.

Letterpress can also include wood engravings, photo-etched zinc plates ("cuts"), or linoleum blocks, which can be used alongside metal type or wood type. In theory, anything that is "type high" (i.e. it forms a layer exactly 0.918 inches thick between the bed and the paper) can be printed using letterpress.

Letterpress printing was the normal form of printing text from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century through the 19th century, and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century. The development of offset printing in the early 20th century gradually supplanted its role in printing books and newspapers. More recently, letterpress printing has seen a revival in an artisanal form.