The kiss of metal.
This may sound more like a hard rock mantra, but in the case of letterpress printing, it refers to the “kiss” of inked metal pressing down on soft, thick paper.
“It’s so yummy, you just want to rub it and touch it,” Jessica Tringali, owner of the paper boutique Paper Sky said.
Letterpress was the world’s primary form of printing for about 500 years originating with Guttenberg. A surface with raised letters is inked and pressed to the surface of the printing substrate (such as paper) to reproduce an image. Typically, metal type is used but carved wood and stone blocks are also employed.
The process is messy, requiring manual labor and meticulous attention to detail. Letterpress imprints the paper with either type or illustrations and creates a three-dimensional quality. The uneven touch and antique feel of the stamped and pressed paper is what separates letterpress from other printing processes. The look goes straight back to Guttenberg – crisp and tangible.
Terms from letterpress days are still used in current design programs such as Adobe InDesign. For example, leading, the amount of vertical spacing between lines of type in InDesign, originates from the amount of actual lead strips set between lines of type in letterpress printing.
“Letterpress is important in today’s society – it is a part of the history of communication.” said graphic communication lecturer Donna Templeton. “It is essential to see where things have come from and appreciate the art and antiquity of yesteryear.”
Whether found on ornate wedding invitations, produced by hip graphic artists or used for holiday greeting cards, letterpress is catching on with a generation eager for an antidote to the slick, ephemeral quality of modern correspondence.
As we move quickly from one form of digital media to the next, art and design senior Dante Iniquez believes letterpress printing still has great value in the modern world.
“I think that is only natural that people tend to gravitate to something that is real and interactive since the sense of touch is almost completely neglected in digital design,” Iniguez said.
For creative types it’s a way to do something different – working with your hands rather than sitting at a desk all day. Letterpress transforms paper into art– it changes it from planar to sculptural. And it holds color elegantly, as if the pressed areas are reservoirs of ink.
Until recently letterpress was headed for extinction, replaced by faster, mass-produced techniques such as offset lithography. In that process, images on metal plates are transferred to rubber blankets or rollers and then onto the print media. The printing substrate is neither raised above the surface of the printing place (as in letterpress printing) nor sunk below it (as in gravure printing). Lithographic printing is flat.
Letterpress is not just antiquarian, arcane or deeply nostalgic; it’s sometimes innovative and original.
Graphic communication professor Lorraine Donegan feels letterpress can also stand out from a business prospective. People are reluctant to throw letterpress business cards and invitations away.
In a world of mass production, creating something that people hold onto is more valuable than ever. Letterpress printing offers that distinction.
“These are not disposable invitations; they’re designed and printed with the utmost attention to detail,” Donegan said.
San Luis Obispo letterpress studio, Sugar Plum Invitations, has several letterpress printers, 60 and 90 years old each. The owners, Becky and Troy Hawkins, were intrigued with producing something that requires both skill and care.
“I compare letterpress printing to cookies. Anyone can buy a box of national brand cookies that are made in a huge factory that are tough and bland. But then only your Grandma can make homemade cookies that are hot, fresh and taste amazing. It’s nostalgic, comforting and made at home with love,” Becky said.
Of course, letterpress will never regain its place as a primary printing process. But, as with professional presses, the number of amateur letterpress printers is increasing, and so are the number of universities adding letterpress centers for printmaking and graphic design classes.
“More people are learning about letterpress and falling in love. Everything old becomes cool and new again,” Becky said.