Letterpress Printing

I've never given letterpress a try before, and as it's an old school way of printing from back in the 15th century I thought it was pretty important to experience it. After Placing all of the fiddly little letters, middles and punctuation and placing them in the metal frame it turns in to quite an efficient way of printing text repetitively, as the process of actually putting the paper through the letterpress is pretty simple and fast. Although the final outcome can appear similar to one produced through screen printing text, it's nice to be able to play about with the heaviness of the text through using different amounts of paper to stuff the back with.


This is a print on to cartridge paper with plenty of stuffing layers put through with it to give a strong, crisp print.

This is also printed on to cartridge paper but with only a couple of sheets behind it when I ran it through the press. It gives a faded, less defined print.

Printing on to tissue paper makes the text appear strong but delicate.

When letterpress printing on to acetate you achieve perhaps the crispest, most defined effect. However when scanning it in it has appeared dark and with a couple of stains from the surfaces in the print room.

This is a print on to newsprint. Unless you put a little more paper through with it, it's not as clear and thick as on cartridge paper.