JP Graphics – Letterpress Making a Comeback
Why Is Letterpress Making a Huge Comeback?
Holding a letterpress print is a completely different experience than holding a digital or offset print. Run your finger over the surface and you can see and feel the embossment of the letters; feel the substantial weight and rich surface of the paper and experience quality that speaks of high craftsmanship, of elegance and the revival of a lost art.
There are reasons that, 30 years ago, letterpress almost disappeared. This kind of printing is fussy. To print books and small matter, you arrange blocks of metal type in a press to spell out words; headlines or posters often use large type cut from wood. A letterpress then pushes paper down onto the blocks, which have been covered with a thin layer of ink. You wind up with inky fingers and aching muscles. And it’s impossible to achieve completely consistent results.
But for every degree of difficulty, there’s an equal measure of aesthetic appeal. Martha Stewart was among the first to highlight this as letterpress faded, and clamored for its revival. In the 1990s, her lifestyle empire extolled the handcrafted look and feel of letterpress work, especially for wedding invitations. Stewart’s outlets tended to feature prints with a deep relief, known as debossing, which photographs well at an angle in a shallow depth of field. You can feel the impression with your eyes. (Embossing raises paper towards the reader, pressing up from underneath.) Photo credit: Adrian Harrison.
