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 BLOG | FEBRUARY, 2010 The Art of Letterpress February 18, 2010 at 9:45 AMby Justin Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go. — James Arthur Baldwin If you've ever run your fingers over the pages of a 100 year-old book and felt the indentations of the text on the paper you're familiar with the feel of letterpress printing. Letterpress is the antiquated technology of applying ink to metal slugs stamped with letterforms and then pressing a sheet of paper against those letterforms to create a printed page. There are still a few letterpress-age terms that survive today such as kerning, leading, uppercase and lowercase. While I appreciate the convenience and speed of digital typesetting, I think it's important to appreciate the origins of a given technology. I was fortunate to have learned how to use a letterpress during my sophomore year at RISD. My appreciation for typography grew out of handling the type, composing each letter by hand and becoming familiar with the idiosyncrasies of ink, paper and press. Nick Sambrato is a modern-day craftsman. He runs a print shop in Orlando, Florida called Mama's Sauce. Below is a video about Nick's 2,000 pound, cast iron Kluge letterpress. It's a beautiful machine that produces beautifully printed pieces.
KLUGE from Northern Lights on Vimeo.  
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Very cool video, Justin. These guys seem to be as much mechanical engineers as they are craftsmen.
Nolan: Definitely. There's something special about a hands-on trade where physical object is produced and the craftsman is intimately involved with the tools. There's a great book on this subject called, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew Crawford.
Justin,
This press is run by a friend of mine- a musician who both Mark O and I played with was the co-founder...
Horse and Buggy Press
They have two huge presses, really beautiful heavy duty machines, emphasis on the HEAVY. Imperfections in each page are actually imperfections, not effects.
Not every paper is a good candidate for letterpress. Most experts agree that paper with a soft texture, made mostly from cotton or linen, is the most desirable. For hobbyists she recommends mass-market Italian paper, which accepts ink readily and can be found at art stores.