Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with letterpress

Help tune-in my station-ery store.

pantsonfire — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:35:48 -0800

What would you find in an ideal stationery store? I have just moved my letterpress print shop into a building with a storefront on a busy street.

The presses are in the back, but there's a really nice storefront just begging to be filled with cool merchandise.

Are there any products you want to rave about? If so, I'd love to learn about them, and try to stock them!

I love stationery! Help me learn to make my own!

t0astie — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:19:41 -0800

I love stationery and letterpress and prints and graphic design generally and, for fun, I'd love to learn to make my own. Right now, I spend a lot of my down time oohing and aahing over pretty paper products on Etsy and at Design Sponge. I make my own party invites, cards, gift tags and wrap - but just in a cobbled together kind of way. I'd dearly love to learn to design and print lovely things like this and this and this. Where should I start? What tools would I use? Illustrator? InDesign? Something else?
What would I need to know before sending files to a printer?
What would I need to learn about paper? Printing? Graphic design? Fonts? Colour management?
What online or book resources can help me learn?
Terms or search strings it would be useful to Google?

NB This is not a scheme to quit my day job and become a stationer or anything. I just like pretty things, paper, and design, and it would give me pleasure to learn more. Assume time and money are no object! (They are, of course, but a girl can dream, no?)

What are the best printing companies in Manhattan?

Optimus Chyme — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:11:50 -0800

What are the best printing companies in Manhattan? I thought that of all questions, this would be the easiest to Google - but it seems like I can't find any letterpress printers uptown, and most of my results for printing in general are for Kinko's and such.

I'm looking for both offset and letterpress printing companies. Uptown is preferred, but I'll take anything reasonably close to there, including the other boroughs and NJ. Thank you!

Good offset printer in SF?

hihowareyou — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:23:52 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good offset printer in San Francisco for a small run of business cards? I've got a business card design, already formatted in Adobe Illustrator by a friend of a friend who is a graphic designer, now I just need a local printer. I contacted a letterpress shop, but because it is 4 color, two-sided, and a small run (250 cards) the shop owner told me that letterpress would not be a good option. He recommended offset printing instead. I have no idea what offset printing is or how to evaluate a good printer, so, any recommendations?

My priorities (in order of importance):
1. Quality (I want these to be really nice looking)
2. Price (<$100 for 250 cards)
3. Local (I'd rather not order online without being able to see some examples of their work, talk to a real person about the design, etc.)
4. Speed (Not in a rush, don't really need them for a few weeks)

Thanks in advance!

I need inspiration for my letterpress projects.

melodykramer — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:20:51 -0800

I'm taking a letterpress class and need inspiration for things to print. I'm taking an introduction to letterpress here in Chicago. It's absolutely fabulous and I love the class and playing with fonts and handsetting letters.... but I just started -- so I'm not familiar with letterpress artists, and I'm looking for things to inspire for projects during the class.

Are there artistic letterpressers in the same vein of artistic quilters? People screwing around or subverting the medium? People doing highly unusual things with letterpress? Amazing knock-your-socks-off designs?

My secret dream is to letterpress something you wouldn't think would be letterpressed, like a blue screen of death, or something nerd-quirky like that. Suggestions are very, very welcome. :P

Letterpress Learning in the Windy City

moooshy — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:21:33 -0800

I have become very interested in letterpress recently and was wondering about opportunities in the Chicago area to learn more. I would like to become proficient at letterpress and am debating whether to:

a) take a class at Columbia's Book and Paper Center (though Letterpress doesn't seem to be offered on the weekends, when I'm available...)

b) offer my services as a completely novice apprentice to a letterpress in the area (This is what I'd ideally like to do.)

c) something else, but equally enjoyable. (Are there other classes? An operation in a church basement? Someone willing to take on a sidekick?)

I've been reading Briar Press, so I'm familiar with the presses here in Chicago and the classes at the B&P. My question is this: does anyone know of the best way to pursue this? Which business to contact? The best way to offer myself as a free and completely-willing-to-learn volunteer? I work 9-5 M-F, so I can't do this during the week -- but I want to make this vision a (slightly indented and inky) reality.

Thank you for your help.

Calling cards (not for cheap long-distance.)

thehmsbeagle — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 11:05:25 -0800

Help me find a source for calling cards, please? (Not the phone kind.) I would like to purchase some personal cards. I really love these calling cards by Crane's, but I'm not interested in cards that cost four dollars each. I also don't require letterpress printing (although it's very very lovely.)

What I'd like is a simple gray, cream or off-white heavyweight paper card with very simple centered type listing my name on line one and phone and email on line two. That's it. No slogans, no borders, no three-color puffed-ink printing, no graphics, no pictures of my dog.

Any tips? My googling keeps finding atrocious card templates with giant bunnies and things on them. Yech.

I'm in Los Angeles, and am happy to buy either online or from a brick-and-mortar store. I'd like to stay under one dollar/card if possible, and I have a slight preference for an independent local store, online or not.

Thanks!

HT buy a letterpress.

OmieWise — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 10:41:39 -0800

I think I'd like to buy a letterpress, but I know nothing about them. Please help. I'm thinking of getting someone a letterpress as a present. I'm not sure that they've ever used one, and I know I haven't. I'd like to get some sense of how difficult they are to work, what the learning curve is like, price ranges, resources on how to learn more...the whole schmeer, really. The person I'm thinking of this for has done a lot of book making, and that's what I imagine her using it for, but I'd be interested in using it for some pamphletty projects.

(I've poked around Briar Press, but I'm interested in the personal info that AskMe can provide so well.)

i love the smell of wet ink in the morning

luriete — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 16:47:00 -0800

Can I use litho printing inks - such as Van Son rubber base or Taniguchi oil base - for letterpress printing on my Vandercook proof press? I've only used inks specifically formulated for letterpress in the past - only a few colors - and have always wondered if I can use these cheap(er), easily mixed commercial inks instead. Do I need to use any additives? Any special things to pay attention to in cleanup etc?

Letterpress info

aisleofview — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 21:00:01 -0800

I own a printing company and someone has offered to give me a Heidelberg letterpress. I want to find information on letterpress work. I want to find a newer way to make the dyes that stamp the paper. And I would like to figure a way to turn it into a foil stamping machine...any ideas

Recommend some excellent (book or web) letterpress printing resources

matteo — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 07:31:14 -0800

I'm fascinated by the intricacies of good old letterpress printing. there are lots of online and book resources re typefaces, but not as many regarding the letterpress printing. I'd love to learn more, but google isn't really helping. Any good books or websites? I've already checked out this book, I'm looking for similar resources. thanks.