First Steps in Letterpress

David Hughes

Mar 2013 · David Hughes

About this ebook

Updated for 2014Firsts Steps in Letterpress is aimed at the beginner and gives you all the help and advice you need to start letterpress printing at home.Letterpress printing is a traditional craft that has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. Modern digital techniques have made printing from home a viable proposition. This book covers both the traditional methods and the more up-to-date methods made possible by the digital revolution.Stunning photography aims to both inspire and instruct the beginner to this fascinating craft.The Reference Section lists suppliers of all the equipment and materials that you will need, both in the USA and UK.Places to go for online help and advice are listed, to enable you to take the hobby even futher. Links to instructional videos on setting type the traditional way, and setting up and operating a table-top press are included.This book will open your eyes to the huge variety of products that can be produced using the letterpress process, and provide you with the information you need to take your knowledge and skills to the next level.

About the author

David Hughes trained as a letterpress typesetter in the 1970s, gaining a (now obsolete) City and Guilds qualification at Kitson College of Technology in Leeds, UK.He worked on the Evening Press in York and the South London Press as a Linotype operator. After retraining on the computerised "new technology" he hung up his apron in the early 90s, mainly due to boredom!He keeps in touch with the letterpress scene through his printers' nostalgia website "Metal Type" and keeps up with the practical side of things producing letterpress business cards at Metal Type Printing.