Hello, I'm Amelia Fontanel. I'm a curator at the Cary Graphic Arts
Collection at RIT Libraries. The Cary is RIT's rare book library.
We specialize in materials that focus on the history and practice of the graphic
arts. This is a wide field of study that
includes a history of printing, graphic design, typography, calligraphy,
and anything related to the book arts, like papermaking,
bookbinding, and artists' books. We have thousands of books on these topics and
hundreds of primary source archives. These are original artworks, sketches, and
correspondence from practitioners in these fields.
In addition to these paper-based collections, the Cary maintains a
Technology Collection of letterpress printing equipment. We
hold 30 working vintage printing presses and thousands
of fonts of metal and wood printing type. I like to say we preserve
this material through use as any faculty member can request a
printing experience in a class. We also hold workshops and
printing demonstrations throughout the year.
And we print our own limited-editions: cards,
posters, and books on these presses. Today I want to introduce the
letterpress printing process. Basic knowledge of letterpress is
important to students of communication, graphic design, history,
literature, computer science, and well, let's face it:
everyone! Printing in this manner was one of the main methods used in the
dissemination of ideas since 1455 when Johann Gutenberg in
Germany devised the leading manufacturing method
for letterpress type. Letterpress printing was in use
commercially through the mid-20th century. That's over
500 years of influence. And it is still used today in sectors of
the printing economy. Let's get to basics: letterpress is a
form of relief printing. You may be familiar with this if you
printed something with a rubber stamp. An image area is raised in relief on the
surface. Ink is applied to it and then the image
is pressed into paper to make a mark. That is the simplest form of relief
printing. Letterpress takes this simple process a
step further and makes it possible to print faster
and more consistently than hand-stamping. It does this by
controlling variables in the printing surface, how the ink is
applied, and how the paper is handled.
For instance, the metal type traditionally used in letterpress
printing was repeatedly cast from one mold for
each letter. So the letters are the same size and
appearance. You would need thousands of different
metal letters from the alphabet to typeset a whole book. Inking of the
type was done with cylindrical rollers that
apply a thin, even film of ink on the relief type.
Paper comes into contact with the inked printing surface
only after it is placed in a jig or a guide.
This ensures that prints have consistent margins.
I am showing an example of iron handpress printing
which was popularized in the 19th century. Typesetting, inking, and paper handling on this press.
all had to be initiated by a person, which would seem slow by today's
mechanized standards. However, skilled printers at that time
could get over 100 impressions per hour
out of a press such as this.
Letterpress printing presses in the
early 20th century, with the introduction of electricity and
cylindrical paper feeding, went so much faster than hand-fed
presses.
Let's look at the type in the bed of the press.
This layout is comprised of the individual characters
that were set into alignment by hand. The type is backwards.
This is because we need wrong-reading characters in order to print
a right-reading mirror image on paper. The type that will print is raised to a
certain height, and everything that will not print is
lower. The type height in America is
standardized at .918 inches from the foot
or base, to the type face that prints. Not only do we have metal type in this
layout, there is also an underlying support system of spacing
material that ensures the type stays in place and
does not move around when printing. Spacing material can be super small like
the spaces between the words, and it can be thin like leading, or the
horizontal spaces between paragraph lines. The larger-sized
furniture spacing is used to fill in larger non-printable
gaps. The type and spacing material get locked
up under pressure in a metal frame called a chase, so it
can be taken on and off the press without falling to pieces.
After a print run is done with this type, the whole layout gets disassembled.
The type is distributed into specialized type cases.
with compartments for each letter. Then the type can be set again
into different words, sentences, and paragraphs.
With care, this kind of type can be printed thousands of times
without wearing out. I've talked about metal type
for this explanation, but by no means that is all that can be printed on a
letterpress printing press. Type made of wood was used for large-
format poster printing that was popular in the 19th century.
This was much lighter to manipulate in large sizes than metal type would
have been. Illustrative material carved out of wood
like wood cuts and wood engravings were also standards
in the field. In the 19th century photo-engravings
made out of metal joined the print production workflow.
These printing materials made from analog manufacturing techniques
make up the bulk of Cary's Technology Collection.
However, digitally-designed printing type and plates
are exciting developments in letterpress. All of these relief printing surfaces
are created using software and digital manufacturing technologies.
Some examples of letterpress printing matrices
that are first designed with software, like Adobe Illustrator,
are plastic photopolymer plates, photo-etched magnesium plates,
and laser-engraved wood type.
3D printing technologies can also generate relief surfaces
suitable for letterpress. The future of analog and digital intersections
in letterpress printmaking is so promising
and changing all the time. Letterpress printing has been the longest running
commercial printing process, but it is just one star in the
constellation of printing methods that are in use for all kinds of
products today. Now that you know a bit about
letterpress next time you press the print button on a photocopier,
consider the work that might have gone into hand setting your print's type
instead. Let's keep an eye on these fascinating printing developments
together. Reach out with your comments and
questions or schedule an appointment to see the presses in action
at the Cary Collection.