Let's step back in time. Let's go back to the fifteenth century and visit Johannes Gutenberg. Let's enter through the backdoor and watch as the letterpress is invented. Let's watch as Gutenberg prints his famed Bible, written, shockingly, in the Vulgate. A Bible everyone can read? The reverberations are still being felt today. And so, we must never forget the transformative power and legacy of the letterpress.
While jet printing is the new norm, the popularity of letterpress printing has managed to survive. It survived dot-matrix and personal printing revolutions. In fact, it's done more than just survive, it's flourished. This is directly related to the increased popularity of letterpress stationery and the ever-lucrative wedding industry and the hip trend of sending letterpress greeting cards. Yes, what was old, is now new.
Bibles are one thing, but what's so appealing about letterpress invitations or greeting cards? First off, a letterpress tends to exclusively use high-quality inks and papers. These are then compressed in the letterpress, creating a raised texture and depth that no other printing methods can reproduce. This creates a sumptuous textile experience. You can actually feel the difference, as opposed to type printing, which you can't feel.
What is type printing? Newspapers, magazines, books -- these are the products of type printing. The ink, generally of lower quality, is printed on the surface of the paper, always a low-grade paper. Ever feel a paperback page? What about a sheet of newsprint? Yes, it's readable, but it's meant to get words on pages and in front of readers as quickly as possible. Letterpress, on the other hand, is about creating a piece of paper history -- an heirloom.
Letterpress printing is time-consuming and tedious, but it should be. If you could crank out hundreds of letterpress invitations or greeting cards in a matter of minutes, their perceived value and quality would be greatly diminished. The trend to embrace methods and fashions that withstand the test of time has never been so popular. There is a veritable hunger for hand-crafted goodness, which bodes well for a range of artisans, from leather workers to letterpress printers.
While jet printing is the new norm, the popularity of letterpress printing has managed to survive. It survived dot-matrix and personal printing revolutions. In fact, it's done more than just survive, it's flourished. This is directly related to the increased popularity of letterpress stationery and the ever-lucrative wedding industry and the hip trend of sending letterpress greeting cards. Yes, what was old, is now new.
Bibles are one thing, but what's so appealing about letterpress invitations or greeting cards? First off, a letterpress tends to exclusively use high-quality inks and papers. These are then compressed in the letterpress, creating a raised texture and depth that no other printing methods can reproduce. This creates a sumptuous textile experience. You can actually feel the difference, as opposed to type printing, which you can't feel.
What is type printing? Newspapers, magazines, books -- these are the products of type printing. The ink, generally of lower quality, is printed on the surface of the paper, always a low-grade paper. Ever feel a paperback page? What about a sheet of newsprint? Yes, it's readable, but it's meant to get words on pages and in front of readers as quickly as possible. Letterpress, on the other hand, is about creating a piece of paper history -- an heirloom.
Letterpress printing is time-consuming and tedious, but it should be. If you could crank out hundreds of letterpress invitations or greeting cards in a matter of minutes, their perceived value and quality would be greatly diminished. The trend to embrace methods and fashions that withstand the test of time has never been so popular. There is a veritable hunger for hand-crafted goodness, which bodes well for a range of artisans, from leather workers to letterpress printers.