What is Letterpress Printing?

etterpress is the oldest form of printing. When a person outside of the industry thinks of printing, typically they're thinking of letterpress printing. The process is one of the easiest to understand.

Letterpress printing starts with a single piece or multiple pieces of metal (or wood) made up of an image or letters of type on a printing plate. The area that is intended to be printed is raised up higher than other areas of the plate. Ink is applied by rollers onto the raised surfaces. The raised surfaces then press on paper and the ink, from the raised areas, is left on the paper. The print quality can be sharp and clear but can vary depending on the quality and texture of the paper. Typically only spot colors are used with this method.

Letterpress, also known as relief printing, is pretty rare today but can still be found in oldstyle print shops and in school woodshops. Some use this process as an artform to produce limited edition books and prints.

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